They forage for scratch grain seeds when I grow the actual plants, which tells me it would be part of their diet if they lived here wild. They absolutely love it. They love it so much that I can use it as a bribe to get them to go where I want them if needed. This is a handy tool. Sometimes when they don’t feel well, they will still eat scratch and I add some KayTee powder to it.
For my flock I imagine that if they never saw scratch, never got sunflower seeds from the plants I grow, never had the chance to jump for seeds from the grasses/wheat or milo, they would not miss it and be happy with the pellet, but man, imagine all your food was presented to YOU in pellet form…….. you’d eat it too if there were nothing else, wouldn’t you?
Why do I ferment the scratch?
Soaking or fermenting grains is said to make the available the nutrients more available and digestible. The fermenting time is usually 3-4 days, I soak only 48 hours as that is what works here for my household and my schedule. I tried fermenting pellets, wasn’t working for me.
How do I ferment scratch:
The easy way
Fill a mason jar half to 2/3 with scratch, top off with water. The feed will swell, there will be bubbles and possibly a whitish, harmless fungi film. Not fermenting longer that 2 days means it does not smell up the house nor does it ever turn bad. (you can smell that). Every now and then I clean the jar. Don’t ferment in metal, but you can use those 5 gallon plastic buckets if you have a very big flock.
Where do I ferment?
Indoors on my office shelf above the little heater during the cold months because otherwise it would take days and days, outdoors in the run during the warmer months.
How much?
Because scratch grains are not complete nutrition for laying hens, especially commercial production breeds (missing calcium and protein) or molting birds who need a lot of protein, I limit how much they can have per day to 10 percent in the hottest months and 25-35 percent in the coldest, non-laying and non-molting times. I have read that chickens do better on 20% protein that the usual 17 in layer feed, so sufficient protein is important.
When do they get it?
They get it in the morning, and also in the evening when it is expected to freeze because I imagine it keeps them warmer internally. They always eat it all up. Layer pellets are available all day and they free range most afternoons.
Sometimes I throw some scratch into the run as a boredom buster when the weather is so bad they won’t be free ranging or the raccoon and bobcat have young to raise and come looking for a meal and the chickens will have to stay in the run or to use as a distraction during flock integration .
How can I tell the percentage of scratch in my total feed?
I count the feed bags I buy per month.
For example, four equal weight bags of layer pellets and one bag of scratch means 1/5th scratch or 20 % for that time. With bought feed there is some wastage with the pellets, never with the scratch, so it’ll probably be more like 20-25 percent of their bought feed nutrition. A little more for some and less for others, depending on pecking order.
How do I feed my flock
they get a mixed diet of
layer pellets
oyster shell
scratch
eggs
volunteer squashes, fallen apples, blackberries when available
free range, and what they find varies seasonally
KayTeeee exact baby bird powder with the scratch if I feel it is needed for some birds sunshine (they LOVE to sunbathe, do so winter or summer and I decided that it is a nutritional requirement for them)
My philosophy
It is important to me to provide living conditions for the chickens that are species appropriate. My chickens are a partly “free range in the garden” flock, 32 birds atm, 5 of them roosters. It is a delight to see them do their thing.
I am trying to breed for disease resistance, general good health, foraging, and some eggs.
They are protected from predators as much as possible.
Pushing the hens to the extreme of what is possible for my egg eating habit was never part of the plan.
There is no supplemental light in the coop to make them lay eggs through the winter, and none of them are over-bred to lay an egg a day, 3-4 per week seems to be common when they are younger. I hardly get eggs for about 3 months of the year.
So I don’t see the nutritional necessity to feed them exactly like commercial layer hens which are used as live egg production machines that are considered spent at 18 months to 2 years of age. My two oldest will turn 9 this year, and last year, they maybe laid a couple of eggs at best.
All original feed research was done to maximize egg production and feed conversion in hens in mass production. That formula just does not apply to my flock. Even a confined backyard condition does not apply. This gives me more freedom to feed them with other things than pellets, which they eat, but really just because there is nothing else. Yes, chickens have preferences, If I had more available land, they’d be foraging for much more of their feed, with supplemental grains.
There are other ways to be more self sufficient with feeds, for example using things like chicken tractors, huge compost piles, growing soldier fly larvae or having worm bins, but this is not doable here for me at this time.
Why do even wonder about it? And that is a good question, but here goes:
I didn’t want to believe my eyes when I saw some of the new girls molt this fall, loosing their feathers just like adults. So, these sweet young chickens you see here hatched in the beginning of April 2021, there were a total of six.
