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Plum

Chicken replacement therapy

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After losing my beloved Pigeon and another hybrid this year I've been out today and Pigeon 2 and a silver Sussex hybrid came home with me.

 

I love my bantams but it's just not the same without a little red hen. They are both confident and friendly except to Hen who launches herself at them. Crow my little pekin does a dance in front of them, very comical. Introductions are going to take a while me thinks!

 

Now I'm home the silver Sussex looks massive with tree trunk legs hope she's she :shock: Little red Pigeon 2 keeps crouching she looks far too young to lay :?

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Congratulations Plum on your new girls.

 

I had a Sussex hybrid as one of my first girls, she was bigger than the other hybrids and laid lovely large eggs. She did have a tendency to go broody a couple of times a year and was quite mad if you tried to move her off the nest. In the end I resorted to a broody cage. She was a character.

 

Enjoy your new girls, can you post a picture?

 

Chrissie

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Here's the lady

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She's been eating feathers from the floor of the run :( have I got trouble coming?

 

and Pigeon replacement and just as cheeky

 

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The girls beat a hasty retreat to the dust bath :lol:

 

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Hope the photos are the right size. Photobucket looks different again and doesn't have the preset sizes

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I've got a light Sussex reverse , maggie. She doesn't lay huge eggs, but they are mostly yolk and she lays average 5 to 6 days a week. She's a bit odd, my girls bullied her so much I had to put her in her own eglu and run. I got a cream legbar to go in with her, then she turned into the bully (maggie).I've now put my beloved white silkie in with her, she's everybody's friend.The cream legbar is in with the other girls. :doh:

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She laid a lovely little (huge compared to the others) brown egg today. Couldn't eat it as I'd sprayed them all for mites. So looks like she may follow the trend of yours :D

 

She went to sleep laid across the house door last night so Pigeon 2 now called Wren couldn't get in and lept out this morning and sent the water flying :roll:

 

Wren has been really restless in the partitioned area so I let them in with the others for a while. Little Budgie (orp) who's knee high to a sparrow and bottom of the pecking order lept on big black bird's back. She just looked round and wondered what the itch was :lol: They just kept apart so back separate again until another day. :D

 

I think Wren's beaks been clipped the top is shorter than the bottom, wonder if it'll grow back.

 

I was tempted by a Silkie yesterday but I've got enough broody women. :roll:

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Lovely new chickens, very cuddleable and colourful. Gave ours some chopped grapes and now big black bird follows me pecking my feet, buttons, fingers, watch and anything else :roll:

 

Never noticed but they have little eye colour and see yours are like that as well. It must develop later.

 

Is that chicken on your dining table :lol:

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We noticed that about the eye colour, I'll need to go back through photos of older girls to see how/if theirs have developed.

 

Ha ha no that's my old sewing table, clogging up space in the conservatory - I am now the proud owner of a Horn Quilters dream sewing cabinet :)

 

Just been back out to check on them and they haven't yet found their way to bed, I can see me out there with a torch later to show them the way. :roll:

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Well I've had a good start. Wren laid a broken softie in the night then was looking yuk, I fished a soft shell egg out of her. Then was washed and dried she passed an old blood clot and didn't pick up. We've been to vet and now she's on antibiotics. I remember now why I got purebreds :roll:

 

On the upside Blackbird is in house preparing for second egg :dance:

 

Are yours behaving any better Sally :D

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Oh no that's not a good start poor little Wren. Hope she is okay.

 

One of the 3 laid an egg on the journey home yesterday but we're not sure which one it was, though they haven't even looked like laying today. I had to pop them all into the eglu last night - they were all precariously perched side by side on top of a chair back - one little shuffle in the night would have sent one of them tumbling off. :shock:

 

They all seem happy and healthy today, I've had a cuddle with each one and they've all eaten well.

 

Not very impressed with the weather here today, I planned an afternoon of chicken watching and it has peed down for most of the day :(

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Well Wren is fine again after laying some very odd things. They are all hunkered down in the cube together, though Coot and Hen are in the nestbox :roll:

 

They were all out in the garden with me this afternoon. I sat on the bench to give them some mealworms, Wren jumped on the back and Blackbird jumped on my lap, how cute. Yesterday they didn't touch them didn't know what they were!

 

Actually it took ages for them to come outside, must have been raised in a barn :?

 

Any more cuddles Sally?

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Well that's all really good news, really pleased for you.

 

Unfortunately Emmy II (the Amber Star) started looking a little down yesterday pm and stopped eating, managed to get her to the vet this morning, nothing obvious that he could find but agreed she didn't look right and has prescribed a 5 day course of Clavaseptin. We have isolated her in a dog cage in the conservatory for now, the other 2 are absolutely fine. Problem is the drug means a 56 day egg withdrawal which would mean I need to keep her isolated for all 56 days unless I can clearly spot her egg, though we don't think she has started laying yet anyway. I can't realistically keep her in a little dog cage for nearly 2 months though. Vet advised digging up worms for her and dosing them with Flubuvent too and she has actually eaten them and then had a little bit of corn.

 

Spoke to the breeder and he is happy to take Emmy back and gives us a different one, but I guess he will dispatch her and I'm not sure I can do that to her. :(

 

Am going to decide tomorrow what we will do.

 

:(

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Oh heck that's difficult. Long egg withdrawal but vet told me we can never eat Wren's eggs. They are covering themselves because the antibiotics haven't been licences for chickens. It costs the drug companies too much to do the research. I'm going to give Wren a month, that is if she ever lays proper eggs.

 

Are your old girls still laying, was wondering if you can do a mix and match once they are friends. But perhaps it's best to change her rather than introduce something to your flock :? perhaps if you give him the antibiotics she won't be dispatched.

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Vet said if the eggs are eaten by someone with a allergy to penicillin they could die :shock:

 

We haven't started the drugs yet, she seems a bit chirpier tonight, she's sitting in the conservatory chattering away to herself at the moment. We'll see what the morning brings and decide what to do then.

 

My bumper bits have arrived today so am planning on fitting them tomorrow to try and put a stop to the feather plucking that is going on, poor Alice has a completely bald bum at the moment :(

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Emmy II and I have had lovely cuddles today, she was very happy dozing on my lap in the sun so needless to say we've decided to hang on to her for a few more days. She looks completely normal today, tail up, chattering away and has been eating and drinking fine. We hadn't started the antibiotics so if she continues to look fine I can pop her back in with the other 2 newbies and not worry about needing to identify her eggs if she starts to lay.

 

Fingers crossed no more set backs.

 

:)

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