The girls are 7 months old now! Wow, time flew by. The 19 we still have after that bout of illness are all doing wonderful. They are up to about a dozen eggs a day now and all seem very happy. We have named another one. There is one girl that is solid black and she yells at us all the time, she never shuts up. Well, Daniel and his Asperger's tend to do the same thing. He talks very loud and constantly. I made the comment to the bird that she is loud and never hushes, so Daniel said we should call her Danielle because she is like him. lol Soooo, that is her new name. The one we call six-piece is now also known as Turkey girl because she makes sounds like a turkey when she is upset. Matilda still pecks me every chance she gets but is getting edged out by Fuzzy. Fuzzy took on a whole new persona after the recent 4H Poultry Show. It is like she is a world traveler now and that gave her some sort of elite status, if even in her own mind.
Oh, the poultry show was fun. Even though the girls were being judged for production, we thought it would be a good idea to make them presentable to be in public so we bathed them. Let me just say that this is an experience. My oldest daughter said that when they are wet, chickens look like little dinosaurs, they kind of did. I built a keeper pen to put the clean ones in and we set it up in my husbands work shop so it would be warm. We gathered the five that would be going to the show, we washed, rinsed and dried them. We put wool's fat on their combs, wattles, legs and feet. (It really helps soften them so it is easier to clean.) They did not like it at all but for the most part were little troopers about the whole thing. They had to stay in the keeper pen over night and during the day they would call to the ones in the coop. It was sad in a way, they did not like being seperated from their sisters.
The next morning we loaded them into a pet cage and off to the show we went. Daniel was so excited because Zelda was in the group. Personally I would not have chosen her, while she is very pretty she does not possess the strongest production qualities. But she is his favorite and this was his thing. Of course if Zelda was going then Sarah made sure Fuzzy was in the group. Again, not one I would have chosen because she is a little less mature than the others, but for us this show was more about the kids. They allowed me to choose the other three birds based on the requirements.
We arrived at the Ag building and signed in. It was wonderful because we were greeted by our county extension agent, Ms. Carol. It was so nice to meet her after having phone conversations with her. Everyone was so nice. We moved the girls into the assigned pen and attempted to get them to calm down. Their feathers were definitely ruffled by all the chaos of the trip and a new environment. It was fun for the kids to see the other birds that had started their lives in TN with our girls. The definite visual difference from one cage to the next was interesting. While all of these birds were the same age and breed, some were far more mature than others and the sizes varied a great deal. It was a chance to show the kids the difference diet, environment and care really make.
During the judging one of our girls produced an egg, this led to an all out free-for-all in the pen. She was trying to protect it and the others were trying to take it from her so the kids hurried over to sneak it out of the cage. Daniel was so excited that they had given him an egg at the show that he almost did not even care about the judging. Kids on the Autism spectrum often find joy in the little things. The girls did however pull in a blue ribbon, which absolutely made Daniel's day. The icing on the cake was that he also received $15. We decided that since Sarah helped so much with the girls that $5 would be hers, $5 would be his and the other $5 would go into the chicken fund.
We had the opportunity to strike up a conversation with another mother. She was so nice and her little boy had definitely put his heart into his birds. When the announcement came of the champion pen, it was her son's birds that won. We were so happy for them, definitely the right choice regardless of requirements. He had big healthy birds and I am sure they were good producers, but the great part was that he really put his all into this project. I was not sure how Daniel would do with the news that Zelda had not landed him the grand prize trophy, but never fear, my boy was too excited about his blue ribbon and egg to even care.
The girls were very happy to get back home with their sisters. The first thing Fuzzy did was take a dirt bath which ended up being more of a mud bath. She seemed pleased with herself.
Apparently there were 8 pens of birds last year and there ended up being 19 this year. That is so wonderful that more kids took part. We have really enjoyed this process of the chick chain as a family and look forward to many more years of having chickens be a part of our family. I will post a slide show of pictures from the Poultry show and the process leading up to it.
NOTE: I am going to continue this blog even though the chick chain is done. I think we will expand it to include not only the chickens but all of our adventures here on our little hobby farm.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Feeling Better
Please forgive the long time between posts, there is a lot going on around here. The last time we posted the girls were very ill. We ended up losing 5 chickens and now we have 19. There is a definite change in the flock with the loss of those who died. The 19 we have left are doing much better now. Their feathers are getting that shine back, their combs are full of color and slowly but surely they are gaining some of their weight back. At the time the illness started we were getting about 20-22 eggs a day, then we had none, now we are consistently getting an egg a day.
