It has been a hard few days...first I noticed one of my little Salmon Favorelles was all poofed out wings hanging, head hanging down. I brought it up on the porch and put it in a bin with food and water. It perked up a little, but by this morning I knew it would not be alive by the end of the day. I made it a boiled egg and mashed it up with some uncooked oats, it didn't touch the food. I could not get it to drink or eat, at first I thought it may be Coccidiosis...now I am not so sure. I examined it closely before it died, it was very thin, I could not tell just looking at it how thin it was...it looked dehydrated too. I brought it into the house, but even the cooler temperature didn't make any difference. It was probably being bullied and not getting enough to eat, it is hard to tell sometimes when you have a lot of chickens that look exactly alike. I went outside to make sure all the critters were Ok in this heat wave, gave everyone fresh water to drink and filled up swimming pools and pans with cool fresh water. By the time I went back in the house to check on the Salmon Favorelle it was dead.
This is definitely a learning process, I also learned last night that I need to make sure the turkeys are put up about an hour if not more before it gets dark. Why you ask? I went outside at dusk and instead of going into their house to roost, the majority of them were up in a tree above their house. You would be surprised how well turkeys can fly. We had cut the branches up to about ten feet off the ground. I am guessing they got on top of the rooster condo, which the shortest part of it is seven feet tall. They may have flown up from it. Needless to say, they didn't come down from the tree,it was getting too dark. Most birds can't see well in the dark, that is why they normally roost before dark.
One of our baby ducks is having issues too...it is very small, it was fine when it was born but it is having problems with it's feet and is walking on it's hocks...that is kinda like your knee. I have added vitamins to their water and been feeding boiled egg and oats. It is doing pretty good this morning, I am not sure if genetics are playing a role in this problem, a lot of the time it is an indication of a vitamin deficiency, so I am hoping the extra vitamins help. Niacin is important for ducks and as long as it drinks it is getting some. I may add some additional A and E too. The other two baby ducks are thriving and running around like little banshees.
I found a dead Black Copper Marans chick yesterday too, I am treating the chicks in my outdoor brooder for Coccidiosis once again, I will be glad to have them grown and off the porch. I am tired of finding dead babies from Coccidiosis. No other chicks appear to have symptoms, so hopefully it will be the only one. I guess only the strongest survive. I will treat them for several days and keep them on medicated feed until they go out to the grow out pen.
I am going to have to perform a rooster roundup, I have far to many and they have started going after my females with a vengeance. They are also fighting amongst themselves and late yesterday my rooster Napoleon had his comb half ripped off. I knew it had to be removed in a procedure called dubbing, but I have never performed it before. After watching a YouTube video it did not look difficult, but I could not do it. My husband and I did get it done last night. We wore surgical gloves and he sharpened kitchen shears to use, I wrapped Napoleon in a towel to hold him still. We had gauze ready and corn starch to stop the flow of blood. My husband cut his comb away and Nepoleon was a champ, he jerked a little bit when the cut was made, but I think he knew we were trying to help him. Dubbing is a common practice in game birds and Napoleon is an Andalusian rooster and a breed that is on the watch list for being low in numbers. I have mainly heritage and rare breeds and do my best to keep them healthy and strong. He is doing well this morning, his wound has scabbed over and he started crowing bright and early.
Last night, I did get all of the turkey's in their house early enough so they didn't roost in the tree last night. We have better luck just letting all the chickens roost on their own at dusk and going out with headlamps on and rounding up any stragglers. We have a group we call the Shady Hill Gang that like a tree by the back patio and several of them like to sit on the patio table instead of going into the coop. We have to hand carry them to the roost a lot of the time. Sometimes another one will sit on the back of a chair outside the coop, he is a Barred Rock. We have another chicken we call Window Chicken, she is a young Cream Legbar hen...she flies up to a window ledge on the outside of the coop to sleep.
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