Elderly cat breathing difficulties when purring

[craftyhunnypie]

As you all know, I put my newish ( from August) chooks in the cube with the old Omlet chooks last week. They have been fine, but now it's hell!

Bounty & Smartie, won't leave the Omlet chooks alone - peck peck, chase, nudge, jump on...etc etc! The Omlet girls now won't come down the ladder at all, the stay all day in the cube. I'm having to put food & water up there for them, as they are so afraid. Poor Rita my gingernut is depressed & in a corner of the cube - tail down - not good at all. It's heartbreaking! I even cried yesterday coz I thought she might die in the night. She's still tail down & depressed today. But what is annoying me is that they all go to bed at night together & the new girls are going in the cube to lay their eggs as cheeky as anything!

I'm due to get my banties on Saturday, but Hubby is on about taking out the bossy pair & putting them back in the mk2 eglu. Could I put my banties (8weeks old) in with my soppy Omlet chooks, who have not got a nasty bone in their bodies & just want to get on with retirement? I know usually you don't mix banties with large fowl, but I know people who have & very succesfully.

Please help!

Emma.x

[Tina C]

I am hoping to mix my bantams and big girls when the bantams are fully grown but 8 weeks is very young. I don't think I would mix them. I think most people would recommend keeping young uns away from old uns, anyway, bantams or not.

 

Its horrrible that your girls are unhappy but I don't know what to suggest. Hopefully someone more helpful will come along soon.

[Snowy]

Could you put something down the middle of the run to segregate them during the day? I used garden canes, the bossy ones would rush to the food end so I could slide the canes in. They then stayed that end and the timid ones get chance to wander out into their own half of the run (put some food in there for them). Put a cardboard box lined with straw in the end of the run for the bossy ones to lay. I added the canes later each day, so they had time together but the timid ones had a break and got time to themselves later on in the day. Then eventually it just wasn't needed anymore. HTH

[Richard]

I dumped all my young girls together and let them sort it out over a week or so. However Evil Georgie was a different matter and I kept her separate outside the run so that they could see each other through the wire for a couple of weeks.

 

Then I let them run together for an hour or so each day, for a few days, then all together all day for a day or two (still sleeping separately).

 

Then I moved Georgie's studio (home made little wooden coop - pretty rubbish really) into the run and thats how it still is - she sleeps separately from all the others in the Cube but they are otherwise all together.

 

I'd use your old Eglu for the bossy pair, get the others all sorted, then bring the bossy lot in to the group a bit later when the others are all settled and sorted. You could bring the bossy ones in gradually.

[craftyhunnypie]

Hi Richard, that is exactly what we have decided to do! The bossy, nasty pair are going into the mk2 separate from the rest! Tough luck! I have just had enough of the s"Ooops, word censored!"ping & decided that although Bounty lays good eggs, she's not a nice chook anymore, so she can stew with her bossy mate in the eglu! The rest (Old Omlet girls & newish Rolo) will stay in the cube. I will put the banties in the cube too on Saturday - any fighting & I will separate the run & put in a temporary house for the banties or have to buy another hen house quickly. But i just don't think they will have any problems - they arew extremely daft soppy loving chookies - I am very very lucky to have them that way! Shame about the other 2 I know, but they will be treated the same & get treats the same, but will live separately from now on.

 

Emma.x

[Gallina]

Be prepared for your soppy chickens to turn nasty too....

 

I had a darling little victim who turned so evil when I introduced new babies to her in the Eglu that I threw her to the lions in the Cube.

 

I cannot recommend too strongly that people who buy Cubes hold on to their Eglus if they have room. Because the hens are confined in a small area, babies have to be kept apart if there is any viciousness. They soon grow up and hold their own, but they need protecting when they are small.

[Richard]

I cannot recommend too strongly that people who buy Cubes hold on to their Eglus if they have room. .

 

I fully agree. I know there's often a financial issue, but if it is possible to keep an old Eglu - or even, as I did, build a little wooden coop - so that you have a separate sleeping place and run for any hen that is young, bullied, ill or whatever I think it is invaluable.

 

I also have an old dog transit box that I used for Trinny and Suzanna when they were too young to go in the run with Georgy. I put a cardboard box inside that for them to sleep in (changed it every few days) and covered the top with a board. I wired on a little run and it worked fine.

[Karen & co.]

