When I first acquired chickens, we started off with 6 "straight-run" young adults. They were named, somewhat, so we could refer to them and know who was who...Mrs. McCluckinson was one of them, my daughter-in-law named her. I have named very few of my chickens, they are more known by traits. I usually don't name them until something happens and I have to give them special attention for awhile. I have a chicken sick-bay if you will...
Mrs. McCluckinson is now in sick-bay. I am not sure what happened to her, she was hiding out in what we call the low-boy tractor, it is covered with a tarp and keeps the rain off of the few chickens in that area. It is my original chicken pen and chicken tractor area. I noticed her and Red Racer spending a lot of time on the perch in the wire dog kennel they sleep in at night...every time I went out there she was on the perch with Red Racer (Rhode Island Red hen). Then one morning she was laying on the ground with Red beside her. I went to pick her up and she was limping really badly. So, she is now in sick-bay...well she has been in sick-bay for almost a week. I inspected her and found no obvious injuries, her comb was pale and that is a cause for concern. She is eating and drinking and hobbles around in the cage I have her in...but mostly is resting. I have given her a dose of Ivermectin which should take care of any parasites she may have, I give her antibiotics in her water and started injections of Tylan 50. Her comb color is improving but, she is still limping pretty badly. Mrs. McCluckinson quit laying over the winter and has not laid an egg in at least three months. I guess she will be one of my special needs hens, hopefully whatever is wrong will improve soon. I have a soft spot for my special needs critters, they will be taken care of as long as I am able to do it. Mrs. McCluckinson is one of my hens that will go broody, she and Brown Racer have hatched out a few batches of chicks for me.
In the mean time...I have more babies that hatched this week, some Buff Polish, at least one Cream Legabar and a few from eggs that were unmarked, so I am not sure what they are. I have three brooders of chicks in the house, two brooders of chicks in the water heater shed, and the baby geese are in a kiddie pool in there too...it is surrounded by cage wire so they can't escape. I will be playing musical chickens soon. I will shift the geese to the outside duck and goose area, and put the roosters in the low-boy and move the older chicks to the pen the roosters are currently in...I think. After I get all that done and clean everything, I will put the oldest chicks in the house out in the brooders in the water heater shed. I will keep the chicks born this week in the house for another couple of weeks, and then I may have a week...then hatching will start again!
I am trying to get good breeding stock on a few breeds. I just set Dorking and Cream Legbar eggs, and I have a batch of mixed types of Marans eggs that will hatch first, I am hoping to get a Blue Splash rooster...we shall see. Last year I hatched about 12 batches of eggs over 7 months. I didn't want to hatch that long this year, so I got another incubator and hope to get it done faster this year. I sold 10 hens last weekend, I may sell some more. I am hoping to get a good hatch out of the Dorking eggs this time around, the meat on them is suppose to be good and if I get a bunch of roosters, we will end up trying it out in about 5 months. I am afraid I have a lot of roosters growing up...when they rush at you and peck your hands at two weeks old...you can just sense it.
Now I really need to figure out what I am going to do with all of them...
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