RIP Mango

Sadly yesterday Mango the very poorly Guinea Pig was found to have diabeties. We took her  to our vets  where she stayed in overnight and had blood and urine tests. Sadly she was found to be diabetic but the prognosis was not good and we agreed she was too poorly to survive  :( and so it was decided it would be most kind if she was  put to sleep, saving her any more suffering

If she had been younger, maybe she would have had a better chance , but as an already elderly rescue guinea pig  sadly it was not to be.

RIP Mango lovely piggie.

RIP Yarrow Hen

RIP Yarrow Hen, who died yesterday evening. She had a good life, well lived. With us she had had 18 months of freedom, after her 18 months in the cruel battery cages.

As those of you who have followed my blog since 2012 will know,  Yarrow was a very special girl; even amongst hens who are ALL special to us, she was a little star. I  am very sad to lose her and miss her hugely, already.

She had been "winding down" for a few months and I am so glad she had a really good last day in the sun; sitting on my lap and being cuddled and told how much I loved her; sitting on the ground in the sunshine soaking up the rays; being cuddled by her flock who all came and collapsed all around her as only hens can do. 

Despite all this, and despite having a normal morning yesterday, by  the afternoon Yarrow was obviously suffering  (not able to walk around, deep purple coloured comb, gasping, not able to eat even the treat of unlimited mealworms). 

I can normally dispatch chickens who are in distress or injured but  this time I found myself unable to kill my pet hen Yarrow, for which I feel ashamed (as I should have been able to help her when she was suffering, but could not). So, I quickly took Yarrow down to Mike our Vet, who agreed her time had come, due to a  combination of failing heart/old age, and who ended her suffering kindly and quickly.

Mike, who as a newly qualified Vet helped Yarrow to recover from a broken leg during his first few weeks at our local practice, has been such a help over the last 18 months.  With all the issues the ex battery hens in my little flock have had, especially Yarrow, he has been such a help, for which  I thank him so much. And I especially thank him for his kindness and understanding as to why I was crying over the death of what many people might dismiss as "just a hen". He was lovely, as are all the staff at our local Veterinary  Surgery. We are very lucky with them.

We buried Yarrow hen  in the wood today, in the place where many other feathery friends are also buried. She liked to furtle around in the wood and it seems a good place for her remains to be buried. I heard my first Skylark of 2013 as we were filling in the hole. Appropriate, I felt.

Fly high, little Yarrow hen and know you are missed and were very loved indeed.

Cassi goes to the vets

- 9 here again last night, and very cold this morning...more ice and frost everywhere. Am in from the hens and have my hand wrapped around a hot mug of

We have had a fun morning of keeping cats separate from each other and food...Cassi Cat came on heat yesterday so guess where she is off to now? Yep, the Vets. So she had to be starved overnight...boy did she make a fuss. Poor little mite.

Still, maybe Tom and Tabitha won't bash her up so much once she is neutered...the violence from Tabs has ramped up again this last week, I wonder if Cassi smelled different or something?

Stay warm and safe, everybody

Sunday

Very cold here again, slipping around all over the place in order to do anything outside. Another day of indoor chores with frequent trips outside to change frozen drinkers and check on the animals.

Cassi cat has taken to throwing herself around in a wanton manner, making wild suggestive vocalisiations......suspect puberty has hit! Guess who will be visiting the vets this week?

A very wet Monday, with pears to be picked and things to be done.

Managed to get up and get dressed, (eventually) after a very long lie in and breakfast in bed, thanks to lovely CM.

I wandered outside and collected eggs and let out the feathery ladies, have picked 17 lb of assorted beans in the sunshine, scrubbed out a few buckets and trod washed a load of horticultural fleece sheet.

Came in, scrubbed the kitchen bench and prepped some tomatos for drying later. I have also put on a load of washing and tidied up several rooms of assorted "stuff"

All this took 5 hours, as opposed to the normal about 1. Not operating at full efficiency, I think

Am now lying down again (3 pm) , having exhausted all energy for the moment.

Hmm dark thundery clouds are appearing, I want to pick the Beth pears but they are not quite ready to be picked BUT may get knocked off by the storm if I don't pick them...bother, what to do for the best?

5 pm update. Answered my own question and have just picked over 50 lb of pears. Obviously not yet quite ripe but ready to pick ( come off easily with stalk intact when raised up horizontal) and would have been knocked off by any wind/heavy rain.  About as many left which are not ready to pick, yet. Hope they can stand the gales/rain etc!

