Hetty Wainthrop - Rest in Peace

The Rainbow Bridge is calling you

Hetty Boom Boom RIP

Poor Hetty Wainthrop, our Lavender Splash Orpington hen has been very poorly.

She's always been the first to succumb to lice, red mite etc, I think it's because she is the bottom of the pecking order.

Add to that the fact that the breeder was trying to develop a new Orpington x Frizzle (which are not attractive BTW), and new colourways, I believe Hetty's genetics suffered as a result. Signs of this included some twisty twiddly feathers on her neck - a hint of the Frizzle genes, and her toes were twisted, meaning that we had to clip her claws regularly to keep them comfortable for her, as she couldn't wear them down naturally.

Last summer she was a big buxom beauty, inquisitive, happy, talkative.

Hetty last summer

This summer she was a shadow of her former self. She lost a lot of weight, hasn't passed a normal poop for a couple of months, had no energy and eventually was unable to stand up, let alone move around on her own.

She was eating and drinking (if you sat her right in front of her bowls), and everything was passing out of her crop into her digestive system, but after that, something was going wrong. Our vet Alex suspected Sour Crop (but admitted that didn't really fit her symptoms very well), or that her digestive tract had become damaged somehow, meaning she was unable to absorb anything from her food.

The first signs that something was seriously wrong came when we returned from holiday. It had been very hot and sticky, and she looked pale and tired. I looked for, and found, a big 'bloom' of red mite in the coop, so we emptied everything scrubbed it, cleaned it and doused it and the flock with Nettex Total Red Mite Powder.

Felicity and Jane looked fine, so we hoped that Hetty had just been the worst affected, and that with treatment she would recover. But she didn't. She got more tired, less enthusiastic about coming out of the run for a scatter feed of mealworms, and very unbalanced. She started using her wing to stop herself toppling sideways, and if you stroked her back she fell over instantly.

Treatments we tried:

NB: We did not use all of these simultaneously, they were administered carefully over Hetty's last two months with us, and according to the manufacturers' instructions. They were given alongside a well balanced layers pellet by Smallholders Range, dried mealworms, mixed corn and Hentastic Foraging Feast.

Ivermectin Spot-on Drops
Flubenvet Poultry Wormer
Farm and Yard Remedies Wormwood
Beryl's Friendly bacteria
Chicken Lickin Poultry Drink Concentrate
Verm-X Poultry Zest
Global Herbs Loose Dropping Formula

Plus we bought The Chicken Vet Poop Sample Kit, and sent a sample off to them. It was tested for a range of worms and coccidia infection. All the tests were negative - possibly because the other treatments had killed off whatever was there, or it wasn't a parasitic problem or infection at all.

When she reached the point where she couldn't stand or move around, Mr PB finally agreed with me that it was time to take her to Alex the vet one last time. Alex agreed to put her to sleep yesterday evening, and let us stay with her until she passed away. She has been cremated.

We believe we did everything possible to save Hetty, except catch her symptoms sooner.

Hetty Wainthrop xx

Sleep tight Hetty Hetty Boom Boom, we love you xx

How We're Coping with Bird Flu in 2016-2017

DEFRA Set up Prevention Zone across UK

Avian Flu has again been discovered in Europe and the UK, and as a precaution, all keepers of poultry and birds have been instructed by DEFRA to prevent their birds mixing with the wild bird population. This applies to farmers, backyard poultry keepers, pigeon fanciers, the size and type of bird 'collection' is irrelevant. THIS IS LAW!!

The government’s chief vet, Nigel Gibbens, has declared a “prevention zone” for England that requires commercial and individual bird keepers to keep their birds inside for 30 days or take steps to separate them from wild birds.

The order, which was texted to poultry farmers on Tuesday, comes after a type of highly pathogenic avian flu, H5N8, was found in dead wild birds and some farm birds across Europe.

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“The risk that we are trying to prevent is to our British poultry flock … to make sure these birds are protected against disease,” Gibbens told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

He added: “Everybody should do what they can. Pet bird keepers should do their best and take sensible measures to separate them from wild birds, while looking after their welfare. I don’t want people putting them in a box in the dark and keeping them there for weeks on end.”

Extract taken from The Guardian 07 Dec 2016, read the full article here

The Prevention Zone remains in place until 28th January 2017, at which point  the risk will be reviewed and either end, or be extended.

Avian Flu and Bio-security Measures

This may sound like something Border Security needs to worry about, but if you want to keep birds outside, than you really need to think about bio-security before you even decide what birds you want.

