Flock Diary - December 1998

During December the hens got used to the cold weather, and continued to grow many new feathers. Here are the Ex-Battery hens on 1st December:

Above: Duracell's previously bald and wounded area is continuing to grow new feathers.	Above: 9-Volt
Above two: Ever-ready's comb and wattles are gaining colour, and she is growing many new feathers on her scraggy patchy neck.	Above: Uniross is beginning to grow new feathers on her head.
Above: Greencell's comb and wattles are very nearly back to the normal red colour.	Above: The pretty patterned new feathers growing on Nicad's back.
Above: The beautiful dark red feathers growing on Varta's back.	Above: White Tara and Nicad feeding together on 1st December 1998. The Ex-Battery hens and the original Pet Hens have now got used to one another and a permanent pecking order appears to have been established.

Left and above: Energiser (1st Dec. '98) is currently confined to a cage in the warm living room, as I suspect that she may have Infectious Bronchitis. She does not seem to mind being in the house, and appears to be interested and intrigued by her temporary human environment.

On 4th December I decided that I had had enough of the Brahma living upstairs as she was making such a mess scratching wood shavings everywhere, and that she should be moved outside. The chicks Roadkill and Biscuit were to stay indoors, as the cold nights would probably be a bit too much for them to cope with. Roadkill and Biscuit are now almost two months old, and able to keep themselves warm without their mother's body heat to help them. They have been able to function independantly almost as soon as they were hatched. When I first took her outside without her chicks, the Brahma seemed unperturbed. She walked about the garden scratching and foraging in the grass and keeping her distance from the other fowl.

After a short while the other hens noticed the new hen in the garden, and all came to investigate her. The flock were extremely eager to establish a new pecking order, and had collectively decided that the Brahma should be Bottom Hen......White Tara was the first to attack - maybe she remembered how the Brahma had been top of the pecking order before the Battery Hens arrived in October - and she won the fight, demoralising the Brahma and sending her away. Seeing that the Brahma was defeatable, the others joined in, and immediately poor Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma was totally engulfed in a turbulent flock of thirteen angry chickens all intent on humiliating her. Of course, I rescued the Brahma as soon as the flock leapt on her, as thirteen against one is unfair, and the flock may even have killed the poor unfortunate Brahma.

Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma was confused and overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of new hen faces to deal with in the garden, nevermind the geese. But she still had to get used to all the new hens and become integrated into the flock. So I put her in the enclosed run with White Tara, Ernie and Prunella, so she could meet and maybe even remember her old flock-mates, and get used to things slowly. In a smaller group, a pecking order was quickly sorted out between the four birds, White Tara being Top Hen, Prunella taking the position of Deputy, with the Brahma bottom. Ernie prefers not to become involved in fights but still remains fairly high in the pecking order. When I am present, the other hens do not peck at Ernie apart from during fights over food. If Ernie thinks she is about to be attacked she comes toward me for protection, and the other hens seem to respect her because she is totally unwary of me.

Meanwhile, Roadkill and Biscuit were on their own in the Ark in the front garden. They soon gave up calling to their mother, and foraged about like proper grown-up hens. I left them in the Ark for two hours, bringing them back to their cage in the house as soon as the temperature dropped.

However, the Brahma was not coping so well without her chicks when I went to check her in the afternoon. She was standing in the shed on the highest possible perch, squawking for her chicks with all her might. She would be distracted with food, but only for a few moments, and then she would simply jump back onto her perch and resume calling. I hoped that she would forget about her chicks as the day went on, but she did not. I left her to sleep in the shed with the rest of the flock, and the geese. Although the Brahma had been attacked during the day, she would be quite safe at night, as chickens are calm and quiet in dark conditions. Also, it would be difficult for the other hens to successfully grip and injure the Brahma as her comb and wattles are very small.

The two chicks settled down to sleep without much of a hitch. As soon as the light went out they called for their mother for a few minutes, then tried to shelter under each other's wings, clambering all over each other until they realised that this was impossible, and sat huddled close to each other, soon falling asleep.

The next morning, 5th December 1998, was extremely cold. The ground was frozen solid, and a hard frost covered everything which was exposed to the air. Both the goose buckets had a covering of ice one and a half inches thick, and the water in the hens' drinker had frozen solid. My first task was to check on Micheal Caine Alan Partridge Brahma, who had just spent her first night away from her chicks. When all the other hens had vacated the shed, the Brahma cautiously emerged. She had bruised ears, and I could find no marks on her comb and wattles at all. Wisely, she kept her distance from the rest of the hens for most of the day.

