April and May 2001

April and May 2001 were busy months. The hens' egg-laying increased with the increase in day-length, and at last the weather became drier. The hens are now giving approximately two and a half dozen eggs per day.

Pivnyk the Marans cockerel is occaisionally aggressive. Sometimes he will suddenly rush up to me and crash into my legs as hard as he can, mainly going for my feet. I'm sure he is only protecting his hens, and he is just obeying instinct rather than consciously attacking me for the sake of it. He only crashes into me like this about once per week or fortnight, and each time he does it, I catch him and carry him around under my arm for a while, then gently place him down on the ground on his back, and walk away from him. He then lays there for about twenty seconds wondering what to do, struggles up, shakes himself, and walks away calmly. This method of dealing with Pivnyk's 'attacks' works very well. If I do not use this method, he continues the attack.

The fowl have been enjoying the change in the weather, and have been enjoying the heat by sunbathing and just lying about in the many suntraps of the garden. On one especially hot day, I went into the garden to find Pivnyk and Kura lying flat out on top of the compost heap, surrounded by sunbathing hens. They stayed there contentedly, while I watched them and thought about how funny they looked. They were totally entranced by the heat, and lay perfectly still apart from slowly and occaisionally closing or opening one eye, or flexing and stretching a leg or wing to get the most benefit from the heat.

Above: Flathead the Ancona hen

Above: Pseudo-Swan the Embden gander (left) and Sian the Brecon Buff goose (right)

The geese have not produced any eggs this year. The goose is now too old to lay eggs.

May 2001

During the first week in May, Alektor the Barnevelder pullet started acting broody. I would keep finding her sitting on eggs which others had laid, so I isolated her in a broody coop (an old rabbit hutch), on a lovely comfortable nest of shredded paper, with a dozen old eggs. We decided that if she continued to be broody, we would put some fertile eggs under her.

Poor Professor Mendel was looking very ill - her comb had turned purple again, and she had lost her appetite, so I brought her indoors for some special feeding and medicated water.

By 8th May Alektor was still broody, so we swapped the old eggs for thirteen fertile ones from the Cream Legbars' enclosure:- 8 Cream Legbar eggs and 3 eggs from Blue and Purple, the ex-battery hens housed with the Cream Legbars. Alektor growled and fluffed her feathers up as best she could while we swapped the eggs, and took the new eggs underneath her with her beak.

On 11th May, we could not stand to see Professor Mendel suffer any more, so decided to cull her to end her misery. Her condition had worsened, she could hardly walk, and her comb and wattles had turned so completely purple that they were almost black.

Below: Professor Mendel, with discoloured comb and wattles.

Professor Mendel will not be forgotten

Mendel's death was rather mysterious. I needed to find out how she died in order to prevent possible disease spreading to the rest of the flock. So I gave Mendel a post-mortem. I found that all structures looked relatively normal, apart from the liver, which was very enlarged and had yellowish grey nodules within in and large dark patches. I emailed pictures of the post-mortem to my local Veterinary hospital, who discussed the findings with me and verified my observations. Unfortunately, chances were that there might be a chronic Pasteurella bacterial infection (also known as Fowl Cholera) in the flock. The Vet suggested that next time I do a post-mortem, to take some samples and bacteriology swabs so I could then bring samples into the hospital for analysis. To see pictures from this post-mortem, please click here - (beware, not for the squeamish).

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Above: Roadkill enjoying a dustbath. Chickens dustbath to clean their feathers, and to cool down on hot days.

On 21st May I took Sillyoggin, the Indian Game cockeral, to the Vet (an Avian Vet). On Friday morning he had been chased for several laps around the garden by Pivnyk and Kura (the Marans and Silver Campine cockerals). Poor Sillyoggin was made to crash hard into the fence while running fast, and this winded him. Since the crash, he had been unable to crow properly, and kept coughing and spluttering, especially when eating. So I thought I'd get a Vet's opinion. The Avian Vet examined him, and said that Sillyoggin has dislocated his larynx, and that she had never seen anything like this happen before in her life! The larynx is the structure at the top of the throat, the equivalent to our human epiglottis, which stops food and debris falling down into the trachea (windpipe), and ensures that food & debris falls down the oesophagus (food-pipe) as it should. There was nothing she could do for Sillyoggin, and he would always have a cough and will never be able to crow properly again. Although cockerels actually make the crowing sound with the syrinx (syrinx is the true voice-making structure of birds, situated right down in the bottom of the trachea where it divides into the bronchi), the sound still has to come through the trachea before it leaves the beak. Sillyoggin's dislocated larynx distorts his crow, so that he reminds me of Wheezy Penguin from Toy Story 1 & 2.

