whosjack Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 I've asked a few questions but have a few more questions if that's ok. I've now had the girls for about 3.5 weeks and am enjoying them immensely but am finding them quite hard work. I've read about how often you all clean your eglus and run but i'm finding that I have to jet hose the eglu down every 3 days because of how much they poo (and how sticky it is). Admittedly they have been ill with gape worm and the poo is less runny now but is still as hard to clean off. They free range in the garden when i'm around. I'm in the process of making them a larger run that hopefully will be easier to manage but am confused about the whole abulose(sp?) (hemp) thing. Some of you say it gets too wet and others say it lasts for ages. What do i do as i like the sound of it but dont want to buy a whole bale of it if it doesn't 'work'. So far they have had gape worm (probably) and now have to go on antibiotics due to blood in their poo. Do your hens get as sick as often? (had em less then a month and 2 visits to vet already). Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Hmm, odd that they are so sick, where did you get your hens from. Admittedly I only have bantams, but I have 8 in an eglu with the run extension on it. They freerange most of the day, but the Eglu doesn't need that much cleaning; I empty the poo tray twice a week and clean the eglu once a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whosjack Posted February 6, 2007 Author Share Posted February 6, 2007 I got the chooks from eglu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnnieP Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 I suggest you get back on to Omlet in that case: If you have only had them a few weeks, there is no way they should have come to you infected with gapeworm. The least they should offer is to cover your vets bills. They come with a 28 day guarantee after all. As regards poo, yes they do poo a lot. I can thoroughly recommend Aubiose. I have my chooks on grass, and I move the Eglu around on a weekly basis. As I have a lot of grass I am not worried about them turning it into mud, but the Eglu tray itself does get rather filled with poo over a week, and I would be emptying the tray every few days if it wasn't for Aubiose. I use it in the tray, and in the nesting box. It dries up the poo, stops it smelling and because it takes out all the moisture, shrinks it down a bit. All I do is go out there every day and remove the dried up poo into a bucket from the Nest Box: (Yes I have an evil chook who will insist on using it as a toilet). The tray gets taken out weekly and the whole lot, aubiose and poo slips off easily into the wheelbarrow, where it gets added to the compost. A bale of Aubiose (or similar) only costs around £6, and used this way, would last you around 3 months. I can thoroughly recommend it. You really do need to contact Omlet about the fact that they have supplied chooks with problems. They would not be happy about this if they were aware. Their customer relations are excellent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Yup, Annie's right, give Jan a ring in the morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kannie Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Whereabouts are you whosjack? If you're in London you could come and collect a sample go of hemcore from me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Ditto if you're in the Midlands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SillyClucker Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 agree with everything above. keep up the meds, messy/sticky poo is probably due to the worms (i've got a thing about these beasties). What you should get when things settle down is the poo rolling out of the poo tray each morning without leaving anything behind. If you can get the vet to examine the poo under a m/scope to ascertain if worms or anything else present that will give you n idea of prgress. Hemcore is good stuff, it absorbs odours and the chooks love digging in it. I tend to let ours out of the run to free range after about an hour in the morning. This means that they do most of their toiletry outside of the run minimising the doings in the run. What i am trying to get into the habit of doing is raking the area of free range to get rid of their droppings (there's alot) so that things don't get out of control. Omlet have been very supportive to us in the past and i'm sure that they will be sympathetic to your situation. I do wish you the best in your early days of Chook keeping, your on a steep learning curve at the moment - my advice, keep an eye on the poo!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whosjack Posted February 7, 2007 Author Share Posted February 7, 2007 Thank you all for your replies. To be fair, based on when they started to display their 'odd' behaviour they may have picked up the gape worm from my garden. i understand its 2 weeks from eating infected worms to symptoms, so based on that I'm not sure that omlet is at fault. Kannie, i'm in north west london, thanks for the offer but i think i may 'splash out' and get a bale , but where do you get your hemcore from? OK another quesiton , i've looked at some of the pics posted on this site and some of them (quite a few) show your chooks sort of chilling, mine dont, they eat ALL day, is this normal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsea Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 see here - http://www.hemcore.co.uk/distributor.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsea Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 and here ! - http://www.aubiose.co.uk/contact.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsea Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 hemcore/aubiose is very similar. I could NOT live without the stuff. We get ours from our local farms suppliers but horsey shops/pet stores could sell it too. check the above posts for your nearest supplier. Chickens do poo a LOT we clean out the tray underneath the nest bars twice a week and dismantle the eglu and power wash it all at least once a week (im a clean freak), but with the aubiose in the run I can never see poo in there or smell anything either. most of the poo seems to be outside the backdoor funnily enough!