Our old rhode Island red rooster Charlie has been down for a couple of weeks.  We believe that he broke his foot by catching his toe in the chicken wire.  He lost the nail and the foot/ toe has been swollen for all this time.  We think that it has been fighting infection as well, but with no open sores.  Even the toenail area had closed over by the time we saw he was down. 

Anyway we have been trying various remedies to help "Grandpa Charlie" as we call him now.  Once the proud and to be feared head of all of the fowl in the yard, he is now humble and meek.

We have lost another one of our favorite hens Silver.  She seemed to die of old age / sleeping sickness.  She just couldn't move more than a few minutes without tiring and laying down, then finally just sleeping all day and one day not waking at all.

If she had no pain, I guess it would be the preferred way to go.  She was five or six.  I am not sure if that is old in chicken years.

Now my big RIR rooster Charlie  is down and I don't know if he will make it.  He can't put weight on one of his feet.  We thought he had an infected foot as he seemed to have lost a toenail and his toe was swollen and his foot really hot.  He wouldn't allow drenching but I have been soaking his foot which he tolerated perfectly.   He ate really well yesterday compared to the 2-3 days before.  He also is older than Silver was by a year or so.  He also has no energy and is not wanting to move much, very lethargic.  Neither of his feet look perfect rather I wonder if his bad diet (mostly grain) some of the time hasn't finally come to show. I can't free range him like I do many of the other chickens though I do throw extra stuff in with him and his few hens.   Charlie is an icon on our little backyard farm.  I hate the thought of losing him, though there have been times I wondered what to do with him.  He has always been a beautiful and perfect specimen of a rooster bent to protect his flock and rule the roost.  Now he has no spunk at all and I am thankful if he manages a crow or two when I stand him up.

I haven't heard him crow this morning.  It is way past time to get to work.

Take care,
Michele

We will be going to the Monarch site down in Grover Beach tomorrow with our hs coop to see the butterflies and hear the docent tour.  We will have lunch here first.

Today all of the chickens are out.  I usually put them out only the last hour