Flock Diary : November 1998 Part Two

A new security system has been installed for the fowl in the garden - a makeshift CCTV system. An ancient video camera watches the garden, its' data flowing down a wire into the house and onto a computer monitor. The hens and geese can now happily forage in the garden in relative safety. If I see a fox or stray dog on the monitor, I will be able to run out into the garden and deal with the situation before any casualties occur !

On November 15th I photographed and inspected the Rescued Battery Hens again. They are all growing more new feathers, and are continuing to enjoy and explore their new environment. Their combs are reddening up nicely.

Below: Alkacell. Notice the purple spikes of feathers beginning to grow on the front of her neck.

Above: Alkacell foraging. Left: Alkacell growing new feathers.

Above: new feathers growing on Duracell's healed but still bald back. Above : Duracell (back) and Nicad (front) eating some dry poultry mash.

left: Energiser. Energiser has started to grow new feathers on the sides of her neck, but none on her head yet. Below: Lithium.

Below and left: Ever-ready.

Above : Greencell.

Above: 9-Volt

Left: Uniross. Notice the new feathers growing on Uniross' neck. They have now started to break through their protective coverings, and look more like feathers ! Above: Uniross' broken toe can be clearly seen here. Notice how it does not clench round like the other toes. The damage to the toe was caused while the hen lived at the Battery Farm. There she had to stand on the thin sloping wire floor of her cage for the majority of her life (as a chick she would have lived in a deep-litter brooding barn with millions of other female chicks). The constant contact of the wire on the hens' feet causes deformities, and injuries like Uniross' broken toe often go unnoticed.

Above : Varta.

November 16th was a sunny dry day, so I decided that the Brahma and chicks should start the process of acclimatization to the outside world. I took them to the empty Poultry Ark in the front garden, where they would stay for a couple of hours.

Above: the chicks experiencing the Poultry Ark. The chicks were fascinated to be ouside, and also a little wary of their new surroundings, but their mother soon reassured them, and quickly set about teaching them how to interact with the open air environment. She showed them how to scratch amongst the grass, she showed them how to catch insects and how to recognise tasty earthworms. She also taught them how to be vigilant and the importance of being aware of predators which might lurk out of sight. The Brahma and chicks will be placed in the PoultryArk for a short time every day from now on, as long as the weather is not too inclement.

On Thursday 19th November something strange happened to Pseudo-Swan. I was feeding him as usual in the morning, when he appeared to choke on something. He coughed repeatedly, shaking his head from side to side with his beak open. He has always tried to 'talk' while eating, whether I am standing near him or not, and so does his goose, Sian. Sian has never had to cough to dislodge food, whereas Pseudo-Swan has done it at least twice at every meal he has had so far. But this time, Pseudo could not dislodge the blockage. He continued to shake his head and cough, and did this so vigorously that he started to foam at the beak ! I was very worried, and stayed with him, but didn't have a clue how I could help. The Gander then plunged his head into the water bucket, shaking it about, but still this did not help, and he continued to foam for about half-an hour. After that, it seemed that he had moved the blockage as he could drink and eat quite happily. I telephoned the Vet, and took him in that afternoon. Hovever, the Vet was puzzled. In the end he decided that Pseudo-Swan might have his trachea joined to his oesophagus intermittently down his neck. He would therefore cough as a reflex action as soon as any food reached the converging areas. The cough would mechanically drive the food safely past the gap and into the appropriate tube. This would cost a lot to rectify, so the best thing for Pseudo would be to leave him as he is, and supervise him while he eats, feeding him smaller amounts more often and making sure that he cleared any blockages quickly.

On November 20th I took all the Battery hens right up to the top of the garden, so that they could learn to forage for the many small insects which live in the brambly areas there.

Above: the Battery Hens investigating the area at the top of the garden. Greencell is the bird in the foreground.

Above: 9-Volt exploring the bramble patch.

Throughout their time in the garden today, Lithium and Prunella have been hanging about together - it appears that they have made friends. They peck at the same spot of grass with no quarrels at all, and Pruie leads Lithium to items of interest. Maybe they have had a big fight and sorted out their differences.......

Today (November 20th) I gave the hens a good inspection, to monitor their progress. Alkacell, pictured below, is rapidly growing lots and lots of new feathers on the front of her neck,.......

I am very, very pleased with Alkacell's progress. Duracell is also doing well, and is growing many new feathers on her back where that nasty wound used to be.

Below: Duracell.

Ever-ready is also doing well, and is growing plenty of new feathers on her patchy neck.

and in the various small bald patches on her neck...... The pictures of Varta {right} show the characteristic deep clefts in her comb and the way her beak has been trimmed. I can recognise Varta by her comb as well as her purple leg ring. A few of the other birds are recognisable by their combs; Greencell's is small and upright, Duracell's is huge and floppy, and 9-Volt's is somewhat swept-back looking.

Unfortunately, Energiser is not doing so well. She is not growing as many new feathers as the other hens, and is extremely thin. No new feathers are growing on her head at all.

