I’ve been without a computer for a few days now, while the builders continue our kitchen improvements … only snatching a moment online here and there when DH is out of the study. So I’ve not been able to update you as to goings on in the Hen Garden. But now I’m settled for a while with DD2’s laptop, and I’ve loaded some photos … so I have three bits of news to share with you.
We now have at least three hens moulting. Alongside Verity’s pure white feathers are Welsummer feathers and some brown and white feathers which must be from a Barn Girl. Verity’s quills are showing through, and when she shakes you can see that she has few original feathers left on her back. I think the Welsummer is Treacle, as she’s looking a little ragged round the edges, but I can’t see any bare patches. And I’ve no idea which of the Barn Girls may be shedding what few feathers she has left. I keep thinking I see signs of quills breaking through but so far, nothing convincing. Usually, when a hen is refeathering, from a distance she looks grey because of the dark quills, but Verity’s are white – I’d not noticed it before.
I’ve been treating the girls, all of them, with clotrimazole as it’s clear we still have vent gleet in at least two of them. They had a dose every day for five days, and although it’s not normally given orally, I hope it will have made a difference. So next time I see any sign of loose droppings, it’s time to take one of the girls to the vet for a more formal diagnosis and treatment. If I had a kitchen, I would take each of the girls, give them a bath and apply both an anti-fungal cream and iodine. It would also then be easier to see if any of them had the symptoms, but for now, with no kitchen in action they must stay dirty. Hopefully, another week will see the work finished, although I doubt that bathing the hens will be my first priority when it is!
And finally, we eventually put into action my plan of having a compost bin the girls can access from the Hen Garden.
They were immediately curious, and were soon exploring, but it took a while for them to realise that from now on, treats will often go directly into the compost bin.
But you do have to be careful to make sure it’s unoccupied before tossing anything in!
We will, of course, have to move the contents on to the main compost bins on a regular basis, although it’s suprising how quickly compost breaks down when it’s regularly scratched over.
And for now, one final photo … we see little of the cats during the day … it’s quite noisy at times with so many unknown men milling around the house (I’ve been trapped upstairs a few times now when they’ve pulled up floorboards at the bottom of the stairs etc!) But Misty has found a safe place to watch all our comings and goings …
The Hen House archive 