First we had to get the Cocci under control. To do that we used Corid, the main ingredient being Amprolium. It is off label for chickens but we were going on the advice of the vet because Sulmet, which is usually used, is not supposed to be used for layers. I found a recipe for home-made electrolyte water and mixed the corid in with it. Once the cocci was slowing down, we realized we had a secondary problem, worms. The vet suggested Wazine and so we added it to the water as well. The Corid really has no withdrawal time, according to the vet, but the Wazine does. The vet says 5 days but I have read where people follow a 14-21 day withdrawal time after the final dosing.
It is very disheartening to say the least when it comes to treating poultry for anything. The FDA approves Wazine for poultry but says not to use it in layers. If you do the research, nothing can be used in layers where the eggs will be used for human consumption. You know why? Because apparently it is not important enough for them to do the studies, therefore they stay on the cautious side and just say no. Studies have been done on some meds as to how long it takes to leave the meat of a bird but not the eggs. The meds you treat your birds with are usually a form of the meds your doctor will give to you only at much less amounts. The problem would be that if the meds did find their way into the egg and a human was allergic to that particular med, there could be a health issue arise. So what do you do? How do people who are certified organic do it?
Certified Organic is a hard title to come by. What it really boils down to in terms of meds is that if a chicken gets sick they just have to cull it. That is not an option for people who love their chickens and keep a flock more like pets. There are some natural ways to go about worming and the like, ways that were used back in the day before modern medicine. It all comes down to personal preference. It would just be nice to have definitive answers from the people who are supposed to know.
Thankfully Zelda survived all of it, she seems to be the healthiest one in the flock. Some good lessons came from all of this as well. Not only did we learn a lot about meds and illness in poultry, we also learned that when you turn the dirt in the run the chickens love you. You must be careful if you are doing it with a shovel, they will get right under you so they can be the first to grab the hidden treat. I am glad to say not one bird lost a beak or a toe, but they did come close. We also learned that if you put a tarp down in the coop before the litter, you can cut your cleaning time by a huge amount. It also allows you to disinfect better.
The girls are currently re-determining the pecking order but they still understand who the head chick is. =) We pick clover and other soft grasses for them every day since they can not get out to them. When my husband brings them treats they act like he is a rock star, when the kids bring them treats it is the same thing, but when I bring them treats they yell at me and give me those looks. You know those looks, the ones that say, "Is that it? We want more!" It is nice to have them back to their former sassy selves.
First we had to get the Cocci under control. To do that we used Corid, the main ingredient being Amprolium. It is off label for chickens but we were going on the advice of the vet because Sulmet, which is usually used, is not supposed to be used for layers. I found a recipe for home-made electrolyte water and mixed the corid in with it. Once the cocci was slowing down, we realized we had a secondary problem, worms. The vet suggested Wazine and so we added it to the water as well. The Corid really has no withdrawal time, according to the vet, but the Wazine does. The vet says 5 days but I have read where people follow a 14-21 day withdrawal time after the final dosing.
It is very disheartening to say the least when it comes to treating poultry for anything. The FDA approves Wazine for poultry but says not to use it in layers. If you do the research, nothing can be used in layers where the eggs will be used for human consumption. You know why? Because apparently it is not important enough for them to do the studies, therefore they stay on the cautious side and just say no. Studies have been done on some meds as to how long it takes to leave the meat of a bird but not the eggs. The meds you treat your birds with are usually a form of the meds your doctor will give to you only at much less amounts. The problem would be that if the meds did find their way into the egg and a human was allergic to that particular med, there could be a health issue arise. So what do you do? How do people who are certified organic do it?
Certified Organic is a hard title to come by. What it really boils down to in terms of meds is that if a chicken gets sick they just have to cull it. That is not an option for people who love their chickens and keep a flock more like pets. There are some natural ways to go about worming and the like, ways that were used back in the day before modern medicine. It all comes down to personal preference. It would just be nice to have definitive answers from the people who are supposed to know.