Pouring with rain here, has been since 11 pm Sunday. Did right thing with pear picking! BUT sadly looks like the Blaisdon Red plums will be ruined by the rain ( they go mouldy on the tree if it stays too wet/humid )

Have to take Peter Rabbit to the vets for his Mixy jab and to possibly collect an abandoned rescue cat later today. Fingers crossed it all works out...!

Sad news about Ginger

This is a hard post for me to write.

When Compostman went to let out the chickens this morning he found Ginger dead inside the Broody Ark, where she had been recouperating in isolation since the fox attack.

Yesterday she spent her second day outside with all the other chickens, running around, scratching around in the soil and generally being a normal hen. She still hadn't laid an egg since the fox attack, but she didn't look egg bound and shock can often stop a hen laying for some time. Also the hot weather has put a couple of the other girls off lay, so we were not worried about Ginger not laying. She looked absolutely fine when I shut her in at 9pm and at midnight Compostman checked on her and she crooned at him from her nest box.

Ginger wasn't injured in any way when he found her this morning, she looked as if she might have had a brief struggle (the bedding was churned up) but apart from that she had ..just...died. So we assume that perhaps she died of heart failure, possibly bought on by another egg in the process of developing, getting stuck overnight. Or, maybe, she just, died.

Ginger and Henny were the first 2 hens I got when I started keeping chickens again two and a half years ago, Compostman bought me an Eglu and Henny and Ginger as a birthday present.



We were all always very fond of Ginger, she was very clever and always keen to come and join in with what we were doing. She also seemed very bright for a chicken and would lead us over to gates she wanted opened...and she had a trick where she would jump up to get food from your hand.



Ginger the amazing jumping chicken! Her feet are around 2 foot off the ground in this photo.

Ginger spent yesterday re asserting her "top hen" status by getting first dibs at any tasty morsel of food and by re-enacting a "coldiz" style raid on the veg garden. She dug a tunnel under the wire and got inside the veg garden then encouraged some of the others through, to wreak a bit of havoc in there....





I tried to take a few pictures of her during the afternoon to show you all she was back in action, but she was too busy to pose for me.



SO, all very sad here and we buried Ginger on the edge of the wood today, near one of her favourite scratching spots.

RIP Ginger Hen, you will be much missed by all of us here at Compost Mansions.

Update on Ginger..10 days in...

Ginger is well and recivering from her fright and illness..she has finished the antibiotic and the liquid Calcium ( boy did she HATE the liquid Calcium!)

She is now scratching and furtling around on the ground as normal and looks much more her usual self... although she is still isolated from all the other birds by a net fence for her safety while she recovers. Henny ( of course) has been in with her, as has Attilla ( ah, bless!)

She has not laid an egg yet...but it has been so hot and humid that a number of the other hens have gone "off lay" so I am not worried ( and neither is our vet Tamsin...)

So...Ginger seems ( fingers crossed) to have got away with it, this time...but I have advised her NOT to take on any more foxes, if at all possible!

Can't help feeling she has lost a life, though...!

DO hens have multiple lives like cats, do you think? ;-)

Ginger - good news so far!

Ginger has perked up a lot :-)


We have moved her and the Broody Ark into the small paddock attached to the main Orchard chicken paddock. This means Ginger can see everyone else, but not get hassled by the cockerels.



Having Ginger in a separate place also means I can keep track of her eggs. This is important as she is on antibiotics for another 5 days and then there will be a further 21 day egg withdrawal period. Any eggs she lays will be thrown away during this time, as they will contain traces of antibiotic.

I am so pleased Ginger seems on the mend, I really was worried she would go downhill fast like Genghis and Cathy did and die on us; I guess not being an ex battery hen has given Ginger a much stronger constitution and better powers of recovery. She really looks much better today, she has been looking around, taking an interest in things, snapping at flies and suchlike and her tail is now perked up, as opposed to drooping down - always a bad sign in a chicken, is a droopy tail!

Ginger is NOT impressed to be separated from her pals at all though and was constantly trying to get through the fence to get back to them.