Five of the six started laying about 5-6 months of age. Yay, and I was hoping for them to lay some eggs through the winter, like all other girls seemed to have done so far. Then, about 1-2 months later, egg production dropped to no eggs at all. Instead, two of them began molting, actually, 3 of the 6 pullets did. Like an actual molt. Hm. What happened here?
Maybe integration into the flock in the fall was too stressful, even though they still have their old coop to use and roost in? That is the only thing I can think of in terms of stress, because I kept the 2 eager to mate young roosters separately during that time. Of note also that one of the girls (Diamond, the one that pulled my diamond stud earring out) didn’t start laying till December and is not molting.
A sort of trivia question: will they assume laying as hens or pullets – egg size and amount is said to vary, smaller, more frequent eggs in pullets, fewer and bigger in hen., not that I can do much about it one way or another. I was hoping they would lay through the winter, more or less, and molt till next fall. Looking online, there is no definite agreement on what a pullet is.
Generally, a pullet is a female chicken prior to the first adult molt, which can happen anywhere from a few months old to 15-18 months of age? Some say a pullet is a female chicken younger than 1 year of age. Or is it whichever comes first? My original group 9 years ago didn’t molt this early. There were eggs through the winter, even with no supplemental light. In fact, none of the other chicks did adult type molt that first winter.
Now these young ones after the molt, are they now hens or remain pullets till one year of age? They still look like pullets. In my experience they fill out so much in their second year that I go by looks. Pullets start looking like big girls, like hens, like adults. So I will call them pullets still, even though, technically, some of them are apparently now hens.
Anyway, just goes to show you that observation of what is actually happening with your flock and birds cannot be substituted, no matter what “they”, meaning online folks, say, no matter how generally accurate the information may be.
Similarly, whatever you learn or whatever ideas you have about something or about yourself can inform you but cannot substitute for (self) observation, for seeing and sensing what is actually the case.
Look at this sweet hen sitting in front. I love this girl, even though she always objects loudly when I pick her up. She is one of Hairdo’s…Heirdodottir, who was a golden Polish.
She started acting a little slower a couple of week ago, nothing else. No limping, irritability, excessive preening, respiratory symptoms, dirty vent or difficulty swallowing. She will be 6 years old this spring, in other words, has reached slightly more than the average free range backyard chicken age. She looks great, still eating but not as vigorous, but, I know she is slowing down just by the way she moves and acts, even though she is still going out with the flock. So what, if anything, is there to do?
A word on one of the best tools in flock management: observation. Time spent being with the flock and noticing what is going on, how they move and relate is the only way I know of to accomplish this. How else will you know if something, or someone, is acting “off”. Also, knowing what normal breathing looks like, what a normal belly feels like and what foot pads would feel and look like will help you to notice when they are not within the normal range. Knowing what clean and healthy feathers look like, and those infested with Norther fowl mites, a clean vent area and one with lice. It really helps to know what is normal or healthy when you look them over.
There are some (most) chicken ailments you won’t be able to do much about. Some others though, if you don’t act early, you might lose the bird.
Sometimes something like this, just this slowing down, is temporary while they are fighting who knows what virus, of which there are many. Sometimes it is the beginning of the end of life process. For some, it takes a few more weeks, others a few months till their time has come.
What I check for in a bird with no other symptoms other than that it is slowing down are: lice, mites, and, especially if you notice any abnormality in swallowing, check the inside of their mouth for those yellow canker plaques. Why those? Because I have lost 2 birds to canker which I treated too late.
I check for lice and mites because people say the birds can get so sick they get anemic. This I cannot verify. The only birds that have had issues with lice and mites on them are those who are too sick to clean themselves, and when a bird is that slow, then I check and treat them, because once they stop dust bathing and preening, eventually lice and/or mites will follow.
Anyway, those are the things I know of to check in a bird with otherwise no symptoms. For all the illnesses caused by the various viruses, all you can do is supportive care, depending on symptoms. I no longer treat for worms as I consider some worms normal for chickens and they don’t live in crowded conditions and free range.
I keep my birds with the flock as long as they are safe. It stresses them out not to be.
What if they had lice, mites or canker, then what do I do?
I treat lice and mites on birds with: Elector PSP. That is it. So far I never used any other lice treatment on birds. It is expensive, but I only make up small amounts and it does last a long time (as in: several years)
Canker is caused by Trichomonas, a flagellate microorganism which they can catch out in the wild where there are other birds, especially pigeons, who spread them through drinking water of wet food.. Canker can kill your bird because of airway obstruction or obstruction of the esophagus, but it can be treated if you catch it before the obstructive masses begin to form.