During May I discovered that some of the hens were egg-eaters. I had learnt from the poultry newsgroup that one egg-eater will teach others how to do it. So, I had to test the hens to find out which were the egg-eaters, and seperate them from the rest of the flock. I tested the birds by bringing some eggs into their enclosures and rolling them on the ground. If the hens became interested in the eggs and tried to peck at them to open them, then the culprits would be labelled egg-eaters. I managed to identify the following egg-eaters from the flock, all of them ex-battery hens (Professor Hawking, 9-Volt, Blue, Purple, Orange, Brown, White, Red & Pink, and Multicoloured) except Moojee, Little Wing, Pita and Ashley. I decided to confine all the egg-eaters to the same enclosure. Seeing as a lot of the egg-eaters had come from the Cream Legbars' pen, and there were so many others, I decided to pen the egg-eaters and their cockerels in the large pen at the back of the garden. I moved Pivnyk and Kura into the Cream Legbars' old enclosure, with a few non-egg-eating hens for company.

Unfortunately, the birds did not appreciate this rearrangement. The hens paced the fence, trying to get back to their previous housing, especially when they wanted to lay eggs. Moojee managed to escape into next-door's garden, Kura escaped into his old enclosure, and was confronted by the Cream Legbar cockerels. Ceiliog and Kellagh had got used to their new enclosure, and wanted to defend it, whereas Kura wanted to claim his enclosure back. The three cockerels fought - the Cream Legbar Brothers as a team against Kura, and quickly defeated him. They then chased him behind the henhouse, Kellagh guarding one escape route and Ceiliog the other, forcing Kura no choice but to stay behind the henhouse or be attacked.

When I went to get Moojee, to my surprise she was very easy to catch. She had obviously begun to feel insecure on her own in next door's garden, and was frantically pacing up and down the fence trying to find a way back into her new enclosure. She tried half-heartedly to run away from me for a few steps, but stood still and let me grab her as soon as I made to. Kura, however, was a different matter. He knew that I wanted to put him back into his new enclosure, and he stubbornly wanted to stay in his old, larger place. Every time I tried to catch him, he moved with lightning speed, sometimes taking off vertically and flying over my head. Eventually Ceiliog and Kellagh helped me out by barring Kura's way, so that I could catch him in his brief moment of confusion. Hens are definitely much easier to catch than cockerels, who seem to have much faster reactions than most hens.

Once I had put Kura back in his new enclosure, he almost immediately leapt back into his old one again, and was immediately challenged again by the Cream Legbar Brothers, who again chased him behind the hehouse and kept him there after a short scuffle. They prevented him accessing any hens, food or water. Again I caught Kura, and put him back where he was supposed to be, and again he escaped and was confronted by the brothers.

I decided in the end to put the enclosures back as they had been previously, but this time I'd just have to have two enclosures of egg-eating hens instead of one, just to keep Kura happy. So, into the top enclosure with the henhouse went Kura, Pivnyk, Professor Hawking, 9-Volt, Orange, Brown, White, Red & Pink, Multicoloured , Little Wing, and Ashley. Pivnyk and Kura were quite satisfied with that arrangement, but the Cream Legbar Brothers were not. They now wanted to keep all the new hens that they thought they had won from Kura, and their old hens as well. They refused to go back into their old enclosure, no matter how hard I tried to herd them there. They knew that they had worked incredibly well as a fighting team together, and had defeated the agile, sturdy, intelligent Kura and stolen his hens, so why should they give them up now? Pivnyk was not happy with the presence of the Cream Legbar Brothers in his enclosure, and stood on top of the compost heap clucking thoughtfully, while he worked out exactly what he was going to do about the situation.

Suddenly Pivnyk puffed himself up, leapt down off the compost heap with raised hackles and confronted Ceiliog and Kellagh, who were standing next to each other admiring their hens. The Cream Legbar Brothers reacted by raising their hackles and turning to face their opponent. They pushed themselves together so that their hackle feathers intermeshed, and their earlobes touched, and bobbed their heads in unison at Pivnyk, who bobbed back, matching the brothers' movements as best he could. The heads bobbed lower and lower until they were almost touching the ground - Ceiliog and Kellagh continued to work in unison with their ears pressed together, matching each others movements so impressively that it seemed as though they were trying to convince Pivnyk that they were in fact one big bird, with four legs and two tails. All of a sudden Ceiliog attacked, taking Pivnyk by surprise. Kellagh joined in, and Pivnyk bravely fought them both. Pivnyk had the weight advantage, being far heavier than either Cream Legbar cockerel, but the brothers had the upper hand when it came to intelligence. They defeated Pivnyk by leaping over him from different directions, one brother attacking while the other leapt. This quickly confused Pivnyk (and let's face it, it doesn't take much to confuse Pivnyk!), so much so that he just walked away from the fight in disgust. I then caught the Cream Legbar brothers, and placed them in their old enclosure with their hens Pita, Moojee, Purple and Blue.

At last the birds were satified with this arrangement, especially Kura, who was very glad to be rid of the Cream Legbar Brothers! (NB:- No birds were injured during the fights. If injury occurs, I seperate the birds. A certain amount of fighting is nescessary to establish and maintain a reasonable pecking order within the flock).

