Monthly Archives: July 2013

Sick Hens

Friday morning, when I opened up the Big Barn, Ruby remained on the roost. Obviously something was amiss. She was hunched, tail down, and one eye was swollen shut.

shut eye

 

The other eye was clear,

clear eye

but when she blinked, Ruby looked the image of misery.

right eye

 

The other Gems were bright-eyed and energetic. So, I do what I always do when there is a sick hen, I isolated Ruby and observed. Her comb felt feverish to the touch. I cleaned her face off with a cold, wet washcloth so that I could have a better look at her eye. It was so swollen that at first it looked to me like it had been pecked. Perhaps this was an injury?

cleaned up

I got out the broad-spectrum antibiotics, trade name Duramycin, which is available here in the States over the counter at feed stores. It is not approved for layers, but everyone uses it off label. I’ll be writing an entire post later this week about it. I mixed up 2 cups of water with 1/16 teaspoon of the powdered medicine.

duramycin

 

Because Ruby couldn’t see well enough to drink, and because I wanted to get the drugs in her right away, I dosed her with a syringe. I have directions and a YouTube video of how to do this here.

I had some Terramycin eye ointment leftover from an injury to Scooter’s eye. I’ve kept it in the fridge, and although it’s well past expiration date, it is still useful. (You can buy this online, but there’s currently a shortage.) I squeezed a bit into Ruby’s crusty eye.

terramycin

Within two hours, Ruby’s eye was looking better, I could see that this wasn’t an injury, but rather that I had a respiratory infection to treat. I’ve seen this here before. Hens have died from it. I’m not going to put a name on the disease. Unless you send a blood sample to a lab, you cannot identify whether it is Mycoplasma, or something else. I’ve paid for the lab tests in the past (quite expensive!) and know this for a fact. Those on-line charts identifying one disease from another are not accurate. What I also know is that by the time the tests come back half of your flock can be dead. Also, regardless of the tests, the treatment is the same. If you’re lucky, it’s bacterial in nature and antibiotics will be effective.

Luckily for Ruby, by midday she was able to eat, and drink her Duramycin-laced water. It was hot, and she was feverish, so I put her into a wire pen for air flow.

drinking medicine

 

By Sunday afternoon, Ruby’s comb no longer felt hot, her eyes looked clear, and she was ready to go back in with the flock.

better

 

I think that perhaps the onset of this was instigated by the bout with infectious bronchitis. Secondary bacterial infections are cited in the literature as a frequently occurring after iB. I’d hoped that since Ruby had what seemed the worst case of iB, as seen by her laying eggs that look like this:

egg

 

that she’d be the only hen affected. Unfortunately, when I went into the barn this morning, four hens were standing in abject misery with their eyes closed. I’ve treated all of them, and now the entire flock in the Big Barn are on antibiotics. There’s no sign of disease yet in the Little Barn, but I am watching carefully. My family and I were going to go on a 3-day vacation today, but we will be staying home. I can’t leave the hens like this, and I can’t ask my petsitter, who also has chickens, to care for them and then expose her own flock to disease.

I’d be guessing, and likely guessing wrong, if I blamed this bout of disease entirely on iB, or on wild birds, or a friend’s bringing it in on her shoes. I’ve had chickens on this property now for ten years. Diseases lurk. This is why pastured poultry farmers have mobile tractors – fresh ground reduces the risk of disease. That’s not an option in backyards. My hens are in ideal conditions, and yet they still get sick. Have a flock for any length of time and this will likely happen on your property, too.

I’ll be posting more this week about how the chickens are doing. Two years ago I lost my favorite hen, Lulu, to a similar outbreak. I’m hoping that I’ve caught this in time. Opal is not looking good. But I’ll do my best.

Chicken Run Maintenance

Even a spacious chicken run will turn to dirt, and over time that will become so packed down that water can no longer drain through. I rake the manure and remove it from the pen weekly, but still, much gets worked into the ground, and eventually the surface of the run will become hardpan. For the chickens, it will be like scratching on concrete. An algae bloom appeared on mine, along with weeds that no one wanted to peck at.

before

 

When this happens, manure becomes a slick and nasty coating on the surface. There are few nice places to dust bathe. Simply put, it’s yucky.

We’ve been in the midst of a miserable heat wave, but I couldn’t bear seeing my flock in such conditions. So, at six in the morning last Friday, I got out my pitchfork. Owly was interested.

pitchfork

 

I dug. You can see how there was an impermeable layer at the surface.

owly and Beatrix

 

Turning over the dirt exposed all sorts of interesting things for the chickens. Betsy led the way.

Betsy

 

Soon everyone was investigating what was unearthed.

corner

 

Bunnies are curious, and Phoebe liked having a different surface to hop on.

Phoebe

 

I bought 5 tubes of sand.

sand

 

I mixed it a bit with the dirt and raked the surface smooth. The sand adds drainage.

smoothed

 

The pullets immediately began to scratch in the soft surface, seemingly delighted that they could.

pullets in corner

 

Buffy made the best use of the new loose soil. It was cool. It was comfortable. It was the perfect place to wait out the heat wave.

Buffy

 

If only it was that easy for me to cool off! By the time I was done, I was hot, drenched with sweat, and streaked with dirt. A shower and an iced coffee revived me. All of the effort was worth it. The animals clearly said Thank You.