When I let the fowl out they seemed unperturbed by the frozen world at first, until they tried to go about their daily business. The Ex-Battery hens did not like the cold at all. They all moved very slowly and carefully, some seeming not to want to move at all. They held their heads close to their bodies and fluffed their feathers up as much as possible to provide maximum insulation against the cold. Ernie, Prunella and White Tara were not affected at all, apart from being confused by ice. Ernie repeatedly tried to drink from the goose-bucket, not understanding why the water had gone hard and clucking in annoyance. The other hens also tried drinking while I tried to break the ice, and soon gave up scratching at the hard ground. They made for the brambly area at the top of the garden where they could scratch amongst the thick carpet of fallen leaves covering the ground there. The Ex-Battery hens still were reluctant to move until I gave them some corn, and they forgot all about the cold.

The frost did not thaw all day, and the cold continued. The Brahma was obviously still missing her chicks, and had not eaten all day, spending most of her time perching in the shed and calling. I decided to reunite the little family. When I did so, I supervised them for a while to check that the Brahma would not attack the young birds. But she did not, and seemed overjoyed to be back with them again. I had obviously made a big mistake in seperating the family in the first place.

On 6th December the fowl woke up to another frozen day, the ice being one inch thick on the goose buckets, and the ground frost not thawing at all. 9-Volt clearly hated this weather, and whenever I went to check the hens she would be standing on one leg, fluffed and miserable. When I checked the birds' crops at their bedtime, I found that 9-Volt's was empty. I was concerned that the Ex-Battery hens were not coping well with this weather, so I gave 9-Volt and Alkacell (the lightest bird) some Poly-Aid to boost their energy levels, and also fed them some extra grain so thay they would have something in their crops during the night to keep them going. I brought the birds indoors to give them their treatment, and as soon as Energiser saw them she became extremely vocal and used aggressive body language to assert her dominance over them. 9-Volt and Alkacell reacted, and made aggressive noises back at Energiser. I made sure to keep the three hens apart, as if I did not, they would attack each other.

The next day was 7th December, and the morning was frosty, but this time the frost thawed by lunchtime. White Tara has established a place high in the pecking order above Prunella and Lithium, although I am still not entirely sure who is Top. Poor 9-Volt did not eat again today, so at night I had to fill her crop for her as I had done on the previous evening. Energiser was very thirsty today, and is still living in the cage in the living room.

On 8th December 9-Volt did not eat again, but she had a very full crop at the hens' bedtime on the following day. On 9th December I observed Ernie chasing away the least dominant hens, so she too is slowly working her way up the pecking order. I also noticed the geese hassling Lithium. She had strayed too close to them, and they cornered her so she crouched, then both geese 'combed' Lithium's back feathers with their beaks while she crouched, wondering what the geese would do next. After less than a minute, the geese left Lithium alone, who was none the worse after her small ordeal.

It poured with rain on 10th December, and unlike last month's behaviour, the Ex-Battery hens had actually learned to seek shelter from rain. All the birds sheltered in the shed during the heaviest showers, emerging to forage when the showers calmed. But sometimes Prunella, Ever-ready and 9-Volt would stay out in the open, not seeming to care about the rain.

Left: Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma (centre), Roadkill (left) and Biscuit (right) on 11th December 1998. The chicks are soon going to be the same size as their foster mum ! Both chicks have two or three feathers growing on his/her legs.

Below: Robyn chick, now eight weeks old. Biscuit has some beautiful gold-pencilled feathers on the back of his/her neck. The comb looks as though it will develop into a rose or buttercup comb. Robyn now weighs 525 grammes.

Above and left: Roadkill seems to get another white-tipped feather every day ! S/he is getting a lovely 'beetle' sheen on his/her black wing, back and tail feathers. The comb looks as though it will develop into a plain single-bladed straight comb. Roadkill now weighs 600 grammes.

On 13th December Energiser was recovering well and putting on weight, so I decided to put her outside with the other hens for a few hours. As soon as I put her in the garden she was chased by the other hens, but as I supervised her I saw that she could escape well, and left the birds to it. When I returned one hour later I found little Energiser in next door's garden - I don't know how she got there, but she let me catch her easily and I brought her back into the house. That evening Energiser was very tierd, and spent most of the time sitting down, but was pleased to be indoors again.

