RIP Danni Hen

This is how she carried her broken right leg

Yesterday Danni the Hen was put to death.  She had previously broken her leg, but it appeared to be healing well.  Then yesterday when I came home and ran into the infirmary coop to check on her, I found her sprauled oddly on the floor, cold to he touch, even though she was under a heat light, and moaning terribly in pain.  She must have fallen on the leg and re-broken it.  I think she was in shock. It was time.

I had been working with the chicken, bringing her in the house, feeding her treats every day.  She'd have other friendly hens visit her inside her coop - Jade spent a lot of time with her.  (But she had no visitors when she somehow re-hurt herself yesterday).  She was able to get around by hopping.  She wasn't in any obvious pain.  She enjoyed tasting various foods.  She taught me that chickens have a sense of taste.  She'd taste every new food by licking it with her tounge, if she liked it she'd eat, if not, there was no way I could get it into her beak.  She liked cooked spinach, surprisingly enough.  She liked her grains - bread, cereal, oatmeal.  She liked green beans and of course corn and brocolli.  She didn't like tomatoes.  She was moody - in certain moods her tastes varied.  When she was happy she'd sing little soft songs.  She wasn't a loud bird, she was a very gentle, quiet bird.     

Danni loved to be rubbed under her wattle and she really loved a good back-of-the-neck massage.  The stepstool was put beside her to help her balance.  She learned to lean on the stepstool.  The napkin is under her butt because she never pooped when she was sitting beside her stool eating or hanging with me.  She's always jump up and run off to go poop.  I quickly learned to put a napkin under her butt.

Danni had a hard life, with her broken toe, broken neck, then broken leg.  She must have had weak bones.  I think we may have a daughter of Danni's - we hatched our own eggs last year.  Jade, Genny, Nutty or Cinnamon could be daughters of Danni.  But none of them are as sweet as Danni.  None of them have her exact personality.  None of them ever broke any bones, either.  Poor Danni Hen.

Rest in Peace, Danni Hen.

Oct 13, 2009 - Dec 8, 2011 

Let the Guinea Games Begin!

Girl guineas hanging together

Boy guinea on chicken pen roof

Our guinea flock has been feeling their oats lately.  We used to have 4 Rhode Island Red roosters, which are large birds.  We had to separate them from the chickens due to too many mating injuries with the bantam hens, and the only caged area when the boys could range didn't have a full roof or ceiling.  The roosters couldn't fly out, but the free-ranging guineas could fly in.  And those guineas didn't like those roosters one tiny bit. 

Every day the guineas would be in the rooster pen fighting.  The guineas always won, despite the fact that the roosters were larger.  Even the guinea HENS would fight the roosters and win!  Once I found all 4 roosters in the corner of the pen, tails up, heads down, huddled down hiding their faces, while the guineas attacked them and ripped out their tail feathers!  I didn't know guineas were so mean.  They seem to be territorial - if there's anyone new in the area, they want to chase him away.  The guineas rule this farmyard!

Yesterday I heard alot of mad guinea screaming in the back yard and found the flock attacking a small buck.  The buck didn't like the guineas one bit.  He took off running while I tried to take photos of the guinea vs deer action.  The guineas won the fight, the deer took off and the birds actually chased him away!  I didn't get many good shots, but got a few that weren't too clear. 

Earlier yesterday I watched the guineas chase a woodchuck out of the backyard. 

Woodchucks should be sleeping underground anyway, it's cold out there!

Let the games begin...

Guineas 3

Everyone Else 0

The guinea games will continue every day around Razzberry Corner.

Flying guinea

Visitor In the Chicken Pen

The other day Randy went out after dark (it gets dark here so early these days!) to check on Danni, the hen with the broken leg, who's in her own coop.  It was cold so he decided to put up a board blocking her viewing window outside to the chicken pen, to keep the cold wind out of the infirmary coop.  There's a heat lamp in the coop, but when the wind blows it still gets very cold in there.

And so he went out into the very secure chicken pen to put a board up across the outside of the window into Danni's coop.  Now, remember how secure and safe this huge chicken pen is - it was built years ago and is impervious to all outside intruders.  It has a wire roof, it has concrete and also rebar buried down even deeper underground around the fenceline so nothing can dig under.  No way no how.  And it's huge.  We can walk around in there.  The chickens can fly in there.  There's hills and trees inside the chicken pen.

And as he walks by the chicken feeder in the pen, he notices something odd.  He walks on by, there's no way THAT could be inside the chicken pen.  Then he stops, turns around and goes back to the feeder.  There, eating from the feeder, is our resident teenage farm opossum.

