November chicken update

Aaah! Time flies and it's been so hectic recently. Still trying to get the old house ready for rental and bring all the bits and pieces still left there up to the new house. Plus trying to get the new house into some sort of livable state.
Hmmm...looks like chickens DO have some sort of teeth like projections at the back of their beak?

Speaking of beaks, Buffy managed to break the tip off his beak. Probably from fighting through the fence with Penguin.

Intact beak

Broken tip

At least it was just the tip of the beak and nothing further back. This tip should grow back in time. I think of beaks like a fingernail, with your nail bed and the hard nail growing out of it. Buffy broke the nail, but I've heard of chickens breaking the beak further back and it leads to bleeding and potential infection.

Buffy has a large amount of scabs on his wattles and comb. He doesn't get that he will always lose a fight with Penguin and Penguin has no wattles ad his comb is a lot smaller. It doesn't deter the two from fighting through the fence though! During the day, Buffy gets placed in a smaller pen within the run, that way he is separated from Penguin, but still gets to interact with the other chickens.

Pen and coop number two is under construction! Just for Buffy and his potential new ladies.

It's generally been cool here, with a few hot days. Those hot days do bring out the unwanted snakes though.

Can you spot the snake in the insert?

This snake was unnervingly close to the chickens, we haven't seen it since. I've been cleaning up the area (there was a lot of timber and junk here left by the previous owner) and we've been setting rodent traps. Unfortunately our chickens are EXTREMELY picky with their seed and they constantly scoop out seed from the feeder in search of their favourite seed. All this seed on the ground just invites mice to come in. And where there are mice....

At least mainland snakes don't eat chicken eggs, but I reckon any snake trying to eat the whopper that Effie laid would have had a bit of trouble! That's definitely a double yolker, the egg next to that is her normal size egg.

Unfortunately our Chicky has been feeling off colour lately. She hasn't laid since June and those last eggs that she laid were huge, very fragile and had an extremely watery albumin. In August/September she was constantly laying soft shell eggs and she would always be unhappy for a few days after that. Partly because part of the shell hasn't passed. She regained her bounce after she passes the rest of the egg. All the chickens have access to shell grit and they get yoghurt quite often. I have seen here in the past few weeks enter the nesting box, but no egg.  And now, I think another soft shell egg, but this time, I don't think she has passed it.  She's all hunched up and fluffed up and looking downright miserable

So now, we've moved her into a box on her own, partly it will keep her warmer in he hope that she will pass the egg and partly so the other chickens don't bother her. So far the vet that we use in Adelaide that will treat chickens has been pretty useless. We've been hand feeding her and today she showed a healthy interest in grapes and gobbled down quite a few. She gets honeyed water, some extra sugar for energy and we try to coax her to eat some yoghurt and oats in the morning.

Get well soon Chicky!

EDIT: Poor Chicky died a few days after this. It was egg peritonitis. Basically had an infection in her that she could not fight off. The vet that we have taken chickens to in the past have been pretty much useless. They don't seem to have much experience with poultry. Would love to know if people have any Adelaide vets that treat poultry and know what they are doing.


Speaking of laying eggs, got a video of DumDum laying an egg. All nest boxes were occupied (yest that was Chicky trying in the left hand box) and DeeDee was desperate to lay and was waiting for DumDum to finish. I never knew what a strain it was for chickens!

That's all for now. I'll finish the Japan trip at some point!