Thankfully Zelda survived all of it, she seems to be the healthiest one in the flock. Some good lessons came from all of this as well. Not only did we learn a lot about meds and illness in poultry, we also learned that when you turn the dirt in the run the chickens love you. You must be careful if you are doing it with a shovel, they will get right under you so they can be the first to grab the hidden treat. I am glad to say not one bird lost a beak or a toe, but they did come close. We also learned that if you put a tarp down in the coop before the litter, you can cut your cleaning time by a huge amount. It also allows you to disinfect better.
The girls are currently re-determining the pecking order but they still understand who the head chick is. =) We pick clover and other soft grasses for them every day since they can not get out to them. When my husband brings them treats they act like he is a rock star, when the kids bring them treats it is the same thing, but when I bring them treats they yell at me and give me those looks. You know those looks, the ones that say, "Is that it? We want more!" It is nice to have them back to their former sassy selves.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Our babies are sick
Since the moment we were blessed with our girls we have been trying to raise them as natural as possible. We have not medicated them or given them any un-natural products but instead kept them healthy with management of their surroundings and a healthy diet. For six months we beat the odds and had a very healthy, happy flock.
The kids have learned a very important lesson. NEVER allow anyone from outside your farm to go in with your chickens. EVER! We had talked about this before but apparently it is worthy of repeating. If someone comes into the run or hen house who has been where another flock lives, they can carry things on their shoes that you can't see but that can be very dangerous to your birds. This is what we think has happened to our girls. A friend wanted to see the girls so the kids took her in the hen house. She has chickens of her own and within a week our girls were in dire trouble for the first time ever.
Saturday morning Sarah and I went out to let the girls out into their run and turn on the light. We quickly discovered one of our girls had passed in the night. There were no visible signs on her body to explain what had happened. Life had been busy during the week with canning and family activities, so I had not been keeping as close an eye on the bird's stools or spending as much time with them. While we were heartbroken at the loss we had no answer and could not do much unless someone else were to get sick.
Sunday afternoon I noticed one of the girls in the corner of the run by herself. I went to see her and noticed she was very pale and inactive. We immediately pulled her out of the run and checked her over. She had clear eyes and nose, nothing in her craw, but she did show signs of loose poop. Further inspection in the coop showed she had bloody diarrhea. We isolated her into a seperate cage with a heat lamp because she was cold. We straw fed her some sugar water and spent time making sure she was comfortable while we tried to come up with a diagnosis.
All the signs said coccidiosis. The odd part is that our girls are the only chickens, to our knowledge, to be on our soil. At six months of age they should have built an immunity to this problem. Still, the symptoms were there. We went backwards in time to see if anything out of the ordinary had happened that could explain it. The only thing we found was the visitor in the coop. Now, looking for a treatment proved to be a journey. The most common solution for chickens suffering with coccidiosis is Sulmet. There were a couple of problems here. First, this is a sulfur drug which is hard on the digestive tract and would continue the bleeding and the girls are already miserable. Second, Sulmet is not approved for layers. Studies have been done on how long it takes for this medicine to completely leave the meat of the chicken, that would be 10 days, but no studies have been done on the eggs. Chickens are born, like women, with all of the ova they will have and so if the medicine were to damage the ovaries it could affect eggs now or two years from now. If we were to give this to our girls, we could not in good conscience sell the eggs or ever sell the girls as layers without disclosing that they had been on this drug.
Next we researched Amprolium. A product, Corid, has this as a main ingredient but it is marketed for cattle. I called the local co-op to get some words of wisdom and the gentleman was not sure what to tell me but he gave me the number for the state office. I called and they connected me with their veterinarian, who is an amazing person. He said that our only option for layer hens would be the Corid. Since we would be using it off label he gave me the dosage to use for our girls and assured me that it would be totally safe for the girls and their eggs. Apparently it is used commonly in animals for public consumption. When I asked him about what to use to sanitize the coop he explained that chickens are very sensitive to chemicals and their smells and it can give them chemical pneumonia. He recommended a product called Nolvasan and said it is safe to use on everything. For the run, because it is hard to sanitize dirt, his suggestion was to tear up the dirt and allow the sun to disinfect it.
