Backyard Poultry Forum

Jack showing his pin feathers coming through

Jo having a dust bath in the rice hulls!

Sarah-Jane- hard to photograph as all she wanted to do was sit on my knee!

Sarah-Jane

Jo

Oswin

Strangely she has moulted and grown feathers back on the top of her head which have white tips- they were all black

She has been a terrific layer- 6 eggs a week almost every week

Sounds like they are brilliant layers - what a bonus! Really lovely to see them and to hear that they are doing so well

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Cheerio, Rach
Blue Swedish Ducks

Thanks Rach. This is a perfect example of the kindness of strangers having a truly positive impact I love my little flock!

What gorgeous birds, and they look fantastically healthy and glossy! Clearly they are very happy in their home.

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Shairlyn's Genetics Lessons

What lovely photos Trillian they look so comfy, happy and healthy.
How do you find the rice hulls? I use pine shavings. Are the hulls very absorbant? Do they chooks try and eat them? Do you buy it in bulk? Is it expensive?
It looks so clean in your photos. Do you have a concrete base?

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Thanks sharilyn I think the black colour is really beautiful - the green shimmer is almost like a peacock colour!

Hi love my girls. I really like the rice hulls. I have a large tractor sitting on a concrete base ( my car port) and I buy large bags ( I think 125kg but will have to check- will also check price) and change the bedding about once a fortnight but can stretch out to 4 weeks ( but bit grotty by then). The bags do 4-6 bedding changes (depending on how deep I put it in) so 8-24 weeks per bag. My local feed place is willing to deliver the bags to my farm which is fantastic so I get 2 delivered at a time.

They don't eat the hulls but I think there must be little bits of rice in there as well because for the first couple of days they really scratch around and seem to be finding little bits of something to eat. They really enjoy scratching around in the hulls. It definitely keeps the droppings dry and keeps the flys down- when I had them just on concrete for a couple of days (trying to debrood all 3 girls!) the flys were bad, whereas normally I don't notice them. I think the texture of the hulls is probably closer to being on dirt so it's satisfying to scratch around in. I use it as a bit of a mulch for garden- takes a long time to break down.

Ps. The orange bag you can see in background of photos are the large rice hull bags

Shockingly I found Jo dead this morning. Still crying about it. She was fine Saterday - they had a couple of outings in garden including a good dust bath. Fine Sunday morning but yesterday afternoon was a bit quiet and slightly hunched up. I though maybe the start of cocci so gave her a couple of drips of baycox in beak and was going to put a dose in water this morning but she had died some time in the night - looks like she fell off perch. I had checked on them all at 10pm as I was a little worried about her but they all seemed fine on perch.

I am now damning myself for having missed some crucial symptom. I hate being a new owner and not knowing what is critical.

I have taken her to vet for an autopsy to try and find out what had gone so terribly wrong

Well the vet has said she was full of a fungal infection. I'm devastated and at a bit of a loss. They get laucke show bird which is stored in a metal 44 gallon drum in the shed. They get corn on cob or spinach which I buy fresh at shop and give them the same day that I buy it. They never get food scraps as I have always been worried about mouldy food. I boil their water as I have tank water and I have always been worried about cocci in water from wild birds. The only thing I can think is that when they are scratching around in garden the wood mulch has started to decay and maybe they have picked up some mould there. Just devastated as I have tried so hard to do everything to make sure they are healthy and happy.



Now really scared I will lose the others as well. Vet is going to do some reading tonight to see if there is any treatment that I can give the others as they may well have the infection as well!

Awful