Henny was delighted to see her pal again and came charging over to the fence to say hello :-) and there was much clucking and crooning and mutual preening going on between them through the fence :-)

Update on poor old Ginger

As I detailed in late night fox activities, on Sunday I went out to shut the chickens in the Orchard, but there was no sign of Ginger, Capt Flint, no Henny and no Long John Silver.

The other hens were all very agitated and I finally found Ginger, unhurt but shaking, inside the Eglu, where she hasn't lived for 1 1/2 years. Henny and Long John Silver turned up OK late that night and Capt Flint was there the next morning. Capt Flint, especially, seems to have had a near miraculous escape as he was definately grabbed by the Fox on Sunday night and his neck looked very badly cricked....!

So all was well first thing Monday I thought, until I realised Ginger hadn't come out with the other girls....She was still inside Peckingham Palace, didn't look very happy, a bit miserable, a bit hunched up and she didn't lay an egg. I checked her over, she had no obvious injury and seemed ok, and she settled down to her usual routine in the Orchard that day. She was a bit quiet but eating and drinking OK so I assummed she was upset by the fox incident and the lack of an egg was because she was due her 6 weekly day off laying ( seriously, she lays continuously in the summer for 42 days then has a day off!)

But Tues morning there was no egg, when I would have expected her to lay very early on and she seemed even more hunched up and withdrawn and worryingly I didn't see her do any droppings...this was serious as if there was an egg stuck in her enough to bung her up to that extent, she would rapidly die of the effects of not being able to pass out her waste products,

So...I had a gentle feel of her abdomen, it didn't seem unduely swollen BUT it wasn't "right" SO, as I had no medication to hand which might help, we used old fashioned methods. We filled a box with warm/hot water (body temp for a chicken) with some lavender essential oil and lavender soap added and I lowered her in. The idea beind this is the same as a soak in a hot bath when you have a back ache, it relaxes the muscles and hopefully would allow Ginger to expel any retained egg stuck inside her oviduct. It usually works well and quite quickly! ( and I would have gone to the vets asap if it hadn't!)






I let Ginger soak for about 20 mins while lovely Compostman got the Broody Ark out and put it in the sunshine for her. Ginger seemed to enjoy the unusual experience, well she crooned and purred a bit, anyway and nibbked at my hand.

I lifted her out, wrapped her in a towel and dried her gently and then put her in the Ark. She strained a bit



and then produced a misshapen egg shell and some egg white! and then a poo.....!



She perked up a lot after all this and ate and drank a bit, including a good portion of bread soaked in olive oil, (as I was a bit concerned about her crop feeling a bit impacted) and I left her to recover away from the other hens. Ginger perked up during the rest of the day and, although not right, was a lot improved by Tuesday evening.

BUT early on Wednesday morning she looked much worse again, hunched over, refusing to eat, and very wobbly. I rang the vet and took her straight down to see Tamsin the vet. She admitted her heart sank a bit when I walked in with ANOTHER ginger hen in a cat carrier, and when I said this was my best layer, most favourite hen and the matriarch of the flock she said "so, no pressure, then"

Ginger had no obvious retained egg stuck inside her BUT had a high temperature and a lot of albumen came out when Tamsin examined her, which was not good news. She had a shot of antibiotic, one of oxytocin ( yes, like some women have during labour to speed up contractions during childbirth!) and a dose of liquid calcium ( this helps smooth muscle movement, like the hot bath) I didn't have any liquid calcium at home so I got some to take away, and Tamsin was approving of the hot bath idea as a good one to try.

Ginger hasn't passed any egg products yesterday or today but IS looking brighter and has done some huge poos, so fingers crossed all will be well with my favourite hen.

BUT she does NOT like her daily syringe full of antibiotic OR calcium and I have a struggle to get them down her beak....

Please can I have lots of good thoughts for my hen? I know she is "only a chicken" but.....we are very fond of her and Henny, particularly, will be lost without her friend Ginger ( and YES hens DO have friends.....)

Kitty Cat

I thought I ought to post up a couple of pictures of Kitty Cat, if only to give people some idea of how big he is!

He IS a big cat, he only weighs 10 lb now but in his prime was 18 lb of pure hunting muscle.



So far he is happily coming in at dusk every evening and taking his tablet in a ball of cheese, with no problems, and then lying by the Aga or on the sofa for the evening. AND he *is* looking a little better since we started him on them! So thats good, isn't it?

