Calling all chicken experts! ANOTHER Question...

[Wannabefree]

I agree with what's been said.
I tend to bring a chicken in the house overnight for observation. But I have a bathroom that I use as "hospital" anytime I need one

X2 Except I have a back bedroom for hospital patients

 

[freemotion]

Make sure the treats are something that will make them work hard for it, like the cabbage or frozen meat on a string that moves out of the way when they peck at it....kinda like a hen pinata! (sp?) Or something larger and hard like a frozen apple or something along those lines. Something they can't scarf down in minutes but have to work at all day, something tempting enough to keep them occupied trying to get some.

 

[i_am2bz]

Sounds like I better get me a cabbage...ironically, I had to run out to Walley World; I looked at the bin of cabbages & went, "Nahhhh...."

I do do the pinata thing...I put their corn cobs in one of those wire suet hanger things (sorry, I'm feeling particularly inarticulate today), & hang it from a board in the pen so it swings around. I use apples, too, but didn't think to freeze them...

As for the bathtub...um, well, there's already a litter box in there for my newest cat, who does not play well with others...

I might just try the sock thing...if for no other reason, to give myself a big laugh! (if she doesn't peck me to death trying to get it on her)

 

[BarredBuff]

The garage is my hospital...........

 

[FarmerJamie]

I've taken meat out of the freezer that has been freezer burned before and hung it on a string for the chickens to pick at and it works fairly well to keep them from harassing each other.
Also I had a few winter squashes freeze on me one year in our shed and we would give them to the chickens once a week- it sure took them quite a while to eat them but they loved it. I am thinking about growing more squashes and pumpkins to just give them in the winter... Plus it makes the yolks really nice and orange in the winter.

Yeppers on both of these, plus once per week the 'frig gets emptied from leftovers. The flock spent all day yesterday pecking at a ham bone that had been stewed for ham and bean soup. There was enough fat left there to keep them busy all day.

With the squashes and such, I always need to split them up so everyone gets a chance at some or WWIII erupts.

 

[lwheelr]

Soup bones left over from butchering also - we cook them up and toss them in for the chickens to work on.

You can put Vicks by the sore spot too. The other chickens don't like it, and they leave them alone for a few days, according to my mother. We tried this - but my husband got plain petroleum jelly instead, and used that - it still worked, I guess they didn't like the smell of that either. Funny!

Make sure your hens really are hens, if they are young. Roosters tend to peck more than hens do, and they'll absolutely flay a young rooster that is coming into maturity.

We learned this one the hard way. We were sold some chickens, and told that "this one with the small comb is an immature hen, and that one is an immature rooster - see the curving tail feathers on that one?" We grouped them accordingly - one rooster and two hens per cage. The "immature hen" ended up badly pecked, a big bloody patch all down the neck. We separated the poor chicken out, and it landed in a cage by itself. Later, two others ended up pecked (again, by a rooster - but not nearly so badly as the first one), so we put them in with the first one - interestingly, the one with the long tail feathers was one that ended up there - fine, we thought, we still had two hens and a rooster.

Well, the one with the curvy tail feathers was a SHE (laid an egg), and the one identified as a juvenile hen (short comb, short tail feathers) began to crow one morning. We DO still have two hens and a rooster in that cage, but they aren't exactly the ones we thought they were.

The long and rambly point to this is that it is often the roosters that do the "hen pecking", and that they'll beat up a juvenile rooster more than they'll beat up a hen.

Once blood starts, you really have to do something though. Vicks might be an easy fix - but I'd not put it on the wound, just near it. It has menthol in it, and that can really burn on an open wound.

 

[i_am2bz]

Well, these are all supposed to be hens; I got a sex-linked variety on purpose because I didn't want any roosters...but Mother Nature, she has quite a sense of humor...

I finally managed to pick up some Blue Kote today at TSC & will try to apply tomorrow...will need DH's assistance because it's a pump spray & I think he'll have to hold her while I do it. The directions say to apply 2x a day; this should be fun (NOT)...:/

Vicks is another possibility, I might have some already in the bathroom somewheres...

 

[FarmerJamie]

Well, these are all supposed to be hens; I got a sex-linked variety on purpose because I didn't want any roosters...but Mother Nature, she has quite a sense of humor...

I finally managed to pick up some Blue Kote today at TSC & will try to apply tomorrow...will need DH's assistance because it's a pump spray & I think he'll have to hold her while I do it. The directions say to apply 2x a day; this should be fun (NOT)...:/

Vicks is another possibility, I might have some already in the bathroom somewheres...

Blue Kote is great! DS and I were applying tonight to 2 hens, and let's just say, he ended up with it all over his hands....

Nail polish remover took it right off!

 

[lorihadams]

You could get a suet cage/feeder thingy and put some treats in it. I made one out of some leftover hardwire cloth scraps. Just bend it into a square and shove some greens in it and hang it from a string.

I am thinking I am gonna have to thin out my hens too, my henhouse is too small for 9 girls. My chicken run is huge 80ft x 80ft so it's not a problem once they are out and about but winter is a different story. I'm thinking I need to go down to 6 but that would mean getting rid of some of my older girls and hubby would kill me. At least 2 of them will be here till they die.

 

[me&thegals]

Is this on the backside or frontside? If backside, perhaps it is from mating, where the roo hangs on...