Below: Energiser.

Energiser also breathes heavily, as though she may have a cold - but she has no nasal discharge. left: the feathers on her neck and the front of her wings are just beginning to break through their protective coverings. Below: the geese on 20th November 1998

Below: the chicks on 23rd November 1998

On 22nd November I checked the crops and breathing of the Battery Hens. Uniross, Lithium, Duracell, Varta, Ever-ready, Alkacell and 9-Volt were all perfectly OK. Greencell's crop and breathing were Ok too, but she has a small pinhead-sized blister at the corner of her left eye. I'm not sure what this could be - it might simply be an ingrowing face-feather or eyelash. Energiser's breathing sounded rattly and wheezy yesterday, but seems perfectly OK today. Her crop was OK, as was Nicad's, but little Nicad sounded a tiny bit wheezy. Energiser has been feeling a brave little hen today, and has been chasing Uniross a lot.

On Monday 23rd November I noticed a Robin (a common but colourful small British native garden bird with a brown back and a bright red breast and face. Robins are about 14 cm (6 inches) long in total, and are surprisingly bold around humans) perched on the fence, watching the hens and geese busily eat their grain in the garden. White Tara noticed the Robin after a while, and walked purposefully over to it. The Robin was intimidated, and flew further along the fence to a safer position, where it continued to watch the fowl eating. Tara kept her eye on the Robin though, and followed it to it's new perching position, intimidating it so that it flew away again. But it was still interested in the fowl, so it alighted on the fence on the opposite side of the garden. Hovever, this did not fool White Tara, who ran over to the bird's new perch, forcing the Robin to try a different place yet again. After Tara chased the bird away from it's final position, the Robin gave up, and went to find a different garden. White Tara probably knew that the Robin was after her food, and drove it away because of that. But the hens are willing to share their food with Dunnocks (also known as Hedge Sparrows, the Dunnock is about the same size as a Robin, but brownish-grey in colour, and timid to match its' subtle colouring), so maybe the Robin's bright red breast was catching Tara's eye and annoying her.

On 23rd November the gander and goose were eating their afternoon meal of grain when Pseudo-Swan started to cough violently again - he must have had another stubborn blockage, but this time he managed to move it quickly. I caught him and carefully felt his neck, to see if I could find a blockage or anything abnormal. Pseudo usually protests if I disturb him from eating, but this time he didn't make a sound. I could see him trying to, but he could only muster a pathetic wispy high-pitched squeak. Pseudo seemed upset and humiliated that he couldn't make his usual loud noise, as being loud is one of his favourite activities !. On examination of Pseudo's neck I found that his crop was full of grain, and he had carried on eating so that his neck had started to back-fill, just as a blocked water pipe would ! I was astonished, and found that Pseudo-Swan's neck was packed full of grain, right up to his head ! No wonder he couldn't make a sound, with his neckstuffed with grain....

Though the gander's condition was vaguely amusing, I was very concerned, and took Pseudo-Swan to the Vet the very next morning. I explained the situation, and three different Vets came into the room, and all examined Pseudo. It seemed that he had managed to digest the previous day's grain, and the Vets could not find a blockage. When I took the gander out of his carrying bag, he had some lice crawling over his back. I was shocked and embarrassed - I had no idea that he had so many lice. The Vet reassured me that the lice had been hiding in amongst his down where I couldn't find them, and had only come to the surface because the bird had been in the dark bag for so long. All geese have a certain number of lice naturally, but when they multiply it is an indication that the goose is unwell because his immune system would normally naturally control the numbers of lice. The Vets tested his droppings for worm eggs, but found none. They decided to weigh the gander (he weighs 5 kilogrammes), spray him with insecticide to get rid of the lice, and worm him anyway. He also had to have four antibiotic pills per day, two in the morning and two at night. Pseudo would go back in ten days to be weighed again, to see if he had got better at all.

On the following day, I tried to give Pseudo-Swan his tablets. He didn't like it at all, and made the job very difficult for me. To be most effective, I had to squat astride the gander to control his bodily struggles, leaving both hands free to open the gander's beak and push the tablets down his throat. I had to be very careful, because the gander's beak is covered with very sensitive soft skin, and I had to avoid scraping it with a fingernail, which would probably hurt Pseudo quite a lot. Ganders have very strong beaks with rough, sharp serrated edges, and are very intelligent creatures. Pesudo knew exactly what I was trying to do, and he definitely didn't want me to do it, especially when he broke one of the capsules and got a mouthful of the horrible-tasting medicine inside !

Below: The chicks on 24th November 1998:

Notice how the tails of the chicks are different. The chicks have started to get 'second feathers' through. These second feathers are richer in colour than the first feathers, and are distributed over the birds' bodies as an uneven smattering. Some 'first feathers' have been moulted out, and some 'second feathers' are growing in spaces between the 'first feathers'. The chicks' feathers are incredibly soft and smooth.