We have acquired this young farm opossum.  He was raised in his mama's pouch and then on his mama's back last summer.  Mama used to eat from the outside cat bowls.  And now the baby is always eating from Bobby cat's food bowls.  Bobby and him are BFFs.  We chase him away every night from the food bowls.  Chase meaning, we walk up and tap him on the back with our foot, and he ambles away.  I don't like opossums, I think they're mean and ugly animals, but this one is sorta cute, if a opossum can be cute.  I haven't seen his mama in a very long time.  The photo here is not of our opossum, I found it online.  But it's cute like our Little Opossum.

Randy picked the varmint in the chicken pen up by his tail and carried him way deep into the woods before tossing him down.  I was surprised Randy didn't "take care of him", but we usually don't kill animals that pose no threat to the farm.  This opossum had a choice to enter into the coop where all the chickens were sleeping in the dark and have chicken dinner, or eat the chicken food outside.  He chose the grain.

Now, how did that guy get into the chicken pen???  There's no holes in or under the fence.  All we can figure is that he squeezed through a very small area around the gate, because he's a very small opossum.  He would have had to work at the squeeze part.  But if he can squeeze in, then skunks, small fox, weasels, little owls, young raccoons, who knows what else can all be partying in the chicken pen.  And in the 3 years that we've had chickens nothing else ever was found in the chicken pen.   If Little Opossum went into the pen during daylight, I think Muffin, the lead rooster, would win the inevitable varmint-rooster battle.  Muffin can kick some butt if he wants.  I know from being on the losing end of that battle.  We always leave the chicken door open so the chickens can put themselves to bed in the eve in their coop and they can go outside in the pen at will in the morning.  If any critters make their way into the pen, they can walk right into the coop when all the chickens are sleeping and are easy targets.


So, the last few nights, we've been closing the little chicken door and opening it in the mornings.  Little Opossum was caught eating Bobby's food again last night, but he hasn't been seen in the chicken pen again.  However, this little guy will have to be relocated soon.  We just don't have time to open and close the chicken door every eve/morning.  If he got in there once, I can't trust that he won't do his magic act again, and maybe that night he will not be full of Bobby food already and will decide on chicken dinner. Sorry, Little O, you will be losing your farm privileges.  You're lucky to not have lost your life.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Razzberry Corner!

Muffin

Freckles

Bobby

Cinnamon

Danni

Guinea Hen

Jack and Shadow

Jerry

Guineas

Bad Rhode Island Red Rooster

Guineas

Shadow

Guinea flock

These photos don't include everyone around here, just some of the critters that slowed down enough to get their pictures taken in the past few weeks.  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Zoner is doing great in the chicken infirmary.  She just has a sore behind her left eye, which is healing fine.  Her comb is all healed now.  She has taken to sitting in a nest box in the infirmary coop - I hope she's not getting broody!

Danni is doing ok, also.  As ok as can be expected for a chicken with a broken leg!  She happily drank her aspirin water tonight.  She ate well tonight - she likes cranberry sauce and cooked celery!  She especially likes to be hand fed.  Spoiled bird!

The 4 large Rhode Island Red roosters got themselves in trouble with me tonight - I found them viciously attacking the hens - they grab the hens necks/heads and don't leg go.  It's an attempt for sex, but the hens fight and run and end up being hurt.  I found a lot of blood in the chicken pen tonight, so all birds were inspected thoroughly for wounds.  It was odd that I found no wounds on anyone.  I did not look at the 4 RIR roosters themselves.  Maybe they were fighting each other?  They looked fine from a distance. 

While I was handling all the chickens, I sprayed all their legs for leg mites.  I try to do leg mite spray and poultry body mite powder every now and then to keep the birds safe from these parasites.  I locked the 4 RIR roos out of the coop until well after dark because they were very randy in the coop while everyone was choosing their roosting spot.  Those roosters are too large and wild for our bantam hen flock; soon all the hens are going to be in the infirmary with rooster injuries.  The RIR boys were allowed back into the coop after it was dark, so they would go straight to sleep.  I'm sorry to say, their days are numbered in my chicken flock.

Bobby the outside cat is doing great.  He's gotten all shots, has been de-flead/de-ticked, and de-wormed.  And he's still friendly after all that!  He still prefers the outside to the inside of the house, but that will change when the weather gets cold again, I'm sure!

Happy Holidays from Razzberry Corner!

Visit Verde Farm for Farm Friend Friday!

      

Chicken Emergency!

Warning - Gross and bloody photos below.  Stop now iof you don't want to see.  The chicken is fine now, it's not THAT bad...

