FlockDiary - July 1999

July was an exciting month for Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma. On Saturday 3rd she participated in her (and my !) first ever Poultry Show.

Below:Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma at Stroud Show 1999, with her First Prize card and rosette, her Best Female Award, and her Best In Show Award.

Below: The Brahma dustbathing enthusiastically after the Show, relieved to be back home.

At the beginning of July the geese suddenly moulted. They had been losing feathers during the final fortnight of June, and by 4th July they had lost all their wing feathers. This made them look wierd, especially when they flapped their wings, which looked fluffy and featherless like chick's wings.

Below: Thegeese on 4th July 1999

On 14th July we rescued ten more Battery Hens (to see what a Battery Hen is, please click here). We gave five to Eileen (a friend who also helps chickens), and took the remaining five home. They were in much better condition than the Battery Hens we rescued back on October 31st 1998.

As soon as the Battery Hens arrived home, I inspected them, photographed them and weighed them. Their faces, combs and wattles were pale andfloppy; but their feet were in far better condition than the October 1998 Battery Hens, who had terrible growths, callusses and even broken toes. These 1999 rescues still had mostof their feathers, too. All this indicated that they probably had not been at the Battery farm for as long as the previous hens had. I found that one of the 1999 hens had an extra toe, rather like a spur which is usually found on the back of the legs of cockerals.

Above: The extra toe can be seen on the right leg.	Above: The chicken with the extra toe.

After taking their photographs, I ringed the hens so that we would be able to identify induviduals, and then we named them. We decided to name them after Professors, and finally decided on the following names:- Mendel, Hawking, Darwin ,Helm and Freud, Darwin being the bird with five toes. We then put the birds in a large cage in the garden, so that they could get used to walking sedately without getting too excited, running andleaping about which might cause pulled muscles or even broken bones.

The rescued Battery Hens (referred to from now on as 'The Professors') were confused to be out of the Battery Farm and out in the open, and did not realise that they could use their legs. They all stood or sat still in their enclosure ,looking around at and taking stock of their new surroundings, not one moving from the spot where I had put it. After a few hours one of the hens, Darwin, gingerly took a step forwarsd toward her water drinker. About an hour later, the rest of the Professors had discovered what their legs were for, and were walking slowly and very carefully about their enclosure. They had all found the water drinker, and were curiously investigating the short grass they stood on, pecking at small objects on the ground with fascinated interest.

The rest of the flock mostly ignored the Professors for the first day, surprisingly.

The Professors spent their first night in the Poultry Ark, away from the rest of the flock so that they would not have to fight for places in the pecking order. Biscuit and Roadkill spent the night in the shed with the rest of the flock. Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma and Roadkill started to fight as soon as I put Roadie and Biccie into the shed. Roadkill is anextremely aggressive little bird, and was attacking the Brahma viciously, but the Brahma held her ground. Attracted by all the commotion, White Tara pushed her way through the crowd of hens watching the fight. Holding her wings flexed out from her body, she raised her hackles, clucked once and stared at Roadkill. Little Roadie paused in her fighting and looked at WhiteTara....as soon as she did so, her hackles lowered and she turned and ran out of the shed. White Tara, the Top Hen in the pecking order, had sorted out the dispute using body-language only ,proving that her position in the pecking order is well-respected by the rest of the flock. After that little performance, Roadie knew her place and did not aggressively challenge any other birds while in the shed.

In the morning, Roadkill and Biscuit were returned to the Ark, and the Professors were returned to their enclosure. During the day they laid several eggs on the ground, and continued practicing walking and discovering that they could flap their wings. Alkacell and Nicad occaisionally came to investigate the Professors, but did not hassle them too much. I wonder if the Ex-Battery hens rescued on last year recognise that the Professors have just been rescued from the same place....

For the next two nights and days the sleeping arrangements for the hens followed this pattern.

On Saturday I let the Professors have access to the rest of the garden, so that they could explore, learn to forage, and build their fitness up. Before letting them out, I distracted the rest of the flock with food so that the Professors could enjoy some peace before the pecking order battles started. This strategy worked, and the Professors were able to slowly integrate with the rest of the flock.

Below: The Professors foraging amongst the raspberry canes.

