Keeping chickens

Strange I haven’t spotted this thread before. Have had ex-batts for years
The BHWT website is great for advice. Hope your chick gets better soon.
https://www.bhwt.org.uk/blog/health-welfare/coccidiosis/

Cheers. Yeah, she has all these symptoms. Couldn’t even climb into the coop this eve. Have bought some amprolium off Amazon and will hope that solves it.

I wouldn't get caught up on one possibility, there is a mirage of things that can make a chicken go lethargic. Whenever i have had poorly chickens they go into a large dog cage for a few days so i can observe them properly, and also reduce the risk of anything spreading.

One high recommendation from me is a bunch of natural honey dissolved into the drinking water of a poorly hen.

Ex battery hens in particular suffer the most from various issues that can end in a shitty rear end! A life of stress and terrible diet puts its tole on their poor wee insides. Wish you all the best

Thanks for the advice. Amprolium seems to be working. Shits stopped and chestnut getting back to her old self.

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Thats one fluffy silkie!

Yeah she’s great. Though my fave is the black one that’s trying to photobomb. She’s very affectionate and loves a cuddle.

Question: can you bathe a chicken? The ill one needs a clean.

We bathed our poorly one and it was very well received. There’s an online guide to it somewhere, I think it referred to the process as a chicken spa day. Warm water and Epsom salts, towel wrapped over the top.

E:found it - https://www.gardenbetty.com/the-spa-treatment-for-sick-chickens/

Oh yes… we’ve given many of ours a bath over the years - for different reasons. As long as you introduce it slowly and get the temp right (their body temp is higher than ours), they seem to really enjoy it.
We try to lay them on their side supporting their body with one hand/arm, the hand on top holding them tight and keeping their balance to start with. You feel them calm down and we’ve often been able to just let them float, but really it’s hands-on to prevent any ‘flappy freak-outs’.
Dry them off well after - they seem quite pathetic for a while until they fluff up a bit.

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Thanks both!

This is why I love LFGSS

You're making me want chickens

RIP Chestnut. You’ll be missed. 😥

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Got some lovely charming friendly (impossibly stupid) Polish bantams last Sunday to pad out the flock after our last hybrid moved on. A rat took and killed one this evening (thankfully after the kids went to bed) and we’re absolutely devastated.

RIP Bluey.

Here she is taking my daughter under her wing just this afternoon.

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Never knew about this thread, here are our gang of bantams. Agatha, Winnie, Mable & Vera

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Really is a thread for everything here. Subbing in as I'm about to get a flock.

Always sad when a pet dies, hope your daughter is OK @6pt. Looks like they had bonded!

Here’s our flock enjoying the first real sun we’d had in ages a couple of weekends ago.
@skinny - obvs there is lots of knowledge here, but the BHWT website has lots of good hen keeping advice and tips.

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Thanks. Couple of my friends here have them so I've spoken with them.

I'm just waiting on trying to find a second hand coop or enough wood.

Subbed for the future.

We are buying a place that has this huge chicken hut on it. Obviously the talk has gone to "let's get chickens"

I've lived in a place that has had chickens before so it's not a complete unknown before but would still say I'm a beginner overall. Will need to do some research before deciding on anything. 2nd photo just added to show size of area we could use to put in runs.

I'm not expecting to fill the coop as I think it's a lot to take on in one go and I'll never eat that many eggs.

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Our house came with four hybrids and by the end of the first summer we had more surplus eggs than we could handle. I dread to think how many eggs you’d get out of that coop at capacity.

My wife makes this magic water (immune booster) whenever we see our bantams taking a slight turn for the worse.

Add to their water;
Cider vinegar
Honey
Few garlic cloves

Occasionally she will add sprigs of rosemary or lavendar