How do I treat canker: Isolate the bird (the only infectious reason that I so far have had to isolate for to protect the others). Medications I use: Berimax and Thyme extract alternating into the beak, once in the morning, once at night. If lesions resolve, that is it, otherwise add one of the Trichomonas treatments for birds (metronidazole type) if it is any more than a small area or seems to spread. Look at the bird medication or pigeon sites to find it. Apple cider vinegar in the affected bird’s drinking water. I also use apple cider vinegar in the drinking water for 3 days for the rest of the flock. Trichomonas can’t survive in acidic water.
Do chickens sunbathe? Yes, frequently. Here they are trying to get a little warmth from the winter sun, at least that is how I interpreted their behavior.
However, I was surprised when this activity persisted in the middle of our summers, even at temperatures of 104 F (and higher). Just imagine, here it is hot as hell for chickens and as soon as I let them out to free range, they head for the sun, plot themselves down and spread their wings. Some people claim they lay in the sun and spread their wings because they want to cool down. I can see that spreading wings could have a cooling effect, but also laying in a cool shady area would make a lot more sense to cool down. According to the British Trust for Ornithology, sunbathing in birds serves to help spread vital oils along the feathers. This might explain why inevitably they also tend to, at some point during their sunbathing session, stand up and start preening. Second, the heat might help to drive out any parasites that may be feeding on the bird’s plumage. Whichever it may be, chickens love to sunbathe and it seems to be important for their health to be able to do so.
This guy is a cockerel hatched in my office in April 2020. Since I was the one who incubator-hatched him, he didn’t grow up with a mama amongst the flock. He noticeably never was a lap chick, always wanting to be independent. His only male hatch-mate, a couple of weeks younger than him, had it out as 3 and 5 week olds in some ferocity, then again at 3 months and even after that, once the hormones hit, this guy was quite insistent on chasing his buddy when in the coop, which I needed to handle by giving them more space during the daytime. Eventually, they arranged themselves.
But then, one day when he was around maybe 7 months, I felt a thud against the back of my leg. Well then, that was startling and …not acceptable.
So right there, when something like this happens, there are some things to be aware of and there are some things I do: step towards him, chase him, pick him up, offer food, not necessarily all at the same time.
Remind yourself that you are way bigger than him, you are smarter than him, he is only doing what his hormone driven behavior tells him and you own the space, and in this case, he does not even have spurs yet.
He is trying to establish dominance. If you walk away, he “thinks he won”. If you ever watched rooster fighting, there is the pre-fight behavior, the fight, and the post fight behaviour. The loser ends up walking or running away and from there on makes room for the dominant rooster, the one who won. So walking or running away is the thing not to do when he has already challenged you in your territory. You are the one who walks = you declared yourself the looser.
You turn around, make yourself big and step towards him. If he is really gutsy, he will take up the challenge, but you can chase him, pick him up and put him in a holding space if you don’t have the time, but do a little chase till he runs. I have had to do that a number of times till he got it. I have read that some people are quite severe in demonstrating who is the boss.
But I know he is still “thinking” about taking his chances sometimes, as you can see in this picture sequence.
It is his stance and the way he looks at me, though he didn’t go through the moves of pecking and scratching and giving me the wing. However, when he approaches as I offered food, he first went sideways (like they do during a challenge) before giving in to treat temptation. And this brings me to the other thing I do: offer food…hehe, this confuses them…because, that is not what establishing pecking order is about.
So this guy is young, he has no spurs, his hormones just come in plus mating season will start, and I might have to chase him again, and maybe even a little more vigorously and maybe pick him up. But the thing is, he needs to get it that he will never be the boss of me, and hopefully this will transfer to other humans, which don’t have any business walking into the coop and run without letting me know, and out in the field, there is enough space. And space is hugely important. There has gotta be enough of it, and then, don’t invade his (as a visitor). Roosters like this might go up against predators to protect their flock, so it is a balancing game
If you KNOW he respects you but other humans who enter “his” space will be challenged, then they need to either respect the space and don’t enter the zone, or need to establish pecking order, or, you can put him in a holding space till visitors have left.
For me, this is an experiment as he is the first of my roosters trying this. Why him and not the others: hormones/genetics and who knows what triggering event.
Do I want to breed this guy? I will evaluate that when he is a little older. Do I call him aggressive? No. He is not “aggressive” and that label isn’t helpful. He does seem to have more dominance behavior than my average roosters have had over the years, and time will tell how it evolves. It requires continued awareness. My hope is this: he will respect me and other humans and stay away from them, but be vigorous in protecting “his” flock from any other predators.
TORN EARLOBE at the insertion point….Never a dull moment. Yesterday, 2 of the roosters resettled their pecking order.