When the time came for the Chickens' Bedtime, we could find all but one of the flock. The main flock (WhiteTara, Ernie, Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma, Prunella, Duracell, Varta, Nicad, 9-Volt, Alkacell, Greencell, Uniross, Ever-Ready and Energiser) went into the shed to roost of their own accord, as did Biscuit and Roadkill. The Proffessors, however, were a different story altogether ! Instead of making their way to bed as dusk fell, they continued to forage about. I found most of them around the area of the Poultry Ark - they were easy to catch as they had not yet mastered the arts of elusion and escape !. But one chicken was missing - she was nowhere to be seen. We searched the whole garden, and the areas in and around the shed. As it got dark, we had to use torches to continue the search, but to no avail. One of our Professors was gone !.Nothing more could be done, and we hoped that the missing Professor (identified by leg ringed comparisons as Freud) would survive the night and be waiting for us in the garden in the morning.

On the following morning, I found the missing Professor Freud. She was at the top of the garden, and looked very much as though she had spent the night hiding in a thick bramble patch. As soon as I approached, she popped her head out from the undergrowth, stood up and came toward me and the rest of the flock. She was wet from the morning and evening dewfall ,chilly and looking confused, but was otherwise none the worse for her night out. I was extremely relieved that she had not been found and taken by a fox, badger, dog or cat.

At Chickens' Bedtime on the following evening little Freud went missing again. This time we had put the birds to bed a little earlier than usual to make sure that we could find all the flock before it got dark. Again, we could find everyone except Professor Freud. We searched and searched for her, and eventually found her tucked deep into a dark and sheltered corner of the garden. She had built a neat little nest for herself, and was sitting on an egg which she had laid.

Below: Profesor Freud sitting on a well-concealed nest. She chose the site and built the nest all by herself.

Little Duracell has turned into a professional escape artist. Several times throughout the month of July neighbours have knocked on the door to inform me of an escaped chicken, and on investigation I had discovered that the culprit was Duracell every time ! I couldn't work out how Duracell was escaping, so unfortunately she had to go and live with Roadkill and Biscuit in the confines of the Poultry Ark.

On 19th July I made a daytime enclosure for the geese in the front garden, so that they would have the chance to eat some long, thick grass, and have daily break from being around the chickens. The geese were nervous in their new enclosure at first, but soon got used to things and started to enjoy themselves.

Below: the geese in their daytime enclosure.

The geese were brought into the enclosure at about 11:00 every morning, and were returned to the back garden at about 5:00 pm every evening. At this time of year the sunrises at approximately 4.30am, and sets at around 10:30 pm, giving the geese almost equal portions of the day in each enclosure. This way, I was also able to make sure that the geese were available to patrol the back garden at the high predator risk times of early morning and the hours around dusk.

Also in 19th July an intruder entered the garden. It was an adolescent tabby cat, and I had noticed it watching the chickens from next-door's garden before. This time the young cat was just coming out of the hens' shed as I was coming through the gate with the poultry food. The cat stared at me, then turned and started to run away up the garden - but the flock had seen me with their food, and were all galloping down the garden toward me, in the direction the cat wanted to run !The cat didn't know which way to turn ! It stared at the flock, then at me, while it decided what to do. But it didn't have much time to decide, as the flock of hens had seen the cat. They raised their hackles, and continued running toward me and the cat. The cat was terrified, and tried to run around the side of the flock - but got the shock of it's life ! Nicad chased the cat, and gave it a sharp peck on the head.

Needless to say, I haven't seen the cat in the garden since !

Unfortunately, on 22nd July Varta looked ill. She spent most of her time in a nestbox, just sitting quietly by herself. She stayed there all day, did not lay any eggs and had an empty crop, proving that she hadn't had anything to eat all day. I was concerned for Varta, and brought her inside so I could give her a good inspection. She stayed extremely quiet for the whole time, and her movements were weak. The feathers around her vent were all wet and stuck together, indicating that she had bad diarrhoea. Her face, comb and wattles looked a darker red than usual, the extremities of her comb being almost purple.No matter how much encouragement I gave her, she just wouldn't eat or drink at all. I gave Varta some probiotic medicine which would rehydrate her, help her intestines absorb nutrients properly with enzymes and gut bacteria, and give her extra vitamins and energy. I then put her in a comfortable cage with food and water and left her alone for the night.

