Mrs. Beasley hatching a rock & we're still coccidia free

As you know, Mrs. Beasley has been a broody little hen lately, and it's been difficult to collect eggs when she's sitting on them 24/7.

But after I put the egg-shaped rock under her this week, she's been a little calmer about giving up the eggs. She's still planted in the nesting box most of the time, but she's less cranky.

I also took a fecal sample to the vet this week and yay! We're still coccidia free. Phew.

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Update from Camp Cluck

When Coco went to visit Dr. Licata a month or so ago, Dr. Licata suggested that even though the sample tested negative for coccidia that we run the test again in a month just to be sure.

Well, I called the office on Saturday to see if I could drop off a sample, and guess what? Dr. Licata is out on an indefinite medical leave.

Most importantly, I hope she's OK. I only met her that one time but I loved her as a vet and I hope she's not seriously ill.

But her absence from the vet's office means that they can't do much for me, because Dr. Licata was the bird doctor. So they suggested I go back to .... the vet we saw the first time.

Rats. I wasn't thrilled with their service. But I guess I don't have many options. And it is just a stool sample check. I don't need to bring any of the girls into the office. So hopefully it'll be a simple test and it'll be negative.

In other Camp Cluck news ... there isn't any. Things are meandering along the same as always.

Mrs. Beasley is still on the nest, hoping one of the eggs will hatch. I'm thinking about putting a rock under her because every time I take out an egg I think she has to start the brooding process all over.

Coco is back to her normal cranky self; I have a lovely bruise on the back of my knee as proof.

Mimi is turning out to be one vocal chicken. She spends most of the day wandering around the run bawking and squawking like a broken record.

The girls are still losing feathers, which has me stumped. But they're acting normal, laying eggs, and generally not giving me any reason to worry about it. For now, anyway.

And that's the news from Camp Cluck!
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Can you find 18 eggs in this picture?

I've been concerned lately because Ethel and Lucy haven't laid eggs in a while. With Mrs. Beasley broody and the coccidia fiasco so recently over, I was worried maybe they were still sick.

Well today I went into the coop to get the feeder and saw one lone white egg in the middle of the floor. On a hunch, I moved a cement block that I used to block off the area under the nesting boxes so Mimi and Gidget wouldn't hide there forever and viola. Eggs.

Eighteen white eggs, to be exact. Lucy and Ethel are the only ones who lay white eggs, so this is clearly their work.

I guess I hadn't blocked off that area as well as I thought I had. Well, at least I know they're not sick. Shy, yes. Ailing, no.

I think I'll give Darling Husband a new task: put a door from the outside so I can leave that space open and reach in from the outside to take out eggs. That way Lucy and Ethel can lay to their heart's content.

David will love that project because it'll give him another chance to get creative with his new tools.

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Mrs. Beasley is one broody hen

For the better part of the last week, Mrs. Beasley, my Wyandotte hen, has been nesting. This isn't the first time she's done this. Several months ago she set up shop in one of the nesting boxes for a week or so.

The problem is that there isn't a rooster in our flock, so she can sit on an egg until Jesus comes back and she's not going to hatch a chick.

A local chicken farmer told me that usually a hen will go broody when there are several eggs in the nest; Mrs. Beasley is sitting there whether there's an egg or not. But the other girls seem to be helping her out. They climb into the same box with her to lay an egg, which she then sits on.

Every time I go near her she chirps and raises her feathers in anger but I don't really want to leave eggs under Mrs. Beasley to rot in this heat. So I've taken to just picking up the angry hen, taking out the eggs, and plopping her back in her brooding position.

We'll see how long she pursues this futile endeavor. Hopefully she gets over it quickly and gets back to laying.

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All of that noise was in the coop this morning

I was sound asleep this morning, dreaming about chickens, when through my fog I realized that I was actually hearing my own chickens.

There was quite a bit of bawking going on out in the hen house. I waited a few minutes, because it's not unusual for the girls to do some bragging when they lay an egg. But this was longer and louder than normal, and involved what sounded like the whole flock.

So I dragged myself out of bed before they woke the neighbors and went out to see what was going on.

When I opened the hen house door the girls poured out , and when I opened the egg box there was a ginormous egg in there.

Well, I can see what all of the fuss was about. I don't know who laid it, but all of the girls were quite proud of it.

I would love to be able to show you a picture of the egg, but when I came in the house it slipped from my hands and squashed on the floor.

But if you're one of my neighbors and heard the to do, my apologies. Normally the hen sounds are masked by the birds - especially the geese and blue jays - but today we did our part to annoy the neighborhood.

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We're coccidia free!

Dr. Licata called today with good news: the stool samples they tested were both free of parasites and coccidia.

YAY!

She said we might want to recheck in a month just to make sure it stays under control, but for now we're free.

YAY!

That means that Coco and Mrs. Wiggins should begin to see some improvement in their skin as they begin to feel better. And in a week or so we can start eating eggs again, because the medication will be out of their systems.

YAY!

Darling husband David will be very happy to hear this, I'm sure.

I forgot to mention yesterday where she suspects the problem came from: Mimi and Gidget.

Dr. Licata said it's very possible that even though we quarantined them the way we were supposed to, they brought a small amount with them into the flock. Then when we had all of the rain in May and a drainage issue and it created a perfect scenerio for a growth explosion in the run and viola. Everyone is sick.

Except Mimi and Gidget. While everyone else was basically passed out in the henhouse, those two were strutting around Camp Cluck like they were on holiday.

In any event, the chickens are feeling better, the hen house and run are in immaculate condition, and things are looking up at Camp Cluck!

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Coco goes to the vet - again

Well, it's time for another stool check to see if the flock still has coccidia, and I made the decision to not go back to the vet I'd originally gone to in June.

They were all nice there, but I felt like I spent a whole lot of money and time and got very little in return, including advice or help.

So today, we went to see Dr. Licata at Suburban Animal Hospital in Henrietta, and all I can say is ... Phew. It was definitely the right choice.

Not only is she extremely nice, she was extremely thorough. She took time to talk, ask questions, and gave Coco one heck of an exam.

And I'm glad I brought Coco in rather than just having them run a stool recheck. The first vet wrote off Coco's skin problem to being picked on by the other hens, which never did seem right to me. But Dr. Licata noticed that not only was she missing feathers and scaly on her back, her vent area was also just as bad. She thinks Coco - and maybe Mrs. Wiggins, who also has the same problem - is pecking herself because she's uncomfortable from the diarrhea. She also did a test to make sure it wasn't mites.

And yes, Coco at least still has diarrhea. I know this because she pooped all over me and then all over the scale when they weighed her.

The good news is that Coco has gained a little weight since she was seen at the other vet, although Dr. Licata thought she was still a little thin.

She suspects that the stool check is going to still be positive for coccidia, and she assured me that it's very common and we're going all the right things to keep the coop and run as clean as possible. She said it's really now just a matter of letting it run its course and getting the hens healthy, and then they'll be immune.

She also said she may have us to a preventative treatment once a month; the upside is we'll keep the coccidia problem in check, but the downside is we can't eat the eggs for a week after the treatment. I'm less concerned about eggs and more concerned about a healthy flock right now.

I'll keep you posted!

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