Is it Spring Yet?

According to my calendar, spring will soon be here.  I've got enough work in the yard to keep a landscaper busy for months, but with no money to spend on that sort of thing, that landscaper is me.  Dealing with chickens and not wanting to let the dogs loose in the front, I let my little perennial garden get away from me last year.  The weeds overtook everything until it was just too much to deal with, so I just closed my eyes and vowed that things would be different this year.

Well .. it's this year.

This is what I'm starting with

What a mess!  The yard is completely covered with mounds from gophers or moles or whatever it is that's prevalent here in south/central Ohio.  I guess it's time to put the boots on and go out stomping.

I spent some time cutting some of the overgrown mess in the flower bed but didn't get to a good weeding.  There's many more hours of work to be done, but at least now you can see what's starting to come up.  I have tulip, daffodil and iris that are sprouting ...

... and one lone grape hyacinth.

It's a small start, but a start nonetheless.  Here's what I ended up with after about an hour or so of work (and tossing a bone to Jethro to keep him out of trouble).

Lots more to do, so I better get cracking.

Come see what else my readers and I are working on by clicking Rosie's photo below. I do work-in-progress (WIP) Wednesday every week, so feel free to join us!

Still a Work in Progress

Ophelia is my work-in-progress this week!

Ophelia has been in the house for about five days now and is doing very well. She's still not too active, but has been moving around a bit more each day. Best of all, her feathers are coming in very nicely!

I'm anxious to get her back outside with the rest of the flock, but it's still very cold out there and I'm not sure her new, baby-like feathers will provide enough warmth quite yet. I may do a test run in a day or so to make sure she can fly. If she can't get up into the coop on her own yet, then I'm going to wait a bit before releasing her.

I know it's crazy to have a chicken in the living room and it's not something I could handle long-term, but it's kinda nice having someone to share my morning toast and banana with.

Come join me at my other blog for WIP Wednesday ... just click Rosie's picture below.

Bumblefoot Hit my Flock

Lucky me ... bumblefoot has hit my flock.  I noticed bumps between the toes of my largest hen (Bertha) a couple of weeks ago and knew immediately it had to be bumblefoot.  Picked her up and sure enough, the bottom of her feet had the large, hard callous on them, one foot much worse than the other.

Large callous from bumblefoot, a bacterial infection

As I researched how to deal with it, I noticed one of the other hens (Yvonne) had small bumps between her toes too, so knew I had a real problem on my  hands.  I looked online for the best way to handle it and set about getting supplies ready.  I didn't have epsom salts on hand, so I soaked their feet in peroxide initially and picked off as much of the softened callous as I could.  Most of what I got off was dried poop; the texture and smell reminded me of picking horse hooves.



I soaked, picked and cleaned as best I could and applied a topical antibiotic ointment that's the best stuff I know (Mela-gel, put out by Melaleuca) then wrapped their feet.  Yvonne's responded well, but Bertha had a long way to go.  My local pet store had Ornacyn (erythromycin for birds)  which stated it was for avian bumblefoot.  I had a heckuva time figuring out the dosage for a larger bird and on a broader scale,  but did the best I could and hoped it would be enough.  I had no way to isolate the two hens completely for the duration, so opted to give it to them individually with a syringe several times a day.  I didn't want to medicate all 11 chickens (ten hens) unnecessarily and have to forfeit the eggs if they didn't have the infection.  Egg production had finally picked up and I'd been getting 6-7 eggs from eight or nine hens (Bertha wasn't laying, and I wasn't sure about Yvonne) and didn't want to lose it all.

Bertha's bumblefoot is more severe. The left
cyst  is large and filled with infectious fluid

Smaller cyst on Yvonne

Again, Yvonne responded well as her case wasn't as severe.  Bertha was getting better, but one cyst between her toes was still pretty large and fluid-filled.  I opted to lance that one, soak in epsom salts, then applied the topical antibiotic and wrapped it.  With the continued antibiotics orally, it was definitely getting better and she seemed more her old self (cackling all day), but it still wasn't gone.

Yvonne sporting her new shoes

"I don't see no stinkin' bumblefoot"

"I'm liking the new house shoes"

Yvonne showed no signs of bumblefoot after several days of treatment, but after a week of antibiotics, Bertha showed improvement but still far from cured (again, not sure she was getting enough of the antibiotic the way I was administering it).

This will be an ongoing process, so stay tuned for more on how I'm handling it, and what  is and is not working.

Outside Nest Boxes on Big Coop

Since today is WIP Wednesday on my crochet blog, I thought I'd share the nest boxes we're building for the larger coop.  Click Rosie's pic to see who else is participating in WIP Wednesday, and play along!

The girls like the outside nest boxes in the smaller coop, and I wanted them on the big coop to free up more floor space.  Having the nest boxes outside will allow more room to move around and also more breathing space come winter when they'll be cooped up for longer periods of time with the cold temps and shorter days.

Lurch and Ruby checking things out

Lurch making sure we're on task

None of the girls seemed interested in going in yet, so I put the 

dishpan (their old nest box) in there to give them a clue

Finished boxes from inside

The photo above makes the nest boxes look pretty small, but they're much 

larger than they look from that angle.  I could almost fit two dishpans in there.

Here's a better shot of the inside of one nest box

Just needs a coat of primer and paint

What're you working on?

Outside Nest Boxes

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Today is WIP (work-in-progress) Wednesday on one of my other blogs, so I thought I'd share step by step photos of how we built the outside nest boxes on the small coop.  We're in the process of re-doing the larger coop and will be making them much the same.

Big Bertha likes the new nest boxes

Even though I still had nest boxes in the large coop, every one of my six laying hens started laying in the nest boxes in the smaller coop as soon as I opened it up.  It's been two months now and they've never laid another egg in their own coop since.  It will be interesting to see what they do when I have the outside nest boxes on the large coop finished.

To play along on WIP Wednesday, or to see what other projects my readers are working on, click Rosie's picture.

What are YOU working on?