[muntjac]

i wasnt criticising you or anyone for how they keep thier birds to many girls .i was giving my opinion i dont feed any of these modern  supplements and the like my birds were healthy and produced what was needed when referring to pheasants and chickens .chickens are domesticated  birds pheasants are wild as i said but they are the same in the natural world i have seen feral chickens aplenty and they only got what they found and  where in great condition.i dont suggest for one minute that battery hens do not need any help in recovering from the condition folks get them in if i had ex batts then i would use my experiance and advice given to me and other modern aids to help them recover and then being me i would stop using them after they had regianed thier fitness and then continue feeding and caring for our birds the way i and  my family for hundreds of years .  i only ever give advice from my experiance and knowledge gained from others i am no expert at  an y thing

[compostqueen]

Keep your tips coming Munty.

Pleased to say my birds are healthy and this week they've hardly eaten any layers as they've been helping themselves to nature's larder by free ranging round the garden. Shows which they prefer  

I kept them in though for an hour this morning to encourage them to eat their layers and one of my hens laid her biggest ever egg, a whopping 89 grams, which is v heavy for a brown hybrid I think  :shock:

[too many girls]

i wasn't having a go at you munty, just trying to explain why my hens have got more supplements in their food than, well, food. it probably won't benefit them but it makes me feel as though i'm doing something to compensate for the miserable life they had before, there's a lot of conflicting advice on this forum, so it's just a case of trial and error and picking things up as i go along (snoozi's thread had me scooting of to buy red mite powder, i thought if mine had red mite i wouldn't have known and they'd all be dead in the morning), can i use it on the birds to prevent red mite, or wait till they get them before treating? descitions descitions...............

[muntjac]

i used to treat em anyways .... and the coops.. why wait for the dodo to hit the fan when ya can stop it before hand  

[muntjac]

didnt think ya was tomany .

[Kazoo]

Up-date on poorly Black Rock

Months ago I asked for advice on my sick Black Rock who was very depressed and walking sideways...
Thought I'd up-date you.  I continued to feed very small amounts of the limestone flour to Lola only, in the end she virtually stopped eating and got so thin that I started hand feeding her away from the others as she would only eat this way.  She soon clocked on that her feed was due and would be waiting for me - head and tail down looking very sad.  After months of TLC she has started to finally perk up, she is eating well now (without my assistance), is going to bed with the others rather than the afternoon, joining them in foraging and bathing and today laid the most beautiful, HUGE, brown egg with a hard shell (the first for many months).  My husband thought she should have been culled but it just shows what some tlc will do, some days she seemed so depressed I wondered if it would be kinder to let her go but she kept giving me little signs that she would get better.  My husband now says thank god you didn't listen to me!  It has taken lots of time and effort but I am pleased to say she is in great health now and no more sideways walking!

[ceri green]

thats very good news kazoo.... its a very hard call to know whether the tlc will pay off in the end or whther you're just prolonging misery and suffering, isnt it?

i had a similar situation with one of my hens after my friends dog killed all bar one (renamed Lucky) and left her severely mauled. everyone (i dont mean ppl from this site) said i should cull her, but i just wanted to try and give her the chance, after all she'd survived thus far, and now 3 months later you would never know she'd been injured. she hasnt started laying again yet but i'm not relly expecting her to until next spring now

but i have to say that virtually every day in the early stages i was agonising over whther i was doing the right thing - luckily for Lucky i think i did!