Chicken run before the roof is put on

Our trio of Orpington hens have a coop inside a permanent, fixed run. Under normal circumstances they would also have access to our garden, but for this period they need to be contained. Our permanent bio-security measures include:

• A fixed polycarbonate sheet roof over the entire run

Polycarbonate sheeting covers the entire chicken run roof

• Entire run enclosed in 25mm x 12.5mm Weld mesh
• Run door with two separate latches (prevents accidental opening).
• Run secured to hard standing, not grass or soil
• Feeders and drinkers always kept inside the run.
• Wearing disposable rubber gloves when entering the run, handling the birds or anything they've come into contact with.
• Anything we use to feed/water wild birds is kept exclusively for them and never used for our hens.

Other measures in place during an Avian Flu warning are:

• Disinfecting the coop, dustbath and perches in the run. Use Vircon S or Stalosan
• Disinfecting boots/footware before entering or after exiting the run. The best thing to use is a washing up bowl or tubtrug with a solution of Vircon S. Make sure you can get the entire sole (ideally more) of your footware in the bowl and covered with solution, and change the solution regularly.

DEFRA confirm that Avian Flu is not a risk to public health or the food chain. Keeping backyard flocked in bio-secure enclosures helps protect them from coming into contact with the wild bird population which could be carrying the virus.

Members of the public are encouraged to report dead wild waterfowl (swans, geese or ducks), or other dead wild birds such as gulls or birds of prey, to the Defra helpline on 03459 33 55 77. Defra will then collect some of these birds and test them to help us understand how the disease is distributed geographically and in different types of bird.

Preventing Boredom during bird flu confinement:

The Run

Our trio don't go outside the run very often, in fact in squally, wintery weather they'd rather be under cover in the run anyway.

The Activity Centre and Maggie's Six Coop in place

Young Hetty fits through the expanded
door easily

Our run measures 3m x3m, and includes; a Maggie's Six hen house from Flyte So Fancy, Dorset (we had to expand the door width a bit to accommodate our ladies large bottoms ;) ); a covered dustbath with perches (from Flyte So Fancy but not in their current catalogue, we call it 'the Activity Centre'); galvanised drinker and wall mounted feeder which is attached to our run wall and has it's own integral cover. 

Having a decent size run is important, stress and overcrowding can lead to nasty vices such as feather-pecking, bullying and egg eating. The smaller the bird, the more active it is. Our Orpingtons are very docile, and hardly ever bother to run for something...unless it's corn! They are very contented to spend most of their day on the perches of the Activity Centre, or luxuriating in the dust bath. We add diatomaceous earth to the play sand to help the hens combat any outbreaks of lice or red mites.

Smaller birds or a larger flock in the same run would probably not deal with confinement so well.

However, here's a little lesson I learnt when I worked at Forsham Cottage Arks (now Granddad Rob Designs). Hens will accept a run as the end of their world for as long as they are contained within it. If one day you open the run door, it will take them ages to use it, partly from fear of the unknown, but mostly because they don't recognise the door as a way to enter or leave the run. But, once they have discovered their new environment, you have effectively expanded the edge of their world, and they will always want to explore that boundary. If you have to enclose them again, like now, they will try to rush at their old boundary, they will get distressed that they can't get out to roam their world. This should only last a few days, but finding ways to entertain your flock will help calm them.

Essentially then, a hen that is always confined to a good size enclosure will be happy in that enclosure for ever. She won't feel confined, or be looking to get out. That is the edge of her world.

If you expand the edge of her world and then have to reduce it again, that is when trouble can start.

Jane the Orpington hen is normally an explorer

Feed and Foraging

I don't advocate feeding human food or kitchen scraps to chickens. The old adage "Put rubbish in, get rubbish out" is ingrained in me. We feed Smallholder Range Layers Pellets. Ideally I would prefer to feed Layers Mash, as it helps combat boredom by making the chickens eat longer to take in the same amount of food compared to eating pellets, but mash is not recommended with the feeder we use, and it is less easily obtainable locally.

Our hens do get a scatter feed of corn (1 teaspoonful each) just before bed if they are still up when we get home from work (not in the winter, they retire long before we get home from work!), but this doesn't keep them busy for long, maybe half an hour. They are expert at carefully pecking up the corn, avoiding all other ground cover, but do spend quite a long time scratching through the hardwood chippings to find any strays. We only ever feed the corn inside the run, it's our little way of encouraging them home if they've been free ranging (not at the moment obviously). When they hear the rattle of the corn tin, they know to head straight for their run.

The completed run with hard wood chippings down

At the moment I am also giving them a scatter feed of dried mealworms and Hentastic Foraging Treat, just a small handful of each between the three hens, and again this is only while they are up and about. Never leave quantities of scatter feed lying around as it will spoil and can attract vermin

My cheeky Hetty Wainthrop

A final attempt to occupy my hens' brains comes in the form of hanging treats. Pets at Home do a hanging corn block. I wouldn't use one normally, but the corn is pretty difficult to get off, so they can't eat too much, but it gives them hours of entertainment watching it swing back and forth...hypnotised by the pendulum action!

Hopefully the hens will be able to free range again once the weather warms up