In sickness...

THE CHICKEN BLOG: A BIRD'S EYE VIEW FROM THE GROUND
March 2008
Illnesses can crop up but generally if chicks are kept in good conditions you just have to keep an eye to see if they have worms or if they have trouble eating or drinking. Sometimes they look poorly, with droopy and colourless combs and wattles but usually they recover, especially when fed on yoghurt garlic and extra protein-even tinned cat food is recommended!

Occasionally they hunch up their shoulders and seem depressed – usually briefly just before laying a poor quality egg…For the beginner it is inadvisable to look at all the sites on the internet relating to chicken health and sickness – it makes very frightening reading for the small hen keeper.

Of course there comes a time in every hen's life when a decision has to be made about her future. For two of our first hens, I think I made a mistake due to lack of knowledge of the local conditions here in Spain. With the best of intentions I allowed them to free range but forgot that among the weeds there were also poisonous seeds and plants – very common in this area – such as castor oil plants and datura, and they both died after a few days of getting weaker. One of our first hens was savaged by a wild dog before we had built the reinforcements necessary – this is very important when deciding to keep hens here.

More recently one of the younger hens had a severe prolapse and after much worry and consultation with the other hen fanciers on line, I decided she could not be healed and needed to be killed. What to do? I was unable to take action myself, but luckily in the campo there are always people who know how to deal with this and our good neighbour's son took her away to do the deed. I always think now that if I can’t even put a hen out of its misery, how could I possibly deal with a close friend or my partner asking for help to die….

The other dilemma is what to do when their usefulness – i.e. egg production – goes down after a couple of years, and there’s only so much room in the hen-house? (They need several square feet each for comfort.) Some of our hens are indeed getting older and we are now getting some poor quality eggs, though two seem to be laying ok. It could be the stress caused by a snake, or rats, but most likely the combination of the menopause and hot weather! Although we get enough eggs for our needs, we haven’t sold any for ages, As the girls (or should I say older ladies?) have molted and had to grow new feathers they are also eating huge amounts, and definitely not earning their keep. Mrs. Black, as oldest, seems to be in her prime with a gorgeous back/blue feather coat but clearly has better things to do than lay eggs these days! As our hens are pets we’ll probably keep them until they die naturally. Although we don’t eat meat, we would be happy if anyone wanted to use them for soup – they are not fed for meat eating, so they would be too stringy!

But I do go and look for new members of our little flock and am keeping my eyes open for one or two special breed hens, such as the Arucanas which lay blue green eggs, or the original andalusian blue grey hens. It remains to be seen if they will assimilate easily, be bullied by the rest or even rule the roost?