Help for a new chicken keeper please

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What Allot

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  • Location: Hornsea, East Yorks
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Help for a new chicken keeper please
« on: September 08, 2009, 19:20 »
My three new chickens joined our family last night and are settling in well.
I am entirely new to chicken keeping and have a query I hope you can help me with.
I have Light Sussex girls about a year old from a farm who are not used to being handled and apart from my border terrier wanting to play with them and sticking his nose to the cage at every opportunity things have gone well so far.
The problem is one of the girls has a bit of poo stuck to her rear end. I have tried to gently pull it off but she wasn't overly impressed. Should I persevere to get it off or are chickens self cleaning. It's been there since she got to me and is very hard and I'm concerned that it can't be very healthy for her. I've no idea how long it's been there as I didn't see it when I picked her up last night so a bit of advice please.
Many thanks
Lisa

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AmandaH

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  • Location: Buckinghamshire
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Re: Help for a new chicken keeper please
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2009, 19:26 »
Hi Lisa.

Try giving her a bath.  Instructions here:  :D

http://www.omlet.co.uk/guide/guide.php?view=Chickens&cat=Chicken Care&sub=Cleaning

Also, wait until dizzylizzy reads this - she's got a great photo of one of her girls in the bath (poor thing must be sooooooo embarrassed!) and I know it's on here somewhere but can't find it.

Good luck!

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dizzylizzie

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Re: Help for a new chicken keeper please
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2009, 19:37 »

is this what your looking for? he he he
i know its important to keep around the bottom clean as it can attract flies. BUT, im not so sure i would be bathing her if she is new...wouldnt want to stress her out more than was needed. of course, if its very bad then you may have to try to clean it.....i only bathed mine because she was egg bound, she was covered in poo also, but it was for egg bound treatment!...good luck anyway, and welcome to your new girls :D x

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What Allot

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Re: Help for a new chicken keeper please
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2009, 20:02 »
Yeah I'm a little concerned as every time I approach the coop they disappear inside so think I may leave it a day or two to let her settle then give her a clean.
I'm more nervous than her as I'm not used to handling chickens so I'll be worse than she is.   :ohmy:

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nzdunn

  • Guest
Re: Help for a new chicken keeper please
« Reply #4 on: September 08, 2009, 21:18 »
welcome to the forum, best to leave her to settle for a couple of days, try hand feeding her a little corn or something she will soon become your best friend, my maran was well flighty when i got her and i was certain she would never become tame enough for me to handle her but now after a couple of mths she lets me pick her up and thats great for checking over her.    Another tip for you, wot you could try is when they have gone to roost leave it for a couple of hrs until it is well dark and pick her out of the coup, they are like different birds as they are all snoozy and obviously carnt see in the dark, when it comes to dusting the birds this is wot we do, hubby picks them out one by one and i dust them and pop them back in, no stress and less hassle far better than chasing them around or cornering them to try and catch them.   By doing this at least you could have a good look at her to see if you could just pull it off gently with a little bit of oil or something like that.     nickyx



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