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[mark n teena]

Hi,

 

We're Mark and Teena from Hartlepool in Teesside.

 

We have 7 hens that we have rescued from an agricutrual college that were going to be destroyed for no other reson than they were 1 year old and the college raises their hens from eggs to teach the students.

 

For the first 2 days they lived in the garage while Mark quickly built a run and living coup in our garden (mark is still cleaning the mess off his motorbike and is still swearing at the hens : the "mother-cluckers!!")

 

The hens have had their "panic eggs" of a few soft shells and we are now getting a regular supply of good eggs.

 

The local farmer has let us have access to broken bales of straw for bedding, a few bin bags of straw he'll never miss for a few swaps of a cartons of eggs, very handy.

 

We've got one problem hen, it seems she's passed a rather large egg and tore her vent, we've bathed it with disinfectant and she has been sprayed with that purple disinfectant spray horse people like to use (thanks again to our farmer for the spray).

Our purple bottomed hen seems in good general health, but we have had to isolate her from the rest to prevet pecking of her bum. (ouch).

 

Is there anything else we can do for her? we cant find ant relavent items for torn vents on the health section of the forum.

 

thanks

 

Mark and Teena.

 

x

[Olly]

Hello, welcome to the forum - it sounds as if you've got some helpful input from your farmer friend. I think you've done all the right things, and I would keep this hen separate from the others until her vent has healed - the purple spray should stop the others pecking, but they will be drawn to it if they see blood.

 

I don't know if she's laid since then, but if you want to stop her laying for a few days then you could keep her in a dark place, i.e. your garage perhaps, and feed her a light diet of Weetabix or similar, this might help it to heal a bit. She may already be laying and be ok though. She'll want to be back with her friends as soon as possible, but a few days won't do her any harm.

 

Congratulations on rescuing these hens, they should give you several years of productive egg-laying and as they haven't (I assume) been kept in battery conditions, they won't have the problems that ex-batts sometimes have. Feel free to post on here with any questions! (Your post has been moved from the 'Welcome' section because you'll get more replies here in Chicken Clinic.)

[chelsea]

Welcome to the forum and I agree with Olly's advice really.

 

You sound like you are doing everything right already (purple spray/seperation etc) so nothing much else to add really. Just keep an eye on the area.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Welcome to the forum . Sounds like you're doing pretty well to me .

 

I found a couple of topics about torn vents which you might find interesting/useful?

 

http://club.omlet.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=44351&hilit=torn+vent

 

http://club.omlet.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=20495&hilit=torn+vent

[mark n teena]

HELP!!!!

 

Two more hens have now got torn vents!

 

The first is doing well in isolation, shes laid one egg and although theres a little blood on the egg and her vent, she seems perky and is eating well.

 

Thats 3 out of our 8 girls with torn vents. Am i doing anything wrong???? Our tame farmer suggested that we might be feeding tem TOO well, causing over-sized eggs.

 

Food: Layers pellets, bird corn and veg (cabbage/lettuce leaves). They also free-range over part of our garden fenced off.

Sometimes they get potato peelings ect boiled into a mash with pellets and corn added to the mash, they love it but is it too rich?

(Its an old recipie my grandad told me about, he kept banties for years.)

 

They previosly free-ranged over the college farm, taking anything from the feilds and layers pellets/corn in their feeder. I cant see anything much different in what we're doing with them.

 

please help, I dont want our girls to suffer.

 

thanks,

 

mark.

[chelsea]

So sorry Mark you are having a difficult time with your girls.

 

I would maybe cut down on the treats for a while and feed them on pellets only. Corn isnt very nutritious and does tend to make hens fat (although they love it!). If you are going to give corn, only give it as a treat in small quantities late afternoon. Maybe a bit of cod liver oil mixed in with their pellets will losen things up?

[mark n teena]

thanks for advice chelsea, I'll lay off the corn and see how things progress.

 

now got 3 purple bottomed hens!

 

cheers,

 

Mark & Teena.

[Plum]

Hello, it's a bit of a coincidence. Do you think you may have one who is pecking the others bums. I have found that if the others are watching one laying they peck at the bottom. Not attacking but just seem to be exploring. Have they got a dark area for the nest box? Are their eggs bigger than before?

 

By the way well done rescuing them but you could end up with a big flock if you do it each year.

[mark n teena]

Hi Plum,

 

Yep, they've got a good nest box, actually its an old 70's speaker cabinet on its side in their shed, fits two girls at a time nicely and is in a dry dark corner.

 

We've had a bit of bottom pecking and one incident of egg eating but things seem to have calmed down now since my last post. The first to suffer a torn vent is back with the pack and laying again ok. One of the other two gave an egg with blood on it the other day but seems ok and the last girl is still a bit sorry for herself and is still seporate from the rest due to a bit of blood on her bum still (and purple spray).

 

I've took chelsea's advice and gave them less corn and mostly pellets now and they only get a bit of potato mash as a treat on a night. Still getting the greens though, cabbage and lettuce leaves etc.

 

I was trying to explain to Teena about "worm rugby" the other day. where one hen finds a worm or grub and runs off with it hotly persued by the others and they fight over it.

Do hens know what has the most protien in it? And would they over feed themselves given the chance causing larger eggs to rip their vents?

 

Mark.