Above: Ashley the Exchequer Leghorn hen (back) and Kura the Silver Campine cockerel (front)

Above: Pseudo-Swan the Embden gander.

All the grass in the back garden has been eaten by the fowl, so I bring the geese round to the front of the house so that they can eat grass in a pen I have set up for them in the front garden. The goose was very co-operative as usual, but this time the gander slipped away from me at ther back garden gate, and made for the garden steps! He waddled down them as fast as his legs could carry him, and turned left at the bottom, waddling right down the path between the houses until his way was blocked at the end by a solid gate. As I picked him up and carried him back, a man came out of his house, and told me that his friend had some bantams he needed to get rid of, and gave me his telephone number. I called him over the next few days, and two bantams arrived on Friday 25th May. The man gave me two galvanised drinkers, a bird carrying case, a book, and a bag of corn, too! He said that the bantams were pure breeds, but couldn't remember exactly what they were. He had been looking for someone to take the bantams for quite a while, and was pleased that they finally had somewhere to go.

Above: the two new bantams Cab (left) and Fakey (right)

We left the new banties in thier carrying box for a while, to allow them to get used to the rest of the flock, and for the flock to get acquainted with them in a safe environment - this would hopefully lessen any territorial challenges from the existing flock. After about an hour, we let the banties out. They dashed for cover, and gave submissive signals to any other chicken they met along the way. The other chickens therefore accepted them into the flock more easily. We named the two newcomers Fakey and Cab.

Above left: Fakey; right: Cab

Above: Fakey with White the ex-battery hen, to illustrate the small size of the new bantams.

Fakey and Cab have fitted in very well with the rest of the flock, and hang around with Dave Gorman a lot of the time. The trio tend to keep themselves to themselves most of the time, probably because they are lowest in the pecking order. Before the banties arrived, Dave Gorman was lowest in the pecking order. The lowest of the low of the flock, passing hens would peck at her if she got too close to them, and force her to use submissive posture and behaviour a lot of the time.....As soon as Fakey and Cab arrived, Dave Gorman seized the opportunity to become higher in the order of rank. Dave pecked Fakey and Cab if they came too near to her, but the two little bantams still preferred to hang around with Dave rather than face the full-sized chickens.

Above: Dave Gorman the Silkie pullet....Would you like to know why this chicken is called Dave Gorman? Are you called Dave Gorman, or do you know anyone called Dave Gorman? If so, please click here.

Above: Dave Gorman the Silkie pullet

Since seperating the egg-eating birds from the better behaved birds, the egg-eaters have only consumed one egg.

Alektor the Barnevelder continued to be broody. I would let her out of the rabbit hutch for a couple of minutes every day, when she would stretch her legs, and indulge in a dustbath. Her eggs were due to hatch on Monday 28th or Tuesday 29th. But unfortunately, nothing happened. I candled the eggs with a makeshift device, but couldn't see much apart from to confirm that some of the eggs had not developed. I broke the eggs on the following morning, and found that they contained nothing but black or brown liquid mush, which smelt absolutely repugnant. We were very disappointed.

When I let the fowl out on Wednesday 30th May, I noticed Ceiliog exit from the poultry Ark with a bloodstain on his neck feathers. Immediately afterward, Purple exited the Ark, with fresh red blood and little pieces of flesh all over her beak, right up to the nostrils. Blue then came out, also with bloody beak. Finally, Kellagh was the last bird out - the right side of his neck, just below the earlobe was thickly covered in fresh blood. I scooped him up, and brought him inside. After I'd cleaned him up, I discovered that all the blood had come from a small nick in his earlobe. Other than that, he was perfectly alright, so I put him back outside again.

On 31st May I noticed the Green the ex-battery hen had an impacted crop. I flushed the crop out three times using a crop tube and lukewarm water, and I managed to remove all of the crop's contents apart from one stubborn fibrous and doughy lump about the size of a large marble. On the following day I checked Green, hoping that she would have passed the lump during the night, but it was still there.

To Flock Diary 2001 - January, February and March 2001 / April and May 2001

To Flock Diary 2000 - January 2000 / February, March, April 2000 / May 2000 / June 2000 / Stroud Show 1st July 2000 / July 2000 / August 2000 / Painswick Show 13th August 2000 / September 2000 / October, November & December 2000

To Flock Diary 1999 - January 1999 / February 1999 / March , April 1999 / May , June 1999 / Stroud Show 1999 / July 1999 / August 1999 / September 1999 / October 1999 / November 1999 / December 1999

To Flock Diary 1997 & 1998 - August to December 1997 / January, February and March 1998 / April 1998 / May 1998 / June 1998 / July 1998 / August 1998 / September 1998 / October 1998 - Part One / October 1998 - Part Two / November 1998 - Part One / November 1998 - Part Two / December 1998