Fixing Curled Toes

A couple weeks ago, I posted pictures of my little coronation sussex that I helped hatch. Initially, I was deeply regretful that I'd helped her out; she seemed really in rough shape at first. As she dried off though, I realized her toes were a bit curled. Many people theorize that this can be caused by a delayed hatch. So, I'm trying to console myself with the fact that if I hadn't helped her out, it would've been worse. Maybe this is true, maybe not. I plan to stick with it, and it will cause anguish in future hatches when I have another chick taking its' sweet time.

Leaving cause behind, the fact remained that Chloe had some curled toes. Not a severe case, but a noticeable case nonetheless. I've had a couple chicks have curled toes, but they usually straighten out the first 24 hours or so. Not so, with Chloe.  Here's a picture of her feet at 48 hours old.

The left was definitely worse than the right.

I used electrical tape to create a boot of sort. I cut a small piece of tape, and carefully put the foot down onto the sticky side, making sure they were in the correct alignment.  Then, I cut another piece of tape and put that over the top, again, being very careful to make sure the toes were perfectly straight and aligned the way they ought to be.

She definitely was NOT happy about it.
I kept the boot on for about 20 hours or so. I was going to be gone the rest of the next day and evening, and didn't want to keep it on when I couldn't be keeping an eye on the chick. So, I saw definite improvement. Maybe it should've been left on longer, but I felt it was better to risk not having a full recovery- I felt like the chick was slipping a bit, and at risk for developing a splayed leg.


Here's how it looked after the first boot:

Definite improvement, but again, not perfect.  After I finished my hectic weekend, I decided to tape again.  This time, I left the tape on for 3 days or so. Again, I only treated the left foot, the right I just left alone because it just didn't seem that bad.


This is a few days after the second taping, the chick is 16 or so days old.

She is trying to run away from me here, so her stance is a little odd, but this is an action shot.


(oh, and FTR, I have no idea if this chick is a cockerel or a pullet, but I like to think positively, so I refer to the chick as "she")

A new and improved coop

Because of my little chicken problem, my husband decided I needed a new chicken coop. He's an engineer, and great with math, so it didn't take much to see the writing on the wall. At the moment, I have 25 chickens. Not all are permanent. My plan is to sell off 6 of the 7 BLRW chicks, and 2-3 of the preschool chicks. So, I figure I'll have 15-16 permanent chickens.  Even so, 16 chickens will not comfortably fit in our current coop.

He designed a nice coop that will go on the other side of the shed. It is 8'x8'.  The run around it will be approximately 16'x20'. It will connect to the other coop, but with a small door. That way, if I do need to separate groups, it won't be hard. I'll still have my chicken tractor too, which has been extremely handy for growing up chickens- too big to be inside, too small to hang with the big girls.








Here's the foundation of the coop.  It's butted up against our storage shed.  If I'd been there when he started, I would've asked that he raise it up a little bit so the chickens could easily go underneath- have it be maybe two feet off the ground. Because it's lower, I think I'll use chicken wire to block it off so nobody gets any funny ideas about laying eggs under there.

Finished framing, and starting to sheath it.

We bought some vinyl/linoleum to go on the bottom of the coop. I think it'll be easier to clean than wood, and last longer. I bought an 8x12' piece from Home Depot that cost about $50 after tax.  The window you see in the background came from Habitat For Humanity's ReStore, which is a home improvement thrift store. I got the window and a door with the necessary hardware and spent under $10. Excellent!

Here's the completed interior. In the corner next to the feed, I've stapled up some chicken wire, making a "time out" corner for smaller/injured/new birds so that they can see everyone, but aren't in any danger of getting beat up by the bigger birds.

Here's the door to the enclosure:

16x-20x enclosure.  The sides are a strong guaged chicken wire.  When building it, we used pressure treated lumber so it would withstand the elements a bit better. We also dug a trench a foot deep around the enclosure and buried the chicken wire so that digging under would prove more difficult.



The top of the enclosure is a bird netting that I bought on Amazon.  We wove it through the chicken wire and stapled it on really well to the posts around the enclosure and the roof of the chicken coop with NO gaps so that it could support some weight. It is a little loose though, so if something did try to think about crawling on top, it would be more like a hammock or safety net, so extremely UNATTRACTIVE to walk on. I've read that raccoons don't like unsteady surfaces, so I'm hoping that be having a floppy, soft, sinking surface, they won't  try to climb on top. It's secure enough that I'm sure it could take a medium to large size dog. Said animal would be hopelessly ensnared, but the chickens ought to be safe.

Ms. C's final hatch report

When I went in Wednesday morning, I was pretty sure that the hatch was done- I'd figured Chloe hadn't made it.  I was surprised to see her little beak moving around the pip hole when I got there, and I got my hopes up again. I waited all day for Chloe, the Coronation Sussex to hatch. By 6pm, I was very worried because the membrane was getting very stiff and dry, and it seemed like she wouldn't make it on her own. I helped her hatch, and had 3 or so drops of blood, which had me deeply, deeply upset and regretful.  I left her in the incubator overnight, hoping she'd be ok.

Thursday morning I came in, and she was still alive. She was crispy instead of fluffy, so I very carefully rinsed her off with warm water. That helped, but even after she was dry, she wasn't too fluffy. I used a toothbrush to very softly comb her off, and that made her fluff right up. I noticed her toes were a little curled, but I've seen that happen a few times, and they straightened out on their own. We're coming up on 48 hours old now, and they're not all better, so I'm starting to think I need to treat them. -sigh- That is a symptom of too long in the shell, so maybe I was right to help her out, even though I've been second guessing that. Here is her toes now.