All was resolved, Blondie won. However, just before roost time i noticed the upper attachment of one of the earlobes of our Blue Andalusian (Blue Jr) was torn off..
This was leaving the entire earlobe pouch wide open. geez.
I was late, getting dark, I had no help.
All I could do was clean and apply Manuka honey to the edge and then a dressing (despite hobbled, he had scratched the steri-strips off in 3 seconds, which is when I knew I had to hobble him tighter).
Things looked ok this morning, but the wound edge was already hard and would have had to be re-cut to suture. Still without help, i opted to not do that, but re-dress. Will try to at least take one picture tomorrow. BTW. the wattles will heal. Anything black will fall off. That is just the way it goes.
BTW, I did redress this one a little looser.
None of the few images online on chicken earlobe tears were anything near as bad or such unfortunate location as this guy’s earlobe. So I thought I’ll keep a public record.
This easily overlooked and not fully realized side of chicken keeping may not apply to those with chickens who have more than 20 or so acres, hence “backyard” chicken keeping.
So – one becomes aware of what is really going on the the meat production industry, the milk and egg production industry. ….and so on.
There is a garden to be worked, organically, and with some permaculture principles …and then – there are chickens (nvm what happened to all those first roosters, long story) The flock is loved, humanely kept, allowed to truly free range, scratch and peck and mate and some of the hens raise chicks.
Eggs are laid, all is well, delightful. Then the chicks grow up and half of them are roosters …now what?
Same thing the year after that, and the year after that ….meanwhile, the flock is huge, the oldest hens are 4 years old, eggs are less plentiful in comparison, feed costs way up ….and the roosters….
I know, some say: What is the problem…eat them. Kill the old hens and make soup …
There it is: the dark side. …….the killing…or the culling – the eliminating of the ‘extra roosters’ – or ‘non-productive’ hens. But mostly, it is a rooster issue….Unless you live in town and may only keep 3 chickens in your backyard…what are you going to do when they stop laying?
Why dark? some will ask – it is normal to kill and eat …to that I say – normal does not mean much, in some culture child brides are normal. But really – it just means the issue was not completely clear, prior arrangements can fall through, the significance and toll was not fully seen or considered, let alone felt, the necessity for and impact of “culling” not out in the open light….it was in the dark….
And strangely enough – it is getting harder and harder, not easier, to deal with the necessary “culling”.
Be aware.
It is not the heartache when your favorite hen is ill and she dies, or the lesson in letting go when a predator catches one, another realization about death and impermanence, not the obscene increase in feed costs, especially since it has to be organic feed, not your subsidizing of the eggs with your savings because no one wants to pay what they are worth, not the mites and the work to get rid of them, not the construction of the coups, not the getting up early in the summers to let them out, not the going down in the freezing cold to make sure they still have water, not the suturing up of a rooster who the dogs got ahold of, not the hand feeding several times a day of a baby chick that could not stand or walk …none of that. What makes chicken keeping so incredibly hard for some of us is dealing with this one thing:
It is the culling – the eliminating from the flock…of the roosters.
It is simply too hard on the hens to have that many roosters after them, especially when the hormones first kick in. There is not enough space for them to form their rooster bands and live elsewhere on the property, hence the above statement that this may not apply to those with acreage. The feed store gives them a chance to get adopted, but mostly, they end up at auction.
You got to know them, you know they are not separate from you, nothing is, and you know you are responsible for them….always and forever. They all have their own temperament and personality …their awareness, fears and trust …programs running them and learning on the other hand…you even had a contract with them before they hatched ….or you can tell yourself: some were meant to be food, go to the feedstore, or that is how it is, we all have to die sometime or any similar such line.
…you are still responsible, there still is a weight on your conscience – even if you won’t allow yourself to feel it.
My advice for any vegetarian who wants to keep chickens: if you don’t have any yet, get rescue hens or a flock from someone who has too many chickens, even if they are a couple of years old.. (getting baby chicks who have been sexed just means their brothers were killed at a day of age)
Be grateful for an egg here and there & if you need more, either pay someone who is keeping chickens the way you feel is a good way, a good enough way, and is able to cull the “extra” chickens …or don’t eat eggs any more….just have chickens around for the delight they are.
So there it is – if you don’t have a lot of land and you are the kind of person who thinks rats are cute, all animals ought to be able to live according to their nature, who has cried because the grass gets mowed or the carrots pulled out to be eaten ….…. just get rescue hens & forget about breeding any chicken ever for any reason – or keeping chickens except rescue hens for their own sake and maybe some compost.
Give a home to a few ex-battery hens or someone’s surplus hens and enjoy them.