Handling and Storing Eggs

In the summer of 2010, 380,000,000 eggs were recalled due to a salmonella outbreak directly caused by the consumption of eggs from factory farms. Obviously, this has raised concern about the risks of eating eggs. Rest assured that if you keep chickens in a healthy, humane environment, (or buy eggs from such farms) that the risk of disease is miniscule. There are reasons for this that I’ll explain below. However, you still have to be careful with egg handling and storage. I’ll talk about that, too.

An egg that comes out of a hen’s oviduct is clean. In order for an embryo to grow and survive, it has to stay that way. If a hen has a choice (and is not in a crowded, manure and fly-infested factory farm) she’ll lay her eggs in a clean nesting box. In fact, a broody hen never defecates in her nesting box.

The egg is designed to protect the developing embryo. Obviously, the shell is the first line of defense. Cracks let in bacteria, so a thick shell is best. Stressed hens don’t sit in the nesting boxes long enough to form a sturdy shell, so it really is true that “happy hens lay healthy eggs.”

A freshly laid egg has a coating called “bloom” that acts like a sealant against dirt. However, the shell also has about 8,000 tiny pores that let in oxygen for the chick. These pores can also let bacteria in. To protect itself, the egg has further defenses. There are two inner membranes, and beyond those, the egg white contains three antibacterial agents, which kill germs, and inhibits the microbes’ use of iron and vitamins (which they need to survive.)

Combined, these defenses are very effective. Although salmonella is almost always lurking around a farmyard, it doesn’t become problematic unless the hens’ health is weakened due to stress and the sort of horrific environments as seen at the factory farms (a bacterial load as found on those farms is overwhelming!) Still, it is sensible to discard cracked eggs. Also, wash your hands after handling your chickens.

Sometimes eggs get dirty. In the rainy springtime, my hens get muddy feet. Sometimes hens roost on nesting boxes and leave manure. Never store eggs with fecal matter on them – it will work its way in through those pores. Nor do you want to crack a dirty egg into a mixing bowl. Not only will your hands be contaminated, but also so will the batter. A damp paper towel is usually all that is needed to clean the eggs up. If you have to wash the eggs, do it in gently running water that is warmer than the egg – this will cause the membrane inside of the egg to swell and prevent contaminants from getting in. Scrubbing with detergents and disinfectants is counter-productive, and in fact, those chemicals can be pushed through the pores and you’ll end up tasting and eating them.

Although a fresh egg remains edible if left on the kitchen counter for a week or longer, it’s best to store them in the refrigerator. A day at room temperature equals about four days in the fridge. But, a day on the counter is still better than what happens at the huge egg processing plants. After being washed in a hot bath, the eggs are about 100 degrees F when packed into cartons. According to an industry researcher, Thirty dozen eggs are then packed in a case, and 30 cases are stacked onto pallets and placed in refrigerated coolers. The eggs in the middle of the pallet can take up to 142 hours – nearly six days – to cool to 45 degrees. This article goes on to say that a 2005 US government report showed that if eggs were cooled and stored at 45 degrees within 12 hours of laying, there would be about 100,000 fewer salmonella illnesses from eggs in the nation each year. This is yet another reason that backyard eggs from backyard hens, collected daily and put in the fridge, are a far safer food item than what comes from the industrial producers!

Many changes happen to the egg as it ages. The egg white thins and the yolks flatten. The chalazae – which look like white strings that hold the yolk centered – disappear. The fluids inside shrink and air pockets form. The membrane just inside the shell toughens. The egg takes on flavors and aromas from the outside, which is why it’s best to keep them protected in cartons. Throughout all of these changes, a refrigerated egg will remain edible for ten weeks, but will taste best within the first three.

Long-term Egg Storage

Before refrigeration, people were desperate for a safe way to store eggs. They oiled them, packed them in sawdust, sealed them in “water-glass,” pickled and salted them, to various success. I say, thank-goodness for the freezer!

Egg whites can be frozen as is. It’s convenient to freeze the whites in ice cube trays; one white fits in each cube. Yolks, however, become gelatinous when frozen, and so need to have 1 tablespoon of sugar or 1 teaspoon of salt added to 2 cups of yolks. Whole eggs can be frozen, but also require ½ teaspoon of salt or 1 ½ tablespoons of sugar per cup of eggs (about 4 large eggs.) The eggs need to be mixed, but not so vigorously that air is whipped in. Stirring with a fork will do. Freeze in as airtight a container as possible.

Beached Whale or Goat?

This was the view on the GoatCam this morning:

whale

 

I’m surprised that I didn’t get an email or two from worried viewers urging me to run out to the barn to check on a dying goat. Pip does look like a beached whale. Is that bloated belly about to pop? No worries. This is what I call Pip’s “dead goat imitation.” Despite the fact that I knew he was just sleeping, I still went out to make sure that he was okay. As soon as the goats heard the back porch door open, they were up on their feet.

What? said Pip. Look, I’m positively svelte. Starving, in fact.

svelte

 

And itchy.

scratching

 

Patriotic Boy and Goat

I love this photograph. Look at how the boy has his hand, lovingly, on his goat’s shoulder. Look at how simple, yet patriotic, the flags are in the wagon. There’s a sweet gentleness about this scene. I want to step into the photo and walk down the street with them and watch a parade.

200

In August, this image will be in a new book of postcards, Vintage Farm Animal Photographs. Meanwhile, Vintage Chicken Photographs is available in the HenCam store.