Above: Here is a graph showing the chicks' progress. They are growing at a phenomenal rate - their weights have increased almost five-fold since they hatched. (The Black chick's data is represented by the yellow-coloured bar, and the Ginger chick's data is represented by the black-coloured bar. All weights are recorded in grammes. One Ounce is the same as 25 Grammes)

On 24th November it rained again, and the Battery Hens all got wet. This time some of them had the sense to shelter in the shed, but most of them still stayed ouside to get soaked.

Above : Lithium, foraging regardless of the weather.

On the morning of 25th November I checked and weighed the hens, to check that they had recovered from yesterday's soaking.

Ever-ready continues to be a dominant hen. Today I was shocked to see her grab poor 9-Volt by the wing. 9-Volt squawked loudly and repeatedly in protest, while Ever-ready vindictively pulled her around in a large circle until 9-Volt overbalanced and fell over. Then Ever-ready strutted away with her head held high, leaving 9-Volt to pick herself up from the muddy ground and shake herself.

I was very concerned with Energiser's breathing, and so I asked friends at the 'Poultry Connection Bulletin Board' for advice. I got a swift reply stating that Energiser probably had Infectious Bronchitis. She would need to be isolated from the other hens so they did not catch it, and she would need to be kept warm until her breathing had returned to normal. So I prepared a cage for Energiser, and placed it in the living room. I did not know how the little hen would react to being indoors, but when I brought her in she did not seem frightened or perturbed in any way, and simply got on with her normal hen behaviour. She did not try to escape from the cage, or call for her hen-friends ouside, either - maybe she felt secure behind bars, and at least she wasn't packed in there with four other birds, as she would have been at the Battery Farm she was rescued from. I gave Energiser some 'Emergency Sick Bird and Animal Treatment' (contains: Vitamin A, Vitamin D3, vitamin C, Albumen, Mineral Salts, Glucose Polymers and ten other essential vitamins), some food and some water, and left her in peace for the night. The 'hospital cage' Energiser is living in by herself has a floor area of 60 cm x 30 cm (approx 12 inches x 24 inches). The Battery Cage had a floor area of 50 cm x 50 cm (approx 20 inches x 20 inches), and Energiser would have shared this cage with four other hens.

Because I feel sorry for little Energiser, I often get her out of the cage and sit her on my lap while I am watching television. She seems quite happy doing this, and will even have a doze while I gently stroke her back. While doing this I noticed that Energiser has an unusual lump on the right side of the lower mandible of her beak. This lump does not seem new, and I am sure that it formed as a result of the De-Beaking practices which go on at Battery Farms. The lump is rounded, and does not seem to cause the bird any problems with eating and drinking, it just looks a little unsightly. The point is that the lump should not have formed in the first place, because Energiser should never have been de-beaked and forced to live in a Battery Farm.

I tried a different tactic with the administration of the gander's tablets today. This time I took him into the shed to isolate him from any other birds who might try to steal the tablets, thinking them to be food. I fed the morning tablets to him in corn-snacks, which he enjoyed until he broke one of the capsules inside, and spat the rest of his mouthful out, which I had to retrieve and push past his tongue and into his throat. Pseudo held the morsel in his mouth for a full five minutes before he would swallow it ! I fed him his afternoon tablets wrapped in bread and cheese, which appeared to fool him sufficiently until he broke the second tablet and refused to eat any more after that, so I had to push the tablet into his throat again.

On the following day Pseudo-Swan was extremely suspicious of me when I took him away from the other birds, and when I gave him his tablets wrapped in bread he just stared at them on the ground and refused to eat them. It was only when he realised that I would not let him out until he had eaten the bread, that he sheepishly and gingerly ate it while I watched him. I was amazed to discover that Pseudo had manipulated the bread in his beak, and the two antibiotic capsules were lying on the floor untouched !!. In the evening I tried another tactic - I brought Sian into the shed, too, but seperated the birds so that Sian would not accidentally eat Pseudo's tablets. This seemed to reassure the gander that I would not be giving him tablets, and fed him his medicated bread while I fed Sian some normal bread at the same time.

Right: Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma on 29th November

Above and below: Roadkill (the black chick)

Below and above: Biscuit (the ginger chick)

Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma has nearly finished moulting, and has an almost total covering of brand new feathers. The Brahma's new feathers are incredibly soft - her old coat felt almost rough compared with this new silky covering !. The new feathers are also darker than the old ones. This is because fowl only moult once per year (in the Autumn), and the feathers become bleached by the sun and beaten by the weather during the year the bird wears them for. They moult in the Autumn in order to have warm new feathers to protect them from the cold winter weather.

Pseudo-Swan is still very suspicious about taking his tablets, and I have to try a different tactic every time I give them to him, because he is such an intelligent bird. He is near the end of his course of medication, and will have his next Vet's appointment in December. He has not allowed his neck to back-fill with grain again, but still coughs while eating.

The rescued Battery Hens are continuing to thrive and enjoy themselves in the garden, and are putting on weight as well as re-fledging themselves. The only concern is little Energiser, who still perhaps has Infectious Bronchitis, and is still in the 'Hospital cage' in the warm living room.

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