When I went to check on Varta in the morning, she had died. Her comb and wattles were completely purple - I was shocked by the rapidity of her decline and unusually quick death,and was worried that it might be some disease which would infect the rest of the flock. The only way I could check this was to do a post-mortem. I found that the main cause of death was egg peritonitis - an egg had failed to be collected from the ovary by the fallopian tube, and was just floating about in her abdomen where it had continued to develop. No shell or membrane would develop, as these are manufactured in the hen's oviduct (the equivalent of the womb and vagina in fowl). The loose yolk and white were then trapped in Varta's abdomen with no way to get out, so they went bad, causing the peritonitis. Varta's liver looked abnormally large, and had a brownish green diseased looking area on it. She also had a large egg-sized tumour associated with her gizzard. Liver abnormalities and tumours are common in spent battery hens, as a result of the stressful conditions the birds endure whilst farmed intensively. As the main cause of Varta's death was egg peritonitis, then I was quite satisfied that there was no danger of infectious disease spreading to the rest of the flock.

After Varta's post-mortem, I took her to a beautiful spot in a wood by a river and gave her a proper burial. Little Varta will not be forgotten.

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White Tara was acting very wierdly on Sunday 25th July. She was sitting in a nestbox, and when I approached her to see if she had any eggs underneath her, she squawked angrily at me and fluffed all her feathers out. I was surprised, and left her to it. She was sitting on about 5 eggs, three of them 'pot' eggs which she had collected from other nestboxes.

Below: White Tara sitting fluffed-up defensively

On the following day Tara was still sitting in the nestbox, and again squawked and fluffed herself out at me when I went to collect the eggs......White Tara had gone broody for the first time in her life. She is now one year and five months old, which is about the right age for a hen to go broody as soon as warm weather triggers her hormones to change.

Tara had gone broody in the flock's favourite nestbox, which annoyed the other hens immensely. Alkacell, not wanting to lay in any other box, squeezed herself in next to Tara to lay her egg. When she had finished, White Tara carefully rolled Alkacell's egg under her wing with her beak, adding it tothe other eggs she had collected.

Below: Alkacell and White Tara sharing the flock's favourite nestbox

Broodiness in chickens is the equivalent to a false pregnancy in mammals - the hen will gather a clutch of eggs together, and when she thinks she has enough, will start the incubation process whether the eggs are fertile or not. When broody, the hen acts as though she is incubating fertile eggs,and will stubbornly sit until the hatching date! This is stressful for the broody bird, as she will sit on the nest all day every day, only coming off once per day to eat, drink and defecate. Broody hens do not lay egg for the whole of their broody period, which can be annoying if you keep hens for egg production. Some broodies will be put off by repeatedly collecting the eggs she has sat on and destroying her nest, but some are stubbornly persistent. Last year Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma went broody twice - the first time she was very stubborn, refusing to eat, and the second time we took pity on her and gave her some fertile eggs to hatch.

Another Show will be held at Painswick (about 3 miles away) on 7th/8th August. After our amazing success at Stroud Show at the beginning of the month, I decided that it would be a good idea to enter Painswick Show. I will enter the White Bantam Egg class, the Decorated Egg class, and of course the Champion Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma will join the Heavy Breed Female class.

On the day after White Tara went broody, Roadkill and Biscuit went broody too ! I first discovered this when I went to collect their eggs. When I lifted the nestbox lid I found Roadkill and Biscuit sitting there, and as soon as they noticed me they fluffed themselves up defensively and squawked at me ! I was surprised that birds so young would go broody, as Roadkill and Biscuit only hatched themselves on 16th October last year.

Below: Broody bantam-crosses Roadkill and Biscuit in the nestbox of the PoultryArk (left: Biscuit; right: Roadkill)

The bantams' broodiness is annoying, as because broodies stop laying, I won't have many eggs to choose between when I make my selections for Painswick Show !

On 28th July a neighbour knocked to say that a chicken had escaped. It couldn't be Duracell, as she was in theArk with the banties. I went to investigate, and found the escapee in the back garden of a house six doors away ! I wasamazed to find that it was Professor Darwin, one of the recently rescued Battery Hens. She was no trouble to retrieve, as she crouched for me so I could catch and pick her up easily.

The Professors have quickly got used to their new home. They all go into the shed of their own accord at night,and have all learnt to crouch to be picked up. They follow me around in the garden, making me feel like the Pied Piper of Hamlyn ! Whenever they get the chance, the Professors will peck at my shoelaces and clothes. Below is a picture of Darwin, the friendliest Professor, climbing up my skirt - it was difficult toget an adequate picture of her, as she kept getting too close tome!

The Professors are recovering extremely wellfrom the intensive Battery Farm conditions. Their combs, wattles and faces are regaining colour nicely, and are now a nice shad eof pink - but they still have a long way to go before they arethe same shade as the other hens' head decor. They have regained the use of their legs and wings and are able to flap, walk, run and even jump without overbalancing.

Above: Professor Freud

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