On the following day I discovered some lice and mites on the hens. Unfortunately I found the unwanted insects as I was handling Greencell - I saw lice on my hands when I let Greencell go. I was disgusted, and immediately treated all the other birds with the natural organic insecticide 'Derris', whether they were infested or not. I put Energiser outside again for half an hour before the fowls' bedtime. When I returned, Energiser was laying an egg in the bottom of the oven nestbox. She had made a neat-and-tidy nest for herself from pieces of straw and twigs she had found in the shed and garden. The other Ex-Battery hens are getting more used to laying in nestboxes and using their wings to fly now - As well as eggs in the oven nestbox, I've spotted Battery Eggs in the nestbox on top of the rabbit hutch which Ernie, Prunella and White Tara use. This nestbox requires hens to fly up into it, as it is two feet from the shed floor. I returned Energiser to her cage in the house again that night.

Left: Pseudo-Swan the Embden gander (front) and Sian the Brecon Buff goose. This month, the geese are in the process of moulting, and their new feathers look extremely smart. The Brecon Buff's new feathers have a beautiful pinkish tone to them, matching her legs, feet and beak. I aquired the geese at the end of the season, when their feathers has already been in use for almost a year. Sian's old feathers were yellowed and faded, lacking the pink tone so unique to the Brecon Buff breed. I will have to monitor the gander's moulting as he starts to grow new flight feathers to replace the ones I had to clip. I will not be able to clip the gander's new feathers until they are fully grown, or I might injure him. Hopefully he will not try to fly away as he did in October ! ..... anyway, geese only fly South for the winter, so I should be safe for the rest of the year !

	Left: 17th December. Roadkill perching in the Ark where she was hatched on 16th October 1998, supervised by his/her foster mum, Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma. Below: Roadkill perching on the roof of the Ark.
	17th December 1998. Left: Biscuit, Roadkill's sibling, in the Poultry Ark. The chicks are now two months old exactly. Below and below left: Biscuit perching on the roof of the Ark.

On 18th December I photographed the Ex-Battery Hens in order to continue the monitoring of their rehabilitation and feather-growth.

Above: 9-Volt	Above: Alkacell
Above and right: Alkacell's new plumage
Above: Energiser spending some time outside while I cleaned out her cage and fed the other birds. She has been enclosed within a small area of fencing, so that the other hens cannot fight with her and hassle her.	Above: Ever-ready. Her face, comb and wattles have totally regained their colouring now.
Above: Lithium has almost finished re-fledging her back, and her comb and wattles have now regained all their colour.	Above: Uniross has almost totally re-fledged her head.
	Left and above: Duracell, showing the new feathers which have nearly finished growing on her back. However, her comb has still not fully regained colour.
Below and right: Nicad, who has also nearly finished growing lots of new feathers on her back.

Below: Ernie Hen on 18th December 1998. Ernie has just begun to moult, starting with her crest, which fell out first. Ernie is now growing a new crest, the short stubby forming feathers giving her a 'punky' look.

On 19th December, Energiser laid an egg in the cage in the living room !. She was not let out in the garden today, as this makes her very tierd, and must be fairly stressful for her. She is still having breathing difficulties and is losing weight, so I took a fecal sample from her and sent it to be analysed.

On the following day, Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma laid an egg ! I was surprised, as I didn't think she would do that while she still had the chicks with her. Today Greencell looked fluffed and lethargic, and I kept a close eye on her. By the following day she seemed to be feeling better and was acting normally. I have noticed that individual Ex-Battery Hens intermittently have 'depressed' days or hours, and have decided that they may be still adjusting to a life of freedom from cages.

Also on 20th December we obtained a large plastic tub 3 feet wide, 4 feet long and 3 feet deep, which would hold sixty gallons of water. A large hole was laboriously dug, and the tub sunk into it. Watering-can after watering-can was employed to fill the tub, as unfortunately a hosepipe will not reach to the fowl's garden. The purpose of the water-filled tub is to provide a bath for the geese so that they can wash their whole bodies and mate if they so desire. I didn't really know how the geese would react to the tub - I hoped that they would eagerly jump in and start bathing immediately. But instead they simply drank from their bath and pushed their heads and necks under the water as far as they could stretch, as if testing the depth by trying to find the bottom of the tub. I was a bit diappointed after all the effort it had taken to dig the hole and fill the tub, but the geese had to be left to make their own descisions.

