Fortunately, it all looked a lot worse than it actually is. I cleaned the eye with cotton wool soaked in Colloidal silver and found that the injury is a very small nick in the upper eyelid and her main problem was that the blood pooled in the corner of her eye was affecting her vision, hence the constant rubbing/scratching with her claws.

Once the eye was cleaned up, she stopped rubbing at it.

I kept her isolated in a small cage for an hour or two, just to make sure the wound had scabbed over, and then put her back with her mates where she immediately stuck her head in the feed hopper, none the worse for wear. I think this will heal without spoiling her looks. I hope so, anyway.

It was interesting to note that just before I went up to check them, one of the cockerels was crowing incessantly and then I arrived to discover this injury. I wonder if he was trying to get my attention because something was wrong?

He has been known to crow nonstop when the feed or water dispensers are empty, too. The lack of feed and water was not the issue this time though. Makes me wonder…

Added to all of that, the monsoonal weather we’re having has kept me on my toes as well. Our chicken coops are on the upper part of our sloping land, but they do still get a bit wet when the rain is heavy. I had to move the chicks last night as their grower pen is swamped in the front area where they spend their days and I was cooncerned about them standing around in mud all day. We put them into a pen that had the ‘guest’ hens in it up until last Sunday, so it had only rested for four days, but I considered it the best of a bad lot. It is at least dry and fully roofed so they will be out of the damp.

The chicks have grown so big, it’s hard to imagine they were ever the little fluffy pompoms that emerged from the eggs back in November. Two of them are cockerels. One, a very handsome blue boy, the other black and we have one little pullet. The little cockerels are making their first attempts at crowing which I am told is quite early as usually roosters don’t crow until they reach sexual maturity around 6 months of age. They sound very funny as they try to work out the proper sound they should be making. With no adult roosters around to copy, I guess they just need to go by trial and error.

Bond Brown Laying Hen

We are looking to add another two hens to our laying flock and I am thinking that I will buy Bond browns. I like the large brown eggs that Rosie, our ISA brown lays, and I believe Bond browns lay a similar egg.
They are a nice looking hen, too and one of the eight I was chicken sitting was a Bond Brown. She was a reliable layer and a friendly little bird as well.

Well, I think that catches you up with all the news from Hensington Palace. Whew, reading back over this, I can understand now, why I have been feeling so tired!

I hope all of my readers have had a happy and safe holiday period and wish you all a very prosperous and peaceful 2012!

I’ve been working hard on my studies, and did well with my first essay for my unit on the history of healing. This subject is making me feel inspired again, and that is a welcome feeling! I’d begun to think I had lost my mojo where inspiration was concerned, so it is nice to have that feeling back again. It gives me something to look forward to. Perhaps Natural Therapies is my true passion after all! To think, it took getting a bunch of chickens to make me realise that! Well, perhaps the chickens weren’t the only reason, but they certainly started the ball rolling. Then, going to the “Real Food Festival” a few months ago, seeing what is available, watching videos about food and health and healing and listening to some very informed discussion of same increased the momentum. I’m beginning to see a hazy picture of how this could all fit together in the future and it is very exciting. I don’t want to talk too much about it yet, though as I need to give more thought to it all before I can do that.

Life around the henhouse is quite hectic too just now as I am hensitting 8 hens that belong to an online friend while she is away overseas for Christmas. Again, a piece of the puzzle that has fallen into place quite by serendipity! The hens are no trouble at all to care for and are the most pleasant of house-guests and pay their dues every day in eggs! Soooo many eggs!

The past few days were a pleasant break from study as my daughter, Hannah came to visit and we did the tourist thing yesterday. We took a day trip to a local chocolate factory where they had the most amazing creations in chocolate!

Chocolate Shoes at Panny's Chocolate Factory, Yandina-Sunshine Coast

Chcolate Shoes at Panny's Chocolate Factory. Yandina, Sunshine Coast

Chocolate House Panny's Chocolate Factory. Yandina, Sunshine Coast.

Chocolate Christmas Trees: Panny's Chocolate Factory. Yandina, Sunshine Coast

]]> http://myfanwe.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/busy/feed/ 1 myfanwe http://myfanwe.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/animals-in-the-role-of-healers/ http://myfanwe.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/animals-in-the-role-of-healers/#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2011 07:54:33 +0000 Maggie http://myfanwe.wordpress.com/?p=1175 Continue reading →]]>

Image from stock.exchange.

Animals have an uncanny ability to reach out to humans when we are suffering. As a child, I had a dog who would come and lie on my bed if I was ill. She would also sit by me and lick my hands if I was crying…okay maybe it was because she was attracted to salty tears, but maybe not.