And, to introduce the chicks.



 First to hatch was Shirley, who came out of a medium brown egg. She/he looks like a black copper marans, except the legs are clean.

Next to hatch was Emily, who came out of a very dark olive egg. I wasn't able to see a thing in this egg, and had no idea if it was viable til she pipped.

Last, but not least is Chloe, a coronation sussex. She's the only purebred of the group.

Last hatch for 2012 (maybe)

After our wildly successful blue laced red wyandotte hatch, I had another teacher ask me if I'd do a hatch for her class.  I thought that sounded like a fine idea, so I set eggs around 4pm on Tuesday, May 8. I'd given my lavender ameraucana cockerel in trade for hatching eggs.  I got three coronation sussex, one silver sussex, one olive egg, one ameraucana, and one brown egg (parentage is unsure, I grabbed it out of the eating eggs basket after declaring another ameraucana egg to be not good for hatching).

This hatch just hasn't gone very well. In fact, I'd say that it's been my worst ever.

At 10 days in, I had to throw out two of the coronation sussex and one of the silver sussex. I never was able to candle the olive egg; it was way too dark inside. At lockdown, I had to throw out the ameraucana egg, it appeared to have quit at 2 weeks along.

At 8am on Tuesday (so 8 hours shy of day 21), the brown egg (Shirley) and the olive egg (Emily) had both pipped.


At 2pm, all three were pipped, and the coronation sussex seemed to be doing the best.

At 4pm (start of day 21), I went to set up the hatching cam, and I felt uneasy about the coronation sussex. I can normally see movement in the egg or chirping. And if I don't, I can tap the incubator and that wakes them up. I didn't see anything like that with the coronation sussex.

At 5:30pm, the brown egg hatched. The chick looks an awful lot like a marans, but the legs are clean and the wrong color. Shirley pushed the other two eggs off camera so we couldn't see what was happening, and then stretched out for the camera. May have to rename her Diva.

I went to bed at 11pm, and nothing had changed.

At 6am, I checked, and it appears Emily has hatched, and it appears to be a yellow chick. Wow!!

Update on my January chicks

I had five of my January hatched chicks survive to adulthood. I rehomed the three cockerels, but haven't gotten pictures lately. I'm sure if I ask, my friend will take new ones. When she does, I'll edit them in.


I kept the two pullets.

They're coming up on 6 months old now, and I'm guessing they'll start laying within the month. 

This is "Godzilla". First one out, and was the blonde looking one in my original pictures.

I can't remember what I named this chick. I went back through my blog, and figured out that my daughter named her Daisy. So. This is Daisy. LOL

She turned out quite pretty.

Neither of them are squatting yet, but their combs are getting redder by the day.

Rooster for Food

I knew that it was inevitable when raising chicks. I can't keep every single rooster I hatch and raise. Thus far, I've sold/given away a total of 9 roosters. The majority of those went to people who actually wanted to have a living rooster around. One person took three roosters, admitting that she was most likely going to eat two, but she wasn't sure WHICH two, and was going to grow them out a bit longer.

I was surprised that I had that many going to a living home, and not being dinner. I'd always said in my ads that I was ok with the roosters being dinner, as long as they were dispatched humanely, and I honestly mean it. I eat meat. I enjoy eating chicken. I'm just too squeamish to raise and slaughter my own meat. I feel like my chickens have it way better than commercially grown chickens.

I had a total of four blue laced red wyandottes roosters that I was looking to rehome. One went to a guy who answered an ad, and he claimed to want to use him to breed. He convinced me he was legit, and was choosing his rooster based on which one had the nicest feathers and body shape. Another is going to my next door neighbor who wants a new rooster, as hers is not quite right in the head. A third will go to someone looking to breed him as well.

I got a new buyer for the fourth one today. He texted me and wanted to get him today, if possible. For whatever reason, I didn't want him to come to my house, so I offered to drop him off on my travels today.

When I got there, it was a couple of young boys- late teens, early 20s. I asked him if they planned to eat him, and he admitted they did. I told him I was ok with that, as long as they slaughtered him humanely, and he said they would. I handed him over, and he was gentle enough, but he handed him to one of his friends, who started to carry him into the house. I don't know why he started freaking out, but the cockerel did start freaking out, like he was being held funny or in pain or something. It was a little upsetting to me, and left me feeling a bit squicked out. My 7 year old was in the car, and she heard the squawking, and was quite upset. I also felt like the guy was handling him like a package of meat, and not like a living creature.

The whole thing has left me feeling a bit melancholy.

Final Hatch Report

All right, so as I mentioned before, I set seven eggs at 2pm on a Thursday.

Thursday:
At 7:30am or so on Thursday, 3 weeks later, my first chick (Dolphin) hatched. I came in at 8am, and saw that Dolphin was hatched, and Bryan had pipped.

At 11:00am, when I came to get the webcam set up, CJ had also pipped.

At 3:30 pm, Bryan hatched. Fred had a tiny pip.

Friday:
6:40am: Andy hatches.

Ginger, CJ, and Erin pipped sometime Thursday night.

11:30-1pm: Ginger, CJ and Erin hatch.

1:30: I look at helping Fred, but when I peel back some of the egg, I can see that there's still veining in the membrane, so I put the egg back in the incubator, and leave to go on a two day trip, albeit very nervously.

Saturday:

8:30am: Fred (FINALLY) hatches.

Are you counting that folks?  SEVEN OUT OF SEVEN HATCHED!!!!!!!!! And they were incubated in a first grade classroom!