Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Scaly Leg?


This is what Molly's leg/foot looks like:

Molly's Scaly Leg ?

Here is Molly being very calm and placid as we 'bathed' her leg in Grape Seed Oil (though she does have an expression on her face that seems to say: "I could blind you with one peck you know!").

Hopping Molly

Poor Molly. She has had a limp for absolutely ages now and about 2 months ago it got noticeably worse so that she could not put her leg or foot down at all. She has been spending most of the time laying down (looking like one of those ceramic hen-shaped things that people used to have in their kitchen - what were they for anyway?). It even got to the point where I was having to carry her out of the coop each morning (though she managed to get herself back in at bed-time). Having consulted a few chicken Gurus and books, we are treating her as if it is Scaly Leg by immersing her leg in Grape Seed Oil (I believe any cooking oil will do, we just happened to have some Grape Seed Oil) and brushing it with an old toothbrush. It might just be wishful thinking on my part but she seems a little better. She's certainly able to get herself out of the coop in the mornings now. We will continue with the treatment and see what happens.

Slow Blog

Have completely failed to update blog recently and even to log how many eggs we get each day in the spreadsheet. Basically, we are currently getting between 1 and 3 a day. I think they're all laying, but can't be sure.

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Frozen Chicken!
















It is very rare for it to snow in Southampton. Even rarer still for the snow to settle. Imagine our surprise (and delight!) therefore, when we woke this weekend to find a blanket of snow on the ground and huge, fat flakes still falling.

This chickens seemed somewhat bewildered and kept off the snow, inside the coop-run. The snow was only around for half a day so I have no idea what they would have done if it had stayed for longer.

Al found great amusement in watching the Chooks try to drink their water (which was frozen solid). Apparently he stood for some time, watching them pecking away at the water container like fat, mutant woodpeckers!