He didn't used to always come inside every night, some times we didn't see him for a week but I think he now needs us to feed him rather more than he used to as he is too poorly to hunt at the moment.

He has always been welcome to come inside with us, he isn't deliberately kept outside btw! He just seems to prefer being outside and sleeping in the loft over the garage. Compostman made him a heated bed a few years back , which gets put on in the winter months, so he is warm and cosy in there and has food and water at all times as well.

We would have liked him to be more of an indoor puss but he has always done what HE wants, as is always the case with a cat IMO!

Lovely big gentle Kitty Cat, a real character!



These are standard height kitchen units, so you can get an idea of how big he is!

Chicks update and hens laying report.

Sweetiepie is being SUCH a good mum to the sweetie six !

I was watching her today; I gave her a little treat.....so when she found a tasty morsel, she ate a small bit then bit it into tiny tiny pieces and clucked to the chicks to come and eat the bits from her beak...

I am continually impressed at hens ..they are NOT bird brains, they are actually CLEVER ...and I delight in watching Sweetiepie and her brood...they are SO funny!


Also, for the last few days Ginger, Henny, Cathy and Attila have been laying every day..(Genghis of course has not...useless hen.....) and they have all settled down and there is no nasty pecking going on, the odd small lunge but nothing nasty...I guess this is because the new girls, Babs and Goldie, are still in isolation on the other side of the garden....

SO....I have another week to consider how to re introduce Babs and Goldie so as not to have moider and mayhem again.....

Babs and Goldie finish their course of antibiotics tomorrow BUT I will need to isolate and not eat their eggs for at least another 10 days ( and typical! they are both laying an egg each per day...which are large and tasty looking ...)
the vet said 5 days, but Organic standards say twice (OFG) or 3 times (SA) the withdrawal period must be followed...and although I am NOT organic certified, I DO stick to the SA rules and use organic feed, bedding, medicines etc ...so I will follow the egg withdrawal period recommended also...

*I* wouldn't want to eat anything with antibiotic residues in, so I certainly wouldn't want my family to, either !( seriously! I am allergic I tend to collapse and crash if given these antibiotics and would die....) I am NOT going to eat them!


So,......the easiest way to isolate Babs' and Goldie's eggs is to have them in a separate pen. THINKS I think I shall move them back into the hen padock BUT keep them in the Eglu and run, untill the others are allowed out to free range / trash the garden...and then Babs and Goldie can be let out into the hen paddock , just the two of them and Sweetiepie with the chicks..

Oh its all SO complicated!Do other folk have such a difficult time of it, or is it me?

The pouring rain and flooded ground doesn't help, either! I managed to fall flat on my face in the mud today!

Lets make her do some work!

I have had an infested, plague rid sort of day ...have discovered
Fudge the Guinea Pig is crawling with lice ( yuck...poor thing!) which he wasn't before I opened a new supply of Hay for him when I cleaned hin out 2 days ago.........

AND the lice are all over the porch, on the floor, windows, blanket which covers his run...etc

AND Babs the new Rhode Rock is poorly and I am off to the vets with her in about 5 mins..( she is new, was bought for lots of money last week and is very sweet and I am worried about her...)

BUT I can't take her to the Vets until after I disinfect the cat carrier because that's where I stuck Fudge the GP, after his bath to get rid of the lice, whilst I disinfected his cage, the porch etc..

Have done NONE of the stuff I wanted today...zip, zilch, nada........ I PLANNED to make some chutney and dehydrate, blanch and freeze some veg ,

But I DID get to help Compostgirl make a puppet out of scrap materials...:-)

later on tonight....

Babs the Hen IS poorly..my instincts ( always good!) were right..she has a respiratory virus and she and ( as a precaution) Goldie are now isolated in a cat carrier ( insulated against the cold and the rain and with lots of straw inside) inside the Guinea Pig run..with antibiotic in their water. So no eating the eggs from THEM for 10 days!


And I am lighter by £11, and have further supplies JIC the other hens start sneezing, also.

I am NOT happy as MY hens didn't have this.....and I have only just bought in the 2 new ones.....

Ah well...is today ( in the doing stuff by the moon calender) a run compostwoman ragged with cleaning out/de lousing/spraying hens bums purple/going to the vets/cleaning up lice etc etc Day ..or what?



I TOLD you she had a purple bum!





I need Alkyhole and LOTS of it so will retire to the sofa with red wine I think!