My house guest is back

Yes, Honey is back in the house.

She was doing great following her surgery two weeks ago.  She was eating and drinking and I never saw her nibbling on her stitches.

I took her back to the vet yesterday afternoon to get her stitches out and was devastated when the vet came back to talk to me without Honey in her arms.  Turns out that she busted through not only her external stitches but a few internal ones too.  She does eat like a goat and can really pack her crop so I can't say I was totally surprised.

The vet had to put her to sleep one more time and put a few more stitches back into her crop and outside up her wound to seal it shut once again.  Oh, Honey Bear.

I've got her in the house today and I'll keep her in for a few days to monitor what she eats and keep her clean.  After that, all bets are off.  She is really much happier outside with her sisters.  And I hate to deprive her of that.

So here's hoping that these stitches hold this time.

I gave Honey sugar

OMG, I'm so embarrassed to admit that.  As you'll recall from my previous post, Honey had surgery on Monday to remove a blockage in her crop.  I kept her in the house for three long days.  And she was miserable.  You could tell she wanted desperately to be outside with her sisters.

I did let her out for a bit each day to spend time with them.  And when it was time to bring her back in the house, she would run from me.  That is not like her at all.  Usually, she comes right to me when I call her.  She loves to be picked up and held so it was disheartening to see her try to get away from me.

My biggest pain point, is getting her to take her medicine.  She's on three different things but I quickly figured out that it's the antibiotic that she can either taste or smell.  I tried mixing it in applesauce, baby food, cat food, mash, banana and scrambled egg and she would stick her beak into the bowl and maybe take one taste and then just shake her head no and turn away.  UGH!!!

So I turned to the internet for ideas and people suggested that I mask the taste with something.  So tonight I pulled out all the stops.  I mixed the antibiotic with mashed banana, sprinkled in crushed, freeze dried meal worms and added in a few drops of simple syrup (sugar dissolved in hot water).  And BINGO.  She hovered it up.

I'm not proud of my actions and I know sugar is not good for chickens.  But I was desperate.  I was only given the exact dosage for her so I don't have extra to waste.

And to make it every more challenging, I need to pull her out of the run to give her the laced treat and make sure it's only for her beak only and that her sisters don't eat it out from under her.  This causes Coco to wail like an air raid siren begging me to return her best buddy.  So making Honey's treat extra tasty is critical so that I can set down the bowl and get her to eat it on her own while I go into the run and distract Coco for a few minutes with some seeds.

I'm so hoping that this continues to works out as I have three more days of medicine for her.

If you ever had to give a chicken medicine, you might want to make note of this as it's been a lifesaver for me.  If it wasn't for her having had crop surgery, I would have requested pills which are easily split and tucked into raisins and MUCH easier to get chickens to take.

Honey on day three in the house.  She was a less than pleasant house guest.  She scattered feed everywhere.  She flung banana and egg all over my kitchen cabinets (thus the sheet draped over her cage).  And then there was the poop.  OMG!!!  I'm not sure who was happier when I finally put her back outside, Honey to be back with her sisters or me!

The price of eggs just went up again

If you've followed my blog since the beginning, you'll remember that I had a rough first year.  I read about all the things chickens can get and thought, I had chickens growing up and never once had to deal with ANY of those things.

But, my first year with chickens, I had to deal with nearly all of them.  I had bullies.  A hen turned out to be a rooster.  There was sour crop and a strange respiratory condition that took down two hens.  There was broodiness that was contagious.  Bumble foot, scaly leg mites and that day I came home to find Lulu missing her entire toe nail.  And let's not forget the fatty liver disease, just to name a few.

And as awful as those all were, I was very thankful that I hadn't had to deal with an impacted crop or egg binding.  Well, add impacted crop to my list above.

Honey is going through her first molt and she was clearly not happy about it.  Molting can be really uncomfortable.  So I was trying to give her some special attention and hand feed her some extra protein each day.  When she stopped eating, I knew I had a problem.  The silly girl was eating leaves instead of her feed.

I took her to the vet who tried first to flush out her crop.  But it didn't clear out the blockage.  So today, Honey had surgery to remove the blockage in her crop.  So Honey is going to be a house chicken for a few days until she's feeling back to her old self.  And so I can CLOSELY monitor what she puts in that beak of hers.

What's really troubling is the vet says that she frequently sees these cases as the first sign of Marek's Disease.  Honey was vaccinated.  But I've read that sometimes it doesn't take.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet.  I REALLY want her to raise another batch of babies for me this spring.  Honey was the BEST mama hen last year raising those three Andalusians for me.

Please say a prayer for her that she makes a speedy recovery and that she does NOT have Marek's.

Honey's new home away from home until she's feeling better.

Chicken Wreath

I saw this first photo of a chicken wreath online about a month ago.  I don't remember where I saw it but I quickly pinned it to my Pinterest board because I thought it was fabulous.  I wish I could remember where I saw it.  I like to give credit where credit is due.

Anyway, as much as I aspire to be cleaver and crafty, I'm simply not.  I have many half finished projects in the garage that I set aside when get frustrated.  But this one just didn't seem like it could be that difficult to make.

Then my friend who blogs for Tilly's Nest made one that was even more fabulous.

She wrote a blog that gives step by step directions on how to make one and I couldn't improve on that so I'm going to just post the link for those who want to give it a try.

Tilly's Nest - Chicken wreath instructions

I love how it doesn't matter what you use to make it.  Just go collect interesting leaves and greens from the garden.  My yard is a bit sparse this year as we re-landscaped earlier this year and plants are still quite small or very much hen pecked.

But I had a little free time this afternoon and the weather had warmed just enough that made me want to be outside so I thought I'd take a stab at my own version.

I don't think I quite nailed it but I don't consider it a flop either.  She really does have a beak but the ribbon is covering it up.  And she does have feet too but when I picked up the wreath, the leaves settled and covered up her feet.

The fresh greens look nice on the gate into the hen's run and it makes me smile each time I go out to see them.

I'll definitely keep wreath making in mind as I cut and dry things over the summer months so that I have a few more items on hand come December next year.

Molting

It was bitterly cold here this week.  But cold is relative.  While it's been in the 20's when I get up, at least my girls don't have to content with snow or ice.  And the sun does provide some warmth once it comes up.

The girls are much more subdued when it gets this cold.  They are also still molting which is very tiring.    Coco and Poppy are just finishing up molting and Honey is just beginning.

I do try and let them out of their run into the big garden once a day.  And they come up to me to see if I've brought them a treat.  Once that's gone, they just go stand under a bush where they feel safe.

Below are some photos of the girls from last weekend.  The orange treat is an overripe persimmon.

Poppy still needs to push out a few last feathers but she's got a full tail once again.  And she knows how to rock that tail, wagging it and working it for agility as she works the garden.

Honey on the left is just starting to really molt.  But being a HUGE fluffy bird, you'll probably never be able to tell.  Coco is just finishing and is fully feathered and soooo beautiful. 

Honey had some messy fluffy feathers and since she's molting I just oped to cut them out rather than give her a bath.  But I cut too many and she's got a bit of a hole on her backside.  Ops! 

I didn't plan on getting eggs from the girls until March when the days are noticeably warmer and longer.  But Coco squatted for me yesterday.  Something she hasn't done since she started molting back in September.  So I might be back in the egg business sooner than anticipated.