By this time we have realized that all of our girls were under the weather. We made up gallons of sugar water and added the Corid for the girls. We made sure that the ones that seemed further along in the illness were brought to the waterers and dipped their beaks to make sure they started drinking. The first one that we had pulled out, we named her GG for Gloria Gaynor who sang the song "I will survive". That first night we thought she would not make it. After getting some sugar water in her she started drinking on her own around midnight. Still not eating but hanging in there. Yesterday morning we gave her some fresh cucumber, which she ate and slowly started eating some of her layer ration. Once we gave her the water with Corid, she started perking up. Last night she had gotten some of her color back, she was up and about, she knocked her water over and kept hitting the bowl with her foot to get my attention. She was telling me she was ready to go home. While her sisters slept, we snuck her back into the hen house and she joined her flock.
Now we continue the treatment and pray that they all do as well as GG.
The kids have learned a very important lesson. NEVER allow anyone from outside your farm to go in with your chickens. EVER! We had talked about this before but apparently it is worthy of repeating. If someone comes into the run or hen house who has been where another flock lives, they can carry things on their shoes that you can't see but that can be very dangerous to your birds. This is what we think has happened to our girls. A friend wanted to see the girls so the kids took her in the hen house. She has chickens of her own and within a week our girls were in dire trouble for the first time ever.
Saturday morning Sarah and I went out to let the girls out into their run and turn on the light. We quickly discovered one of our girls had passed in the night. There were no visible signs on her body to explain what had happened. Life had been busy during the week with canning and family activities, so I had not been keeping as close an eye on the bird's stools or spending as much time with them. While we were heartbroken at the loss we had no answer and could not do much unless someone else were to get sick.
Sunday afternoon I noticed one of the girls in the corner of the run by herself. I went to see her and noticed she was very pale and inactive. We immediately pulled her out of the run and checked her over. She had clear eyes and nose, nothing in her craw, but she did show signs of loose poop. Further inspection in the coop showed she had bloody diarrhea. We isolated her into a seperate cage with a heat lamp because she was cold. We straw fed her some sugar water and spent time making sure she was comfortable while we tried to come up with a diagnosis.
All the signs said coccidiosis. The odd part is that our girls are the only chickens, to our knowledge, to be on our soil. At six months of age they should have built an immunity to this problem. Still, the symptoms were there. We went backwards in time to see if anything out of the ordinary had happened that could explain it. The only thing we found was the visitor in the coop. Now, looking for a treatment proved to be a journey. The most common solution for chickens suffering with coccidiosis is Sulmet. There were a couple of problems here. First, this is a sulfur drug which is hard on the digestive tract and would continue the bleeding and the girls are already miserable. Second, Sulmet is not approved for layers. Studies have been done on how long it takes for this medicine to completely leave the meat of the chicken, that would be 10 days, but no studies have been done on the eggs. Chickens are born, like women, with all of the ova they will have and so if the medicine were to damage the ovaries it could affect eggs now or two years from now. If we were to give this to our girls, we could not in good conscience sell the eggs or ever sell the girls as layers without disclosing that they had been on this drug.
Next we researched Amprolium. A product, Corid, has this as a main ingredient but it is marketed for cattle. I called the local co-op to get some words of wisdom and the gentleman was not sure what to tell me but he gave me the number for the state office. I called and they connected me with their veterinarian, who is an amazing person. He said that our only option for layer hens would be the Corid. Since we would be using it off label he gave me the dosage to use for our girls and assured me that it would be totally safe for the girls and their eggs. Apparently it is used commonly in animals for public consumption. When I asked him about what to use to sanitize the coop he explained that chickens are very sensitive to chemicals and their smells and it can give them chemical pneumonia. He recommended a product called Nolvasan and said it is safe to use on everything. For the run, because it is hard to sanitize dirt, his suggestion was to tear up the dirt and allow the sun to disinfect it.
By this time we have realized that all of our girls were under the weather. We made up gallons of sugar water and added the Corid for the girls. We made sure that the ones that seemed further along in the illness were brought to the waterers and dipped their beaks to make sure they started drinking. The first one that we had pulled out, we named her GG for Gloria Gaynor who sang the song "I will survive". That first night we thought she would not make it. After getting some sugar water in her she started drinking on her own around midnight. Still not eating but hanging in there. Yesterday morning we gave her some fresh cucumber, which she ate and slowly started eating some of her layer ration. Once we gave her the water with Corid, she started perking up. Last night she had gotten some of her color back, she was up and about, she knocked her water over and kept hitting the bowl with her foot to get my attention. She was telling me she was ready to go home. While her sisters slept, we snuck her back into the hen house and she joined her flock.
Now we continue the treatment and pray that they all do as well as GG.
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