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Tonight there was a chicken emergency. I went outside to the chicken coop while making dinner to bring Danni the Hen in for her evening snack in the kitchen while I cooked. When I got to the coop I checked on all the other birds who were roosting for the night.

And to my horror I found Zoner the hen with a bloody head and the hen standing beside Zoner (Charlotte) was pecking Zoner in her bloody head! I scooped Zoner off the roost and away from Charlotte as fast as I could. I checked on Danni in her infirmary coop, she was ok, and I brought Zoner into the house.

It appears Zoner's V-comb was torn partway off in the back and it bled a lot on both sides of her head.  I blame those 4 extra Rhode Island Red roosters.  They are very big and rough with our small hens.  They are just starting to mate the hens and are mean to the ladies.  Then the other hens starting pecking Zoner in the head while roosting because it was red with blood, and she's a white bird.   Luckily they had not been roosting long. Zoner wouldn't have lived till morning.

I started cleaning and inspecting Zone's head when Randy came home and he took a few pictures of Zone. These photos were taken after I cleaned her up quite a bit. It looked worse before.  Eventually I ended up giving her a bath and a blow-dry to get all the blood off her.

After the spa treatment, I put sugar on the comb to make it stop bleeding.  Zone has a sore behind her left eye. She was put in with Danni in the infirmary coop, where she will stay for a few days till she heals up.  Luckily we have that infirmary coop!

Such is life on the farm...

Danni Hen Update

Danni, the chicken with the broken leg, again, has been diagnosed.  Her right tibia bone has a compound fracture right at the joint where it joins into the hip. You can feel a sharp edge of the broken tibia bone through the skin.  It makes use of her right leg impossible.  After studying her and listening to her, and spending A LOT of time with her, it was determined she is in a lot of pain.  She doesn't show pain much.  She may make a slight little noise when she hurts.  But you mostly notice pain in her eyes.  And she will not eat or drink when she's hurting. 

She has been put on aspirin water for the pain.  Physical therapy has stopped for now. 

Here she was this morning.  She was hurting this morning and didn't want to eat much.  You can see from her eyes that she doesn't look happy.  And she's staying all balled up.

She enjoys being around the other chickens, so I propped her up in front of the window in her coop so she could see the other birds.

This chart shows the location where her leg is broken.

Here a friend is visiting through the screen.  The friend is a white with black spots Araucana mix pullet.  Actually, this bird is a grand-daughter of our primary rooster, Muffin.  We haven't yet named her.

Here Lucy is visiting poor Danni.  Danni's not really interested in visitors today.

Here was Danni's standard food:  chicken food, wheat, and scratch corn.

And here was Danni's breakfast treats this morning:  corn, broccoli, spinach, peas, and oatmeal.  She ate a little bit of each, but not much.

Poor Danni hen.

Help With Chicken Thoughts, Please?

Danni the hen with the bad leg is still hanging in there.  I keep her separate from the other birds, in the infirmary coop.  I feed her plenty of treats - veggies and fruits and grains and oatmeal - basically, she gets whatever she wants.  Plus she gets enough chicken feed to feed the entire flock.  During the day, if I'm home, I take her out for "walks" - I call it physical therapy for her.  I attempt to force her to use her bad leg a little.  She doesn't do well with walking or standing and prefers to sit.  She comes into the house every night and hangs with me in the kitchen while I prepare her dinner and the family dinner.  After we all eat, she goes back into her coop for the night, where she has her own heat lamp.  Every night another hen named Jade spends the night with her, and they talk all night about girl things.  Jade fills her in on what happened that day with the flock.  Danni tells Jade about her adventures in the house.   

Last night Danni actually hobbled across my kitchen floor on her own.  She really doesn't use her right leg much, she sticks it out in front of her mostly.  She balances on her left leg with both wings sticking out.  To walk she sometimes ambles awkwardly on the right leg, but it still sticks out straight.  Mostly she moves by using her wings to make her fly along the ground.  Last night in the coop with Jade, Danni actually stood for a while on her good leg, right leg sticking straight out.  But after a few minutes her good leg gets tired of balancing her, and she sits again.

I don't know how long this can go on.  I have gotten very attached to Danni and it would break my heart to put her down.  She cannot go back out in the flock with a bad leg.  She would freeze just laying on the ground, as she can't walk.  The roosters would hurt her trying to mount her.  The other hens would pick on her.  Randy tells me if she's not attempting to use the bad leg, then, well, it's time...  She did make an attempt yesterday to use the leg, but she doesn't hold it properly.  I always position the right leg back where it belongs underneath her during our therapy sessions, but if she controls the leg, it's sticking straight out in front.