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 One of my little madams likes to poo on the back door mat. I've just posted some new chooks pix on my blog (see www below), Ruby is the back door chicken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsea Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 its like im tap dancing when im trying to get out the back door im sure they do it on purpose,....cos when im not looking at them and looking for poo they try to dash into the kitchen....sneaky little blighters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsea Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 great photos clare. I love Lavinia, what a beauty she is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin B Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 One of my little madams likes to poo on the back door mat. I've just posted some new chooks pix on my blog (see www below), Ruby is the back door chicken Has Betty started to lay yet? How old is she? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 Lavinia is a sweetie, she's a lavender pekin bantam and quite small - she hatched 3 eggs last year - Betty is one of her babies. the eggs were from Lesley's lot and Betty is a barnevelder bantam. Martin, she's comign up for 20 weeks (roughly) now and getting bigegr with a redder comb, so I don't think it'll be too long before she starts laying. Perhaps when it's a bit warmer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kannie Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 Kannie, i'm in north west london, thanks for the offer but i think i may 'splash out' and get a bale , but where do you get your hemcore from? Oops, sorry whosjack - been busy past couple of days and not been on here. This is where we get our hemcore from: http://www.gjwtitmuss.co.uk/index.asp in Hertfordshire, rather than London, but not too bad if you have a car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whosjack Posted February 12, 2007 Author Share Posted February 12, 2007 Thanks for getting back to me. That was the place i ended up getting mine from! Good to hear I hadn't traveled there only to find out there was a supplier down the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jane&phil Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Don't worry about the constant eating by the way, mine are doing that at the moment as well. I think it's the cold weather which means they burn more energy, and the shorter days mean there's fewer hours to intake all the calories they need. When it gets warmer they spend more time lazing around and less time stuffing their faces Jane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whosjack Posted February 13, 2007 Author Share Posted February 13, 2007 Thanks for your response about the eating...*phew*. Now I need to moan, well not moan so much as, well... I work shifts at the weekend and got home yesterday morning and got 1.5 hours sleep before my flatmate woke me up to say that Maud had fallen out the eglu when she had opened the door and she couldn't stand up. After lying in bed thinking, oh god why now? and then feeling horribly guilty I got up and arranged for a visit to the vet. Maud was in a poor state and i knew immediately that the vet was trying to say that she didn't think she would last the night. She said she didn't know what was wrong but she would give her iv antibiotics (they were already on oral abs, see beginning of the post) as she couldn't sit up to eat and she said she would also give her iv fluids. We discussed the option of sending some poo off to be analysed but decided against it as she would be either dead or better by the time the results came back and they wouldn't help with deciding on treatment anyway. By this time we were talking frankly about her chances of survival and body disposal. Very grim. I have to admit that I've only had the girls about a month and I was surprisingly upset about all this (even my flatmate was and the chooks aren't even hers! and shes paranoid about diseases etc). Anyway I was told to keep her warm in a box and try to see if she could eat. I took her round to mums place who has an aga and put the box near it and fed her some bread soaked it milk. A little later she was able to drink some water. She ate some more and gradually throughout the day was able to stand up. Then by late afternoon when i took her home (along with my 2 nephews) she was up and out of her box exploring the kitchen and eating loads. And by this morning she was back outside running around with Abigail. Then today when they were both running around the 5 year olds feet he tripped and while trying not the step on Maud he stepped on Abigails neck. She shrieked and so did I. She seemed ok (once I could coax her out from behind the shed) apart from not trusting us too near her I am now totally stressed and thinking of marrying a vet to keep the bills down! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsea Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 poor you no wonder your stressed ! Maud sounds like she's made a miraculous recovery and poor Abigail Keep us posted on how they are going and fingers crossed with all your TLC they will both be right as rain soon. Get some well deserved sleep ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whosjack Posted February 16, 2007 Author Share Posted February 16, 2007 Maud laid her first egg yesterday but we couldn't eat it because of the meds she's on Could that be what mondays historonics were about? Would she make that fast a recovery with an infection? I did ask if she was egg bound when i took her to the vet but she said no. Also because of all the meds they've been on for about 3 weeks now I've been feeding them porridge to get put the meds in but now they are showing very little interest in their 'proper' food in their run and they go bananas when i go to let them out the run for a play (they act as if they are starving) and I'm worried that they aren't getting a proper 'balanced' diet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kannie Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 Oh dear! What a hard time you've had! What are you putting in the porridge whosjack? I normally make chicken porridge with 90% their normal food anyway, so it doesn't unbalance the diet. Are you using something different? Like human porridge? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen & co. Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 I give my girls human porridge at night when it's cold to warm them up before going to sleep, is this not a good idea karen x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