I have written elsewhere on my blog about how I believe my chooks have assisted me in overcoming depression, and by keeping me busy and outside being active, they’ve also helped a lot with my arthritis.

Many hospitals and hospices today, have ‘pets as therapy’ programs in place where animals are permitted to visit the elderly, the infirm and the sick with very positive result.

The story below is just one more that affirms this.

Man credits goose with helping him live longer – Health – Pet health – msnbc.com.

Our blue Australorp chick, “Boomer.” I think that this one is a cockerel. He has the facial markings, the stance, and the body conformation of a rooster, to my untrained eyes.

This is a closer view, same bird. He is developing wattles and has red earlobes.

This is the only pullet of the three, I think. You can see her body shape is much softer and rounder and she has a smaller comb and barely any wattles at all. Her earlobe is darker coloured. This chick feathered up faster than the other two, which I have been told is one way of telling pullets from cocks.

I think this is the girl…I find it hard to tell because of the glare from the flash on her face.

The two boys together black boy named NotChick in the front. Again, he has the more pronounced facial colouring, larger comb and wattles and the body shape of a cockerel.

A clearer shot. This is soooo a boy! Would be happy to hear opinions from anyone about them.

And finally, this is one of a pair of Jabiru who have been hanging out in our yard the past few days. They tend to avoid me when they see me, so I had to be patient to get this pic.

I had been concerned about my flock and had already tried some serious measures. If I could have A/C, I thought, I wanted them to, as well. I started bringing my flock in and putting them in large dog crates in our sun room. Between the chickens, dogs, and cat, not to mention the turkey poults from babysitting, the room looked – and honestly, smelled – a bit like an indoor barnyard. Further, cleaning the crates regularly was a bit impractical for my schedule. I quickly realized this wasn’t going to be a practical longer-term solution, so I started thinking about what else I could do to keep my chickens cool.

Read more: via Chicken Care: Staying Cool in the Sweltering Heat.

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Antibiotics in animal nutrition are strongly under debate. In Europe they are no longer allowed but in other countries like the USA, they are still being used. Essential oils, derived from plants, have proven to be good alternatives and reduce antibiotic resistance in poultry.

World Poultry – Chickens: Essential oils enhancing poultry performance.

That was Friday at Hensington Palace! We’ve been having some quite warm weather here the past couple of days and this has meant that the chickens were all becoming a little bit heat stressed. Thursday, the mercury climbed to 32c and today, it was about 31c I think. We were caught very much unprepared as the average mean temperature in our area, even in the hight of Summer is around 30c which is still warm, but not the kind of baking heat we had the last two days! The chickens were quite stressed on Thursday and there was not much that I was able to do for them as I was at home alone, and I have disabilities which make it difficult for me to climb or lift things. All I could do was let the chickens out on free range and make sure they found some shade.

For the chicks, I had to make sure they had plenty of water and that they didn’t get frightened or upset during the hottest part of the day. Thankfully, they all survived, but I knew that something would need to be done on Friday to keep them a bit cooler.

Enter my friends on Poultry Matters!

I posted in the forum asking for some advice on what to do to avoid heat stress and got some wonderful suggestions. Some, I couldn’t implement, but others, such as providing the chickens with ice so they would have cool water, I could do, as well as placing shade cloth over their coops to keep the sun off the metal roofing.

Sandra and I got some lengths of shadecloth out of the storage sheds and draped these over the coops and the chick’s growing pen. We weighted them with bricks for now, but will need to find a more permanent way to affix them before we get any major summer storms.

I had frozen some water in plastic tubs over night, and we also filled a couple of buckets with water and placed them around near the chooks’ favourite shady spots in the yard. The chooks liked the idea of the water buckets, but having never seen ice before, were a little nonplussed about what to do with it! That problem was quickly solved though, when Sandra sprinkled a handful of their feed into the container with the ice. They soon got the idea that pecking the ice would either reward them with food, or with something cold and refreshing and they decided to camp next to the ice bucket for the afternoon!

Chooks introduced to ice for the first time

It’s just a basic Italian sauce but very tasty! We had some of it with Fetuccine and mushrooms for dinner and it worked a treat. We have enough leftover for three more dinners so that is in the freezer now and all those beautiful tomatoes will bless us with their wonderful flavour for a few weeks to come!

I’m going to offer some to anyone who knocks on my door today! Namely that will be our cleaner for one. I wonder who else providence might send our way?

Otherwise, they are destined to become tomato and basil sauce for pasta!

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