Chicken Updates 02/2018

Carrie sold the hybrids for $45 this week. I didn't even realize she was thinking about it. I heard after it was done.

That seems like big news, but it wasn't the big news for the week I was leading up to. I just wanted to get it out of the way before I talked about chicken surgery.

Carrie went out to feed the remaining hens some scraps and yelled for me. I raced out of the house to find Buffy with a bloody underbelly.

It wasn't a predator. Carrie had secured the coop and there were no discernible entry points. We weren't sure what was going on, so we pulled Buffy out into the light to get a better look.

There was blood all over her feathers, but no wound. She didn't act mortally wounded either.

However, there were large growths on her feet? Or were they lumps?

Buffy wasn't the only hen to be afflicted. A quick glance showed that everyone else, but Corran had foot troubles. Frankly, it looked like poop.

It was.

That and mud.

Silkies and silkie hybrids have feathered feet. Normally, their run under our deck stays dry. This has been a weird winter in that we've had a lot of rain and warmer weather. It's not warm enough to dry out the ground, so the wet has created a perpetual mud bath. The silkies have a tendency to grow broody and sit in their shit, too.

It's better under the deck than it was in the run in the yard, but the hybrids don't have feathered feet. They never really went broody and roosted up on a perch at night. They never developed any issues.

We tried to cut the mud balls off with scissors at first. They were hard as rocks. We ended up using pliers and even a chisel.

I wrapped the chickens wings with a trash bag and held them while Carrie operated.

Buffy had it the worst. Either she had pecked off the tip of a toe or her poop ball expanded to encompass two toes. The blood was from the injured toe. Shay had somehow dug up a string and got it tangled in poop and her toes.

We were able to clean off the vast majority of the poop, but we'll have to go back for chicken foot baths.

I learned multiple things: 1)Chicken poop hardens, 2) You can trim chicken toe nails, 3) Chicken toe nails will bleed like a dog or cat if they're trimmed to closely (happened once), and 4) Our birds are super docile. I was wondering if I was going to get pecked at holding them, but it never seemed to occur to the birds.

We let them wander around free as a reward for putting up with their treatment.