I fear I may have committed a "blogger sin": I haven't posted anything in 4 months!


This is probably bad, especially when you are starting a new blog and you realize that you actually have a few followers. Mea culpa.


OK, here's an interesting thing that I JUST learned (when checking the web for the correct spelling of mea culpa): the slang term (which I am not fond of), "my bad", is the literal English translation of mea culpa. Let's all try to sound more erudite and stick to Latin, shall we?


So what has occupied my time and attention these last few months, you ask? The short answer is that I decided to buy a horse. After nearly 30 years away from horses, I realized that I am a "grown-up" and I can actually fulfill my childhood dream of owning my own horse. I have had Foxy for a month now and am thoroughly enjoying what has become very much of a part-time occupation caring for, riding, outfitting, and learning about horses. I will have a lot to say about my equine mid-life crisis on my new blog that I am creating called: Hippie Horse. More on that later, this blog is dedicated to chickens.


I guess I will talk about Lucy. I did loose this beautiful Welsummer during my horse haze period. She developed bumblefoot, which is a terrible infection under the pad of her foot -- probably from stepping on something sharp (like a stray wire from the bottom of the hutch) that must have penetrated the skin. I spent a month treating her foot by placing her on oral antibiotics, and doing regular surgery on the foot to remove the bad tissues. I had to cut the pad and dig out hardened yellow-white patches of infection from under the pad with tweezers. Then I used a topical antibiotic on the wound and wrapped it with gauze. The foot was actually making progress in the positive direction, but in the meantime she developed a severe infection in her body cavity. She was extremely heavy with fluid, yet was not eating. She also was turning purple in her face and gasping for air. It was heart-wrenching to see her go through this torture. I decided that I needed to end her suffering myself, but how to do it was a difficult decision. I still don't know if I picked the best method, but it was the only one I was able to execute myself, not having the stomach to break her neck or chop her head off. I drowned her in a bucket of water and wept through the whole thing. Even though this was a few months ago, I still find it hard to form the experience into words.


Lucy was a chicken that my good friend, Jim Dennis, raised for me until she had enough feathers to be outside. She laid the most beautiful terra cotta colored eggs (which my two current Welsummers do not), she was the most friendly chicken in town, and a little too proud of every other hen's eggs (she would tell the world every time someone laid an egg, and with 19 chickens, that's a lot of squawking). We will really miss Lucy. (photo: NannyPs Hens)

It's been raining in Phoenix for three days solid and tomorrow's forcast is for more of the same. Flights are cancelled at the airport, interstate highways are closed, and some roads are so flooded that certain schools will be closed tomorrow. It's so rainy that my dog wouldn't go outside and pooped next to the toilet in the bathroom.

I spent some time with the girls today to find out how they were dealing with the rain. The ground in the chicken run is flooded and earth worms by the 100s are sacrificing their lives to escape the soggy and suffocating depths of their burrows for a breath of fresh air. Good to know that I have such healthy soil, but I'm kind of bummed that the girls are eating all the worms.

I noticed that some girls stayed dry as they waited  for a pause in the downpour before going in search of food. Others happily passed the day forraging for worms until they were soaked to the bone.

As I was snapping a few pictures, Chica-Mara-Choochoo (my Dominique) jumped down onto the ramp and plotzed -- legs sprawling -- on what I'm calling her "egg belly". It was a pretty hard landing and I drew in a quick breath upon hearing the thud, but she walked away, seemingly unfazed.

She layed an egg today in the shape of a jelly bean. You can clearly see a circular flattened imprint of her fall on the egg shell. What seems to me to be the strangest thing of all is that I happened to witness this event and I now know exactly why I found a strangely-shaped egg. I think this is conclusive proof that if a tree falls in the woods and there is nobody there to hear it, it DOES nonetheless make a sound. It seems like there is a life's lesson in there somewhere too . . . your work doesn't have to be noticed to someday make a mark.

"The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit." --Nelson Henderson

So . . . here is another very gross subject, but a very important heads-up for any backyard chicken wrangler -- roundworm (Ascaridia spp.). Roundworm is a common problem for free-range flocks, as it is picked up from the ground, including consumption of earthworms (or so I've read). The adult worm lives in the intestine where it lays large numbers of eggs which are excreted in the birds’ droppings. The roundworm eggs are then transmitted throughout the flock as the chickens scratch for food. Apparently roundworm eggs can remain viable on the ground for very long periods, particularly in damp, shaded areas.

My story is that one morning after letting the girls out of their hutches, I turned around to find a pile of wormy poop that looked very much like the picture (photo by smiler43 at http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0). Once you have found a pile of wormy poop like this, it is safe to assume that your entire flock is infested. Roundworm will likely always be present, but it should be managed because, left unchecked, the worms can cause lower egg production, thinner shells, they can block the digestive tract of the bird, and can migrate from the digestive tract to the reproductive tract and could be found inside the eggs, particularly if the shells are thin-walled. Here are some recommendations for managing roundworm parasite:

• Regularly apply food-grade diatomaceous earth (DE) in foraging areas. DE is the fossilized skeletons of microscopic aquatic organisms. The theory is that the DE will abrade the surface of roundworm eggs and hopefully kill them.
• For one week each month, spike their water with raw and unfiltered apple cider vinegar (ACV) with the 'mother'. I purchased Braggs ACV at my local healthy food market. ACV contains vitamins, minerals and trace elements. It will help to lower the pH level in the digestive tract, creating a more hostile environment for harmful pathogens. Apparently it will also facilitate removal of mucous, which may be beneficial in fighting common respiratory illnesses by clearing their airways. According to this article on poultrykeeper.com, "due to the acid content of ACV, it is an antiseptic. As well as killing germs, it is also a mild antibiotic as well, (that is, it contains bacteria that destroy infectious organisms)." While ACV may not directly increase egg production, a hen with a healthy digestive system and that is free of respiratory illness is bound to be a happy hen (thus performing better). Poultry Keeper advises that ACV should be added to their drinking water at a 2% dilution, in other words 20ml per liter (I calculate this to be 5T/gallon). I hope chickens can't taste, because this seems awfully vinegary! The first time I used ACV, I forgot that it is corrosive to metal and I ruined my $35 automatic water bowl, so remember to use only plastic water containers. Poultry Keeper recommends 0.5% solution (5ml/l or 1+T/gallon) for chicks and growers.

• For three consecutive days each month, help your girls purge their worms by feeding Verm-X. It can be ordered online from Verm-X USA. It comes in pellet and liquid form. Verm-X is a natural control of intestinal parasites and contains herbs like garlic, slippery elm, cinnamon, cayenne, quassia, thyme, and peppermint. I have not yet tried the liquid (which you add to drinking water), but I think it may be easier to administer than the pellets. In order to entice the girls to eat the Verm-X, I have had to concoct "Chicken Smoothies" to mask the pellets with a tasty treat. I make the Chicken Smoothie by blending the required dosage of Verm-X with pine nuts or pumpkin seeds (which apparently immobilize the worms), buttermilk or yogurt, and whatever egg shells and kitchen scraps I've been saving to feed the hens. By the end of the day the Chicken Smoothie is gone, but I don't advise hanging around to watch them eat, as they tend to shake the excess off their bills and all over your legs!