One of my favorite things about living on the farm is raising chickens and their farm fresh eggs. They are little treasures, every one of them! Alan probably thinks I'm nuts (and I might be), but I just get so excited with each egg I find! The chicks we ordered as day-old babies in early May are finally starting to lay! And what an exciting egg day it was!!
Cinnamon, one of our little Red Frizzle Bantams laid her first egg today! She's 27 weeks old, so she's right on track! I gathered it from her nesting spot while it was still toasty warm from her sitting. I thought I'd show it compared to a normal "large" egg. Cinnamon's egg is the itty bitty one on the left. It's only logical that a pint sized chicken should lay a pint sized egg! Look at these little beauties!
Yesterday I figured out which hen has been laying the other eggs I've been finding this week. It's one of the lovely Silver Laced Cochin hens! I went out to feed and she was nested down. A few minutes later, up she popped and what do ya know, she left a toasty warm egg for me! Her egg from today is the second egg from the left.
The other young hen who started laying last week is our Turken hen, Fancy. She's 28 weeks old this week. The two eggs on the right are from Fancy. She laid the speckled egg last week, and the evenly colored egg today. At first her eggs were really spotted. Now, they're this lovely shade of brown.
Here's another photo of the same eggs to show you what they look like in a carton. Keep in mind this is a "JUMBO" sized carton. Look how TINY Cinnamon's egg is!
I have one hen who I think will lay eggs with green shells, and I can't wait for the Cuckoo Marans and Welsummer girls to start laying! Their eggs are going to be a rich, chocolately brown color -- even darker than Fancy's eggs! The Cuckoo Marans and Welsummer girls are only 21 weeks old this week, so they have a bit more growing to do before they start laying.
In OTHER chicken news..... the POX. Our little black Japanese rooster came down with the "wet" version of Avian Pox. His eyes swelled up and he was NOT a happy fella. I isolated him along with one of the Cuckoo Marans hens who had a bit of a weepy eye. She made a full recovery after only a couple of days of treatment. The roo is still in his ICU area, but he's almost fully recovered. I've had to put a Silkie rooster in with him while he recovers from some minor wet pox spots. After a few more days in their ICU kennel, they'll be put back with the rest of the flock.
We've had a real scare with Ms Taylor, one of our Golden Polish hens. For days I thought we were going to lose her.
Over the weekend I noticed that she was having to strain a bit to breath. She didn't have any other pox symptoms - no spots, no watery eyes, no nasal discharge, nothing! I isolated her while we tried to figure out what it might be.
There are several chicken illnesses that it could have been, but nothing seemed right. It wasn't until Monday that I saw what I believed to be wet pox plaque at the very top of her windpipe. If the virus was in fact in her windpipe, it would most certainly be causing her to have issues breathing and could eventually block her from breathing completely.
I'm a member of several online farm forums, and was asking questions and reading as much as I could about how to treat her. Last week I started treating the chickens with something called Fish Zole, as suggested by a knowledgeable woman on one of the forums. For Ms Taylor's situation, she told me to increase the dose of Fish Zole that I was using. Fish Zole is normally used to treat fish tanks. Crazy, but ok! It was either do that, or nothing. The Fish Zole seemed to keep things from getting worse, but I wasn't seeing any significant improvements either.
I called a bird clinic in Dallas. They didn't have any suggestions for me. I called our regular vet -- same response. Seems that wet pox doesn't really have any "treatments" to speak of. I did more and more and MORE reading online to see if I could find something else, ANYTHING else to try!
One of the sites I read talked about "fogging" a bird (spraying the area they're in with a really fine mist so they breath it in) with a product called Oxine, a product typically used to clean things like stalls, animal housing, and amazingly enough, to also treat water.
I found a place I could order Oxine online, but I wanted to see if I could find it locally, faster. I called all of the area farm supply stores -- nothing. And then I called another vet's office -- the office of a vet who also happens to treat birds. First I asked for Oxine and told the gal what I wanted it for. I described Ms Taylor's symptoms and she suggested that I use Azithromycin instead. YES!! Finally, something seemed hopeful! An hour later, I was giving Ms Taylor her first dose of Azithromycin - a drug typically used to treat people.
Last night... not even 8 hours after her first dose of Azithromycin, Ms Taylor's breathing had improved significantly! I was still having to put food in her mouth with my finger and give her water using a dropper, but at least I was seeing improvements! This morning, she was breathing even better! Since she was breathing better (still not 100%) and not having to open her mouth so wide, I was having trouble getting food in her mouth. I decided to give her some boiled egg - something with a bit more protein, so even though she was eating less, there was more substance to what she was getting.
I put one small piece of egg in her mouth. She "yum yum yum'd" it and swallowed (that's the sound she makes now when she eats - it sounds like she's all congested). Her eyes POPPED open, and I immediately thought she was choking on the egg. Then she started eating all of the egg off of my fingers, and even out of the bowl! Remember, she hasn't self-fed since Saturday, so this was a REALLY big DEAL!! I was a bit overwhelmed (insert full moon hormone levels here) that she was now eating on her own -- actually wanting to eat! I was so happy! I AM so happy!! She seems to be really improving, and I couldn't be more pleased! Today was day 2 of her Azithromycin treatments, and there are 8 more days to go.... WISH US LUCK!!
Told you I was crazy for chickens..... *grin*