.…you may be of the kind that is already remembering a way of life not dependent on killing any other life.
The consciousness is in all of them, in everything. I am one, there is no other…is true…but that is not even it….look at this chick in the picture
….he will grow up
…he did grow up …
Never mind the “sentimentality”issue …what right do I have to “cull” him?
Interestingly, when I first mentioned about keeping chickens, the first comment I got asked by my teacher was in form of a question: will you be able to kill them?
I had not planned to (having made other arrangements) – and I actually could in certain circumstances, but in the course of “keeping” chickens, the longer I see them, where I am at today, the answer is : NO.
No matter how I look at it: It is taking life for no good reason.
(ps ..that chick was Wildhead, and he did get picked up to be in a flock – others were not so lucky)
Once again, life came and went. It never ceases to amaze me and each time it is this: once in forever, a form, in this case – my sweet buttercup – came to be – alive – and the best we can do is give it what it needs to live the best it can, see it, love it – be kind, take the time while there is time – and be grateful and amazed. There is this very deep feeling, this painful wondering about this – that it is forever gone….like our forms will be someday, gone. It helps to know it was a life well lived, to know there was love – but still …it came and went ….
My sweet little buttercup – you were so tired – thank you with all my heart.
On Tuesday July 14, 2015, just at the change from late afternoon to early evening, one of my sweet buttercups went home. Her name was Middle, she had turned 3 years old in May. She was one of my first 9 original flock hens. I am just writing down some things here, because, memory fades so fast, but words can’t describe too well all the things I went through with her
I am left with a sense of gratitude. I learned with her – about chickens that seek the proximity to a human, about their sweetness, she taught me about being egg bound, about bathing a chicken to get rid of lice, about blow-drying a chicken, about being patient and accepting and about getting ready to help her go when she stopped eating, even though I don’t really know that she suffered, and about going quietly, in the midst of a thriving flock. I loved that little bird.
I am writing because – just to share the topics I explored, just because – she is no more…her expression of Being – her animated self – is no more. This is to honor her, because she had managed to wiggle herself into my heart space.
Here is some of her story.
She came to me from Sandhill Preservation as part of a straight run of 27 day old mixed Mediterranean breed chicks – my first chickens, 6 of them were Sicilian Buttercups.
This little buttercup was probably a roo, just to show you how they were even as chicks
From the very beginning, the 6 buttercups, (turned out there were 3 girls and 3 boys – as an aside, of the roos, 1 eventually was gotten by a predator, he roosted in a tree, the other 2 went to live in Texas), anyway the buttercups, even as chicks, were already interested in getting close and liked sitting on me, and that never changed for any of them. To me, Buttercups are the sweetest chickens when it comes to humans.
This too could be her or one of her sisters
It is amazing to have them come to you and hop on your lap or your shoulder and seemingly enjoy being there, some preening, talking to you – it is just very endearing.
She had a good life, free ranged all day, organic feed, good company. There were some roosters, maybe a little bit of too much attention the first year as a hen, but live was good. She was always one of the favorites and I had to watch it till the very end.
Less than a year old, when we still had the buttercup roosters
One day in May 2014, she was not walking right, hanging around in the coop. I checked her on the roost that evening and felt something hard, an egg inside her….oh dear. I let her be there in hopes maybe she’d pass the egg overnight and that evening read all about egg binding I could find online. Next morning, no egg, I gave her the bath, nothing, then another warm bath and with the liberal use of coconut oil and some doing…the egg got out – she even helped.
This was after we got out the stuck egg
After a few days, she seemed to return to normal, even saw her in a nest box a few times but I don’t know if she ever did lay another egg.
Getting back to normal after being egg bound
So a few weeks ago she stayed back at times from running out with the others, but I didn’t think much of it because I always have some thing extra to give. I don’t even recall how I realized she was so so skinny, and now worried about worms, I wormed her and started paying closer attention. I checked out her feathers too, and she had chicken lice…lots of them, but no nits…I dusted her with a mixture of fine dirt, wood ash and diatomacious earth, around the vent and abdomen. I observed her some more and saw she was not dust bathing. I read up all I could on lice and how to get rid of them. I didn’t see any mites, but they are so small and I wander if I missed them.
The 3 buttercups
Basically, lice in free range chickens are just a matter of time till they appear, however, giving opportunity to dust bathe, chickens take care of them. If dust bathing is not possible, either no opportunity or the chicken is unable to do it because she is ill, then they start proliferating. (btw, those are chicken feather lice, they don’t go to humans, we have our own …)
I had also read a lot on chickens wasting away, none of which was good news, so I stopped the antibiotics I had started and given her for 3 days.
