4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[artemus]

We've had the girls a couple of weeks now, and everything seemed to be going tickety-boo with the exception of a bit of sneezing from the both of them, which we put down to the colder weather and the fact that we haven't been shutting the eglu door. The last few night, mainly because of the fireworks that have started to appear, we have been shutting the eglu door. And we've been making sure that they get plenty of garlic in their diet - powder in their veg slops mix, and dried flakes in with their layers pellets.

 

Before the clocks changed they managed to get to free range for at least an hour a day during the week, and at the weekends, when were able to "supervise". Since they've been ranging, they've been taken by my potted purple flowered lobelia which, due to the mild autumn weather was still flourishing.

 

Up to this weekend we'd been attempting to keep them away from it ('cause it still looked nice ), but I decided that it was now well past it's expected life, and let them gorge themselves on it. They did seem to have a cheeky grin whilst scoffing it, because we weren't herding them away from it

 

In all outwardly noticable ways they seem OK; they both eat well from the layers (not so much grit, but we guess that's down to them not starting to lay yet, and the fact that they can get some grit from the ranging that they do) and really enjoy the veg slops mix that we do as a treat. Their tails are up, they don't appear listless and dash around at the first sign of anyone appearing, presumably because they've started to notice that when we do appear, its usually to let them range, give them treats, or both!

 

However, this morning, after going out to open the door, the OH said that she had found "blood" on the roosting bars. I investigated and indeed there was a single red watery substance on one of the bars, which had also dripped into the poo tray. It was not mixed into anything poo-like. We took the tray out for a better look and the substance was drying, and the wet red stuff was drying to a purple colour. Could this be a result of an overdose of the purple flowered lobelia, or should we be more concerned?

 

Any advice gratefully received.

[Jools]

I'm not sure tbh. Hopefully it's just the result of gorging on something, but lobelia is listed as a poisonous plant if ingested in large quantities. It is pretty unusual for an animal (even a chicken!!) to eat vast quantities of anything poisonous, but best keep an eye on them just in case.