So, what are your thoughts on this?  I'm struggling.  Is she going to get better?  This week it will be 2 weeks since whatever happened to Danni to make her right leg stick straight out.  She is eating fine, her spirits are good, the leg is not cold, so it's still getting blood to it.  I just don't know... My brain tells me we can't keep a bird like this, but my heart tells me to give her more time.

 

New Eggs and Time to Say GoodNight Mister!

First of all, just wanted to share a dozen eggs.

Aren't they pretty?  I'm so proud of them!  The two Cuckoo Maran pullets just started laying little dark brown eggs.  We are almost positive all 4 Rhode Island Reds that we chose as chicks this summer are now young roosters.  No eggs from them! :(  They are submissive roosters so far, they haven't been hurting any hens nor fighting with the primary 2 flock roosters.  All it takes is a peck from one of our smallest bantam hens and those giant RIR boys go running and screaming away.

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And look - who's this???

This is one of our woodchuck boys.  He's grabbing a last-minute snack!

I don't know why we always have male woodchucks living around our house.  No females.  Which is fine with us - no babies!  The woodchucks enjoy eating every flower I ever plant and love to eat my garden before it grows.

I took these pictures on Nov 13, 2011 - he was in my backyard.

By now this little boy is fast asleep down underground in his home.

Stay warm down there, Little Chuck

Poor Danni with a Broken Leg - Again!

Our first chickens were born on October 13, 2009.  Happy birthday to them - they recently turned 2 years old!  Since then we've hatched some eggs and watched them grow up and we've gotten 2 new adult birds to mix it up a bit.  Also we gave away quite a few roosters.  In the past 2 years we've had many chicken injuries, accidents, and illnesses, and quite a few birds didn't survive.  All who passed were buried.  I love my chickens and name all the hens, as you know if you've been around Razzberry Corner.

This sad post is about a strong hen named Danni.  Danni has had the toughest life of all other chickens here.  Things haven't been easy for sweet Danni hen.

Danni in Jan 2010

Back on January 15, 2010, Danni broke her big toe on her left leg on the feeder out in the chicken pen. Since Danni was only 3 months old, we had not yet named her because we were not sure if she was a pullet or a cockerel. Danni from Critter Farm provided awesome, timely, perfect guidance during this time, and in appreciation of her help I named the bird Danni after her.

Now, looking back, at the same time that Danni broke her toe, I believe she broke her neck. Her neck now has a kink in it. Back then I didn't realize her neck was broken because I was focusing so much on splinting her toe and getting her walking again. No wonder the bird had so many issues back then.

Danni in front, Chloe behind her, Feb 2010

Danni lived in our living room and bathroom for weeks. She had to be hand fed. I kept music and TV playing for her and gave her a heating pad to sleep on to keep her cozy while she healed. I splinted the toe, and trained her how to walk. I brought in other birds to keep her company when she was lonely. And she healed up just fine, although the toe curled off to the side.  

Danni in Aug 2010 - notice the bent toe

Danni has been doing great since January 2010.  She's lived a good life, has given us hundreds of eggs, and was able to walk and scratch and and get around fine with her curled-in toe and kinked neck.  And now, this week, somehow, poor Danni appears to have broken her other leg.   Her right leg - the good leg.  The leg without the broken toe.  We aren't sure if the leg is broken up close to the body or just out of joint and not broken.  We assume it was caused by one of those 2 large Cuckoo Maran roosters trying to mount her and have his way with her.  We immediately got rid of those 2 big roosters, they were too big for our little bantam hens like Danni.

Poor Danni has been moved into the infirmary coop this week.  In the past 2 years we built a coop especially for injured birds or babies, so they don't have to live in our living room!  Danni has her own heat lamp - just like a personal spa.  There's a door in her coop looking out into the chicken pen, and it has wire across so she can look out and other birds can look in, but no one can come in.  There's nest boxes in this coop - these were used last summer during the birth of the guinea keets and chicks.  However, Danni has no need for nest boxes right now.

Danni now, Nov 2011

Danni is not able to walk - she can't put any weight on her right leg.  She wants to hold the bad leg straight out in front of her.  And for a few days she lost the desire to eat.  She's been force fed and watered from a dropper.  We started her on aspirin water in case she's in pain.  Yesterday she started eating on her own again - she likes green beans.  She's such a sweet bird; she's always been one of my favorite chickens because she's so sweet and has had such a tough life.  I really hope she pulls through this time.  She's been my miracle bird.  Come on, Danni hen, keep your spirits up!