There was no abdominal swelling of any kind. Not other symptoms.
A lot of old timers – would just cull a hen like that.
Here she was still able to get on to the roost
Seeing how she stayed with the flock, but was hiding under plants or a wagon and moved slowly and not dust bathing …I decided to give her a bath to get rid of the lice, just so she didn’t have to feel them on her. Of course, I read up all about that too, the chicken lice treatment options, and yes, this does work:
2 cups of liquid dawn dish soap,
2 cups of salt,
2 cups of white vinegar in
5 gallons of warm water for 5 minutes, do the elbow test for right temperature. – dead lice will be floating in the water
rinse in 2 buckets,i found 1 rinse was not enough.
then blow dry…this is actually when most of the lice – all dead – came out.
I didn’t want to use the toxic stuff on her, and the water can be reused, but I have to say the blow drying took over an hour…and with her being so skinny, I had to get her all dry, not just sort of dry enough. She smelled good, well, like dawn …and she was clean. This would not work for a whole flock only because: the blow drying takes too much time. Luckily, healthy chickens who dust bathe take care of themselves.
She is there somewhere 🙂
I gave her special foods 3 times a day….of which she mostly picked and dropped, not ate much, but nonetheless she was actually eating something. Here are her favorites: watermelon,tomatoes (the inside), grapes, cucumber, grubs, chicken carcass with a bit of meat on it, some fermented grain, yogurt. Strangely enough, hard boiled egg yolk and scrambled eggs, an all time favorite, were not something she was interested in during the last 4 days. While she pecked and ate little, it was enough to poop. Once I saw her expel something, while she was pecking with the flock…some stuff that look like part of what I have seen described as latch egg or coagulegg (it was eaten by some hen so fast, I could not examine it). Never have seen when worms might look like if they got expelled after treatment, if they don’t get absorbed.
Every day she spent some time on my lap, though she was unable to fly up any more.
During those days, my prayer and invocation was for her to not be in pain and for that to happen which would be the best possible outcome, even if it included me culling her. And yes, I read up on all the chicken killing methods and weighed the pros and cons and then decided on what seemed like the best for her.
I kept at least one other buddy with her
Anyway, the day after the bath, Sunday, she stayed in the little hospital coop except for a short time in the afternoon. I had a heat lamp for warmth at night, a fan during the day when it was hot. She ate little and I was going through all the options to help her pass. During the last few days while in the hospitable coop, I did have at least one of her sisters spending the night in there too.
But the next day, Monday, things looked better! I was surprised at the interest she had in the food. She did really have the best food choices of her life in the last few days. She wanted to even go out with the flock, she ate more and in the afternoon, spent a while outside the hospital coop inside the coop run…and even tried to dust bathe, which for her just meant sitting in the dirt tub and looking around, there were the 2 mamas and chicks and a couple of younger hens.
In the evening on Monday I let the flock in and told her – that is your flock, this is where you live. I wondered if this was the …”I am getting out one more time thing” before she left, like I has seen our dog do, …or was she getting better? She even tried to get on a roost, but then decided to stay under it, half way under the heat lamp. She didn’t have the strength.
The answer came Tuesday…she was slow to move and, while still interested in food, pecked little and ate little. Yet in the afternoon, she had walked to the edge of the little coop (which has wire on the side she went) to either be closer to the fan or to the flock …so I fed them all some fermented grain to make her feel included.
She remained surrounded by the energy and sounds of a thriving flock, just protected from eager roosters
Even if it is all some chicken program and habit, I still wanted her to get the sense she was still part of the flock.
She still ate in the morning, but nothing that evening
I had decided: if or when she stopped eating, I’d help her by taking her out, using a slightly modified version of the method posted at the end of this blog. I had some cloth to gently wrap her in, had decided on a location and had a scalpel.
By Tuesday evening, she had gone to her spot under the nest box. She looked at the cucumber I offered, but made no attempt at pecking at the juicy flesh. I gently picked her up one more time and she sat on my lap for a while. It just felt that she was going to leave. I told her I loved her …and asked her: is it time? You look tired. After a while I put her back in her spot. I got my camera and took some photos, but after a couple of shots, the card was full. So I told her again I loved her, and that I would help her this evening, unless she wanted to go before then.
she was tired
When I came back, she was gone. Looked like she sat down where she had been standing and leaned to the side, her beak was closed, one eye was closed, the other one had the eyelid half over it. She had been so tired…and went to rest finally.
All throughout I prayed for her and did some readings. She heard the 4 lines and at least part of the Clear Light Prayer.
I was glad she didn’t have to feel any lice crawling on her during the last few days, she had the best food of her live, she was able to stay with her flock, but I wonder if I should have taken her before.