Above: Pseudo-Swan and Sian taking a drink from the newly-installed 60 gallon tub on 21st December. Typically for the Mid-Winter Solstice we awoke to frost which did not thaw for the whole day.

On Midwinter's Day (the Winter Solstice; 21st December), Energiser laid another egg in her cage in the living room, and this time I was able to watch her. She is quite comfortable with laying eggs in full view of anyone in the room, no matter what is going on around her. This is because she has been used to laying in a cage in a Battery Farm, where she shared a cage 20 inches by 20 inches with four other hens. The cage in my living room is large and only houses little Energiser, and the noise level is low compared with the constant deafening din in a Battery Farm. When wanting to lay an egg, Energiser sits on the cage floor and pulls imaginary nesting material around her with her beak. When she is satisfied with her inaginary nest, she clucks quietly to herself, and starts to push the egg towards her cloaca/vent with straining movements, slowly moving her tail up and down in time with her pushes. When she feels as though the egg is ready to emerge, she stands up with her legs apart and hocks flexed, and holds her body at a very steep angle, almost 50 degrees, with her head up and tail down. With one final series of pushes she slowly expels the egg, her pupils contracting with each effort. As the egg drops gently out of her body, her pupil dilates with the relief, and she turns around to look at her fresh new egg.

I recieved Energiser's fecal results today (the Winter Solstice); an insignificant number of coccidia were found, and the evidence and eggs of a kind of lungworm which has been causing her breathing difficulties. I obtained treatment for Energiser and the rest of the flock, who I dosed with Baycox for coccidia treatment, and Panacur for the worms.

Above: Roadkill and Biscuit on 23rd December 1998

On 24th December the geese still had not entered their bath, so I decided to encourage them by throwing in some pieces of breadstick, which all the fowl love as treats. As soon as the first breadstick morsels hit the water, White Tara and Nicad enthusiastically leapt in after them. As soon as they hit the water, they squawked with surprise, and White Tara was able to pull herself out immediately with strong determined flaps of her large wings before the water soaked into her plumage. Nicad, however, was not so lucky - her wings were not yet strong enough to give her forward momentum. She managed to escape from the water within thirty seconds, but the whole of her underside was soaked through, so she was brought into the house to dry off and warm up for a while. Meanwhile, the other hens and geese gingerly picked the pieces of breadstick from the water, avoiding getting wet as much as possible. I will not try this experiment again, due to the hens' minds being ruled by their stomachs !

25th December was Christmas Day, and I was relieved to see both geese emerge from the shed that morning - I had been worried that someone might try to steal them and they would end up cooked and stuffed on someone's Christmas Table !!

By 26th December the geese had still not gone into their bath, so I decided to gently introduce them to it. First, I picked up the gander and gently placed him on the ground next to the bath. I then gently and slowly lowered him into the water. He objected at first by waggling his feet hard so that they slapped the surface of the water, splashing me copiously ! As soon as his legs and feet were submerged, he calmed down and allowed himself to float on the water, realising that he was in fact bouyant and would not sink as the hens had on Christmas Eve. I let go of him, and he remained in the water for a little while until he decided to get out, which he managed easily. I carried out the same procedure whith the goose, who honked in protest until she too realised that she could float, and calmed down as the gander had. On the next day I saw Pseudo-Swan right in the middle of the bath, washing enthusiastically and clearly enjoying himself.

This apparently successful month took a turn for the worse on it's penultimate day. On 30th December I noticed that little Roadkill was unsteady on his/her legs. The young bird would overbalance occaisionally when it stood up straight, and preferred to walk resting on it's hocks and shanks. However, it seemed happy and bright in itself, continuing to preen, chirp, move around, eat, drink and defecate normally. I obtained a fecal sample and sent it for analysis.

Roadkill was having the same symptoms on the following day. I did some research and found that the condition could be caused by:

a) Worms

b) Coccidia

c) too much Calcium and Magnesium resulting in a Manganese deficiency causing Perosis (slippage of the hock tendon)

d) not enough Riboflavin (B-Viamins) in the diet, causing Perosis

I can only wait for the fecal sample test results before Roadkill's position becomes any clearer.

To Fowl 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