Warning – contains a detailed description of an injured chicken.
Wet day but I was lucky enough to have the rain easing each time I visited a whanau.
I visited Max & Candace who have chickens. Candace had texted me as they have had a problem with ‘Chrissie’ the chicken who has had a ‘weeping bottom’. Initially they suspected thrush or something similar but photos sent to an online group for avian support have actually diagnosed a prolapsed back end. I had sent them the number for the people we purchased the chickens from, but this local contact suited them better. Max is gently cleaning her bottom, administering medicine and delicately applying hemorrhoid cream, while trying to replace the prolapsed bit as best he can. Sorry but I did warn you…Prognosis is not great and they have made the decision to talk again on Friday to discuss how it’s going and probably make a call.
They say there are a few reasons why this may have happened and one is the muscles are not in the best position or condition to hold everything in place. Possibly been like that since birth but now showing as she begins her laying. She is still laying and I checked they are not eating due to her medication. I have never seen anything like this and it’s not in any of my books. I’m going to call Christine at the backyard chickens and get some input. It seems it’s nothing anyone has done wrong, just one of those things. I offered to take her today, but he wanted to give her some time in case she heals. I offered to take her next Wednesday if that’s the decision and despatch her myself, or have him despatch and I will take her to bury under a tree here, or whatever works for him. I have also offered to replace her if they want another chicken to be a mate for ‘cheesecake’…I know it’s not our fault but they’re quite sad and worried ‘cheesecake’ will be lonely.
From here I nipped to Chloe who has two sets of gates closed as they’ve had roaming dogs and she’s worried for her two chickens, named ‘Whero’ and ‘Matariki’ whom they love to bits. We discussed egg/chick raising and roosters and council by laws. These two very happy and healthy hens now have the free range of the whole back lawn, which is huge, and Chloe has even built a garden bed with chicken wire around it so they can peck through to get greens, but not be able to rip them out of the ground. She also has turned an old playhouse into a much larger coop for them, though they seem to prefer the smaller one we have provided. They are however sleeping and pooping in their nesting box so she is trialling a number of different things. I have suggested to close up the nesting box at night and reopen it first thing so they learn to roost. She is trialling different foods as a cost saving measure and we’ve discussed ways of doing this while still maintaining their health.
Chloe chatted about how hard it was being a solo mum who has chosen to home school. A need to work on the weekends when she leaves the children with their 80 year old great grandparents. Her upbringing making her more resilient and capable than some, she’s working hard to give the children the best start possible in her mind…. and how a couple of eggs and a few bits of silverbeet can make the world of difference. She knows these are the right choices to make for her children. I really like Chloe and the efforts she’s making and kind of wished she lived down the road from me so I could drop in some veg but will drop some seedlings in when I can.
My last visit was to Kimberly. She’s had some trials with her garden being eaten to almost stalks in the first instance by snails, then swamped by white butterflies. She read to spray with vinegar, but this almost killed a lot of the leafy plants. She removed the dead leaves quickly hoping the plants would recover. Saving some, these are lessons that will serve her well in time, but she commiserated with me that seeing pics of other gardeners with their beds on our page left her feeling a little deflated.
She then told me her bokashi bin was a complete failure. I’m at a loss to understand how but she said she added the first 3 ice cream containers of scraps from the kitchen bench and all was well. It had a sweet vinegar smell, but when adding the 4th, the bin was overflowing with ‘juice’ …onto the garage floor, and the smell was horrendous of rotting food. They ended up bagging it up and throwing it into the landfill bin. She said it was so bad it was hard not to vomit. She’s willing to give it another try and we’ve possibly found a better spot as the garage gets a lot of sun all day and the only thing I could think may be wrong.
Kim is really keen to grow her garden space and can see the potential by adding to her small courtyard with tubs on the deck. She’s learnt a lot and really wants to succeed so with that motivation I’m hoping for good things for her.
Rākau Tautoko 