An EGG!!!!!

Finally, we have one of our own eggs. That we can eat. Yay!

Not having had even just one of our own that we could eat since the middle of November when I was thowing away as many as 4 eggs a day because of the Ivermectin (for that early spotted scaley-leg some of them had) and then throwing the ones after that in case Belle, with her bumblefoot, had laid it while she was being treated with Cephacare, which requires a withdrawal of eggs from consumption for the duration of the treatment AND seven days afterwards, you can perhaps forgive the ripples of excitement emanating from yours truly :-) Being kept inside the covered pen for that treadle feeder and to keep Belle's vetwrap dry (although we know now that it wasn't necessary - see later) stressed them out enough to stop egg laying anyway.

Not only all that - the weather dictated at least a minor,if not a complete, moult in all those old enough (that leaves only Herb and he doesn't lay eggs anyway, naturally!) and on top of that 'the MOVE' from covered pen to proper coop will no doubt have played a part in a) inducing more serious moults in the ones that are inclined that way, and b) making them a bit too stressed to lay any eggs even if they hadn't gone into moult.

I'd say that lot would guarantee a unanimous downing of tools in any flock of chickens.

Chickens don't like change on the whole - they will adapt well enough if the conditions are right for them but really, until the 'new' becomes the 'norm' they'd really rather have things like they used to be. Please. Once accepted they are fine with it and quickly forget the old norm.

Some people think that it is cruel to re-home ex-battery hens for this reason. While the life they are (were!) forced to lead is inhumane and disgraceful many ex-batts die very quickly after being re-homed because of the stress of having to adapt to so many different things far too quickly. However, if done with much patience and by taking in at least half a dozen so they are company for each other, and keeping them separate from other hens for a while, it can be done.

I might sound like I really want the eggs , and don't get me wrong they are lovely, tasty, proper eggs, but really I quite like the girls to have a break from egg laying for several weeks. They are not machines - even though they are hybrids.

I can report that my lot are happy in their new coop in so far as they go into it, they settle in it and they are quiet in it all night. As they roost up I hear happy sounds which are really just a range of noises that chickens will make when they are contented (they have a range of 46 noises apparently and you will only hear the full range if they have a cockerel with them - hens really are almost always happier if they have a man about even if they pretend otherwise!). At this stage, having observed them closely for many weeks trying to evaluate their overall health, all I needed to prove to me that this coop was the better way to move forward with them was an egg - laid in the nest box off the side and that is exactly (or should that be eggsactly - sorry) where I found it. Complete with a bit of aubiose (the material I use for the floor of the coop and the nest boxes) stuck on it. A nice light brown speckley egg. Aww!

Not absolutely sure who laid it but it wasn't Herb obviously! Edna is the only one who looks like her comb is more red than the others - their combs redden when they are coming into lay (ie when they are matured enough or after a moult). I did ask her but she just looked a little embarrassed and carried on eating sunflower hearts with the others :-)

Anyway, it is good to see them looking so well with their new fluffy bits. Whilst they have all to some degree moulted none of them, not even Fanny-Ann, has shown any sign of being withdrawn or low as a result of it. Which, given the degree to which they have lost feathers and had to re-grow them - and that takes a lot of energy from a hen - is again perhaps a sign that the changes are good ones for them. I have been sprinkling poultry spice in their mix of pellets and corn to give them a pep but to be honest they have still been doing all the things they like to do in the garden with the same energy and gusto - but just doing them whilst bald and tatty looking...

'Operation Belle' continues with a now weekly vetwrap change on her claw. Iain holds her while I do the inspection, cotton wool + vaseline and wrap bit. We make a good team, though I suspect Belle might have something else to say on the subject. She doesn't mind having the vet wrap on, it certainly doesn't impede her in any of the usual activites she likes to engage in - not even vigorous deep crater dustbathing, and because they are on grass not mud in the garden, and then nice and dry at night, the vet wrap remains intact. I think we have been doing this vetwrapping for about 6 weeks now, which is quite usual even when it is an uncomplicated bumblefoot as she had. It takes a while for the 'roof' of the small cavity that forms around the original wound to come back down to the same level as it was before. It's getting there. I think by the time we have finished the roll of wrap - she'll be footloose and vetwrap free.