I remembered my aunt, who at 81 year old died at home of colon cancer, which had metastasized. She had gone through several chemo treatments and was sent home as there was nothing more that could be done. She didn’t really want to die, however, she was simply getting weaker and weaker, till she could not even hold the phone any more. She was catholic and always said: I don’t want to be in pain, and Mother Mary is gonna take of of that, that I won’t be in pain. If prayers to the unseen guides had anything to do with it, sweet little buttercup was not in pain.
And now she is free.
I took some feathers, and told her I was gonna have to take a look inside. She looked clean internally, skinny, and btw, not a single louse on her either. There was no abdominal fluid, no mass of egg yolks….but there was a yellow coagulated mass of something almost the size of a small egg, just more irregularly shaped in the oviduct. Maybe she was the one who had layed the occasional wind egg in recent weeks? Something did go wrong in the reproductive organs after all.
I buried her and planted a blueberry bush next to her.
The mayor issue I had is this: to cull her or not? In the natural world, no chicken would be able to survive this long this slow and weak without being eaten. But in the natural world, chickens are not laying eggs all year or have their broodiness bred out of them. In the natural world, she would not have been hearing the music she heard as a chick, or the prayers, she would not have been a teacher of mine – about life and death, dignity, egg binding & lice treatment in chickens, and the fact that no matter how many times it goes well, very young chicks need to be protected from other flock members – her included…and about the fact that no matter how similar it seems, no living creature is ever 100% the same. Modern physics now say that all of creation really is like a computer simulation – all in the mind of the supreme being. Well then, I did my best to do what was best for her, on the path to learn to be compassionate and non attached.
The way she went, I feel grateful, hoping that she just went like my aunt in Germany – just taking her last breath as the life force leaves completely. She ate and pooped till the day she died, I hope she was not in pain and she was with her flock, always home, and now home for good.
Thank you Middle, sweet buttercup & travel well.
I there is some way to take you with me, I am
I buried her next to a blueberry bush I planted the same day. She is under the logs, which are there to discourage digging.
The flock likes to hang out where she is buried.
I would have culled her on my lap, cutting the jugular with a scalpel. She would have fainted quickly. I don’t think I would have pulled her neck, just have her wrapped in a cloth and hold her. It was not necessary…her final gift.
Just some thoughts and considerations from an experience that was both intense and still, confusing and profound – because I didn’t cull that injured little chick.
Saturday, the weekend of Memorial Day in the USA, was hatchday …and she had hatched during Friday night, still not completely dry in the morning. Her sibling had hatched a day early and was fine, another egg had pipped. As I checked a few more times, just listening fro sounds and hoping for chick sightings, I noticed chick distress peeping, and that is unusual, and decided to take a closer look – shocked to see the black baby chick badly injured. At first I thought she had rubbed herself on the wire hardware cloth bottom of the nest box, but later I came to the conclusion that the other chickens had pecked her from below the box. First lesson learned the hard way: no matter how much straw you put into the nest box under the eggs, the hen will get down to the wire. And even if all went well a few times with hatching…that does not mean it will again….always put something over the wire.
I took the chick with me, set up my brooder again, and put her in after it warmed up…but she was mostly distress peeping in there, despite the warmth and the little plush toy….but was quiet when I held her.
Little Black Beauty – I never did manage to get a good selfie pic – I won’t forget this one
Despite chicken’s almost miraculous healing abilities when it comes to injuries, some of which I have witnessed, when baby chicks are involved and the skin is broken – chances are slim to none because there is that infection that happens – by day 4 usually. And she was in a bad way, I didn’t even really appreciate how bad till the end of the next day.
I got some non stick gauze, had some none-lidocaine antibiotic ointment, made normal saline, used koi med (which I had used to treat bumble foot with) , warmed everything up prior to each use, fed her save a chick and even mixed in egg yolk starting day 2 and in the last 2 days, used honey and coconut oil on the wounds – but that is just a summary or the stuff over 3 days. It really was a 24/7 job.
But first, I had asked in an online chicken group what the best way is to cull a chick.
I got these: put it in a bag and then in the freezer. Bag with baking soda and vinegar. Sharp shears or scissors and cut off the head, hit head with brick, instant death. Reading up some more, freezing does kill, but can hurt, and CO2 – unless done right, it can end up being like suffocating them. I was not sure the shears were sharp enough, ripping off or bending the neck backwards might be an option, and I know they are so fragile.
I had wrapped the little chick in a clean sock after putting the ointment on and the non-stick gauze and carried it against my chest….and that is where it lived 24/7 for 3 days. Once I just for a few minutes put it back in the incubator but the distress peeping started again…
My back hurt, I was tired, I didn’t get much done, walked, talked and moved differently ….it was a bit of a challenge.