I don't suppose I should say this on here but I bought a small plastic double walled shed from Focus, the spare set of roosting bars fit in the bottom, with the smaller part at right angles to them, and a cardboard box nest area with 3 sides in the opposite end.

 

There are 2 doors one is closed and the other fixed open wide enough to let the girls get in and out.

 

To start with my 3 newest girls slept in there, now they all sleep together 6 per eglu. It just gave them somewhere to sleep, and would probably fit in the run of the cube

 

Now even the original chooks occasionally lay in there

 

karen x

[Richard]

I don't suppose I should say this on here but I bought a small plastic double walled shed from Focus, the spare set of roosting bars fit in the bottom, with the smaller part at right angles to them, and a cardboard box nest area with 3 sides in the opposite end.

 

There are 2 doors one is closed and the other fixed open wide enough to let the girls get in and out.

 

To start with my 3 newest girls slept in there, now they all sleep together 6 per eglu. It just gave them somewhere to sleep, and would probably fit in the run of the cube

 

Now even the original chooks occasionally lay in there

 

karen x

 

Brilliant! I think its really interesting how many people have started off with an Eglu, then made their own arrangements for extra bits and bobs for sick/new/young chickens. I don't think it is anything to be embarrassed about - just a fact of life; I'd like to have the dosh to buy loads of Eglus, but it just isn't going to happen I'm afraid, so I have to have alternatives.

 

But I'm not getting rid of my Cube, or my old Eglu (altho it's not in use at the moment)

[xScrunchee]

I don't suppose I should say this on here but I bought a small plastic double walled shed from Focus, the spare set of roosting bars fit in the bottom, with the smaller part at right angles to them, and a cardboard box nest area with 3 sides in the opposite end.

 

There are 2 doors one is closed and the other fixed open wide enough to let the girls get in and out.

 

To start with my 3 newest girls slept in there, now they all sleep together 6 per eglu. It just gave them somewhere to sleep, and would probably fit in the run of the cube

 

Now even the original chooks occasionally lay in there

 

karen x

 

Any pics??

Sounds like such a good idea.

[craftyhunnypie]

Well the 2 bossy ones have been moved back into the mk2 eglu & are in bed now.

I have left Rolo in with the 3 soppy Omlet girls as she is fine with them. The new ones I'm getting tomorrow are going in the cube too - but I do have a standby if any problems.

I'm hoping my Omlet girls will come out of hiding tomorrow & enjoy their cube again, I've missed them not being out & scratching in the fresh air!

Will report in again tomorrow & I can sleep ok tonight, knowing there is no pecking going on behind closed eglu doors. Phew!

 

Emma.x

[Richard]

Well the 2 bossy ones have been moved back into the mk2 eglu & are in bed now.

I have left Rolo in with the 3 soppy Omlet girls as she is fine with them. The new ones I'm getting tomorrow are going in the cube too - but I do have a standby if any problems.

I'm hoping my Omlet girls will come out of hiding tomorrow & enjoy their cube again, I've missed them not being out & scratching in the fresh air!

Will report in again tomorrow & I can sleep ok tonight, knowing there is no pecking going on behind closed eglu doors. Phew!

 

Emma.x

 

what did you do, and worry about, before you kept chickens eh?

[craftyhunnypie]

Looked after hubby & worried about getting a nice crease in his shirts!!!! he he he

 

Emma.x

[craftyhunnypie]

Well, this morning I was brought not breakfast in bed, but a chook in bed!!!

Hubby brought Blanche in the kitchen as she was depressed & we have fed her & cuddled her etc back to her perky happy self - she is now back in the run scratching around etc! Now gone to sleep in the nest.

But we now have Rita inside as she had been moping & her tail has been down for a couple of days. She has drank loads & has finally come out of the cardboard make shift nest and is standing up going sleep now. She is spending the night inside & we will assess her tomorrow & hopefully she will be well enough to go back with her friends.

The newbies are all 3 back in the mk2 & the Omlet girls on their own in the cube again. I couldn'y hack seeing my old girls suffering & depressed.

I went to see the bantams, but with Rita not being well & all he upset, I decided not to get them. They were far too tiny too! Very cute tho. My sister came home with a apir of muscovy ducks & a pair of call ducks, the female of which was quacking all the way home! They are very cute.

So I'm going to make do with my 6 chooks. My Omlet girls will just have to have all the space of a big cube to themselves.

Emma.x