And there was always this: just take a brick and hit the head, get those sharp shears and cut the neck, don’t be s whimp…..no way it can make it, put it out of it’s misery …. and maybe it was in pain, at least when it came to dressing changes….
There is definitely a time and resource consideration in trying to help and safe a little chicks, vs just “taking it out of its misery”, which can for sure be used as an excuse to quickly kill it. However, judging by the sweet sounds it made when it went with me …everywhere – there was more than just misery…much more.
It had such live force, …and, must have felt ok and safe next to my heart, because for 3 days it delighted everyone, in between the baby chick naps, who got close enough in the house to hear it, with the sweet little baby chick peeps and chirps. We went visiting the coup, the mama recognized the voice and vice versa, it talked…it responded to the siblings, my voice, and I heard more variety of chick sounds than ever before.
It got to hear music, and hear clear light readings, gentle humming and singing and guitar sounds…it felt like it felt safe ….and it got exposed to the workshop spaces of a spiritual school.
It even briefly stood on it’s feet on day 2, even tried to peck some egg yolk once.
Once I realized the extent of her injury I also saw that only suturing would have given her a chance, if at all ….and finally, too late for her and overdue – I made that order for medical supplies I had planned to make for some time. None of the supplies have come in yet, but if you were around like you were on the first 2-3 days, I’d go all for you when they do….despite visions of needing to build you a special little coop.
I also found out about Manuka honey, the best raw honey for wound healing.
So yet, there was pain, and I was torn, having internal considerations….about just ending the life, saving her pain and myself sleepless nights, a sore back and a pounding headache …but then …it sounded so content.
The last day, today, she peeped a few times at 1 am, I got up for a dressing change, she took some water from a dropper, but not like before, but mostly on Tuesday, it was quiet, no more sweet peeping and I knew it would end. The breathing changed, she didn’t move much any more. We listened to the clear light orb over and over and in the end, Little Black Beauty took her last breath to the sounds of the Clean Light Reading – it was just before noon. I was working on making special amulets.
Even then, would it have been better to take it outside and kill it? I had gone over it in my head …it would not be so hard…but was it right? I kept her as comfortable as I could…and she passed to the sounds of the clear light readings from the clear light orb.
Life can be painful, in fact, I know of no one that has not experienced it. The worst distress for this chick was being left alone, not held, though there was pain when I changed the dressing. It was amazing how much honey and coconut oil disappeared.
Nature would have dispensed of her as soon as the Mama hen left the nest, on day 2 to 4 after hatching usually, and she would have served as food for some other creature.
In the end, her life had a different meaning, but it had meaning – she taught me about listening to certain of my perceptions….about doing things in a timely manner – listening to the same intuition. I learned even more about the life force and resilience of little chicks. because of here I learned more about coconut oil, Vitamin E and raw honey use on skin (no on the vit e) but especially found out about Manuka raw honey. She touched people who heard her chirp, or see her peek out from the top of the tank-top. She made me go through considerations about a baby chick’s life and death and what is generally considered the best thing to do, about the possibility of being too whimpy ….and/but …
And – it also was a bardo trip for us.
Instead of having a short painful life after all that work getting out of the egg and then getting injured and soon meeting a brutal death – this little chick actually got to experience something else too – feeling safe, hearing a heartbeat, being in the electro-magnetic field of a human loving heart for 3 days, hearing sounds of music, karma-wash orb – which I love, and clear light reading orb, touching people who had never heard baby chick sounds with her delightful chirps and peeps – so in the end, despite the pain there might have been, I am glad I didn’t take a brick and smash her head upon seeing that she was so badly injured. Looking at her, I even think there was some non-related difficulty with one of the legs to start with. I hope the honey and coconut oil, the non stick dressing and being wrapped and held in a sock, lying against my chest – made it ok enough for her – in any case, she made lots of sweet chick sounds during her short life, including a soft thrill sound I hadn’t heard before from a baby chick.
I saw her take her last breath.
There are bardo, or macro-dimensional aspects to this experience, but they would lead to far for this blog.
Thank you, Little Black Beauty, or Manuka, as I would call you now. Yes, I make sure that the broodys who insist on being in a nest box get extra cover under the eggs…and yes, there will be perennial flowers where your little body found it’s rest. You are free now. And I am sorry if this was the wrong choice …but it seems it was the better one….you had a more balanced life in the end, and with meaning – serving in way that a quick dispatch would never do.
What will I do next time …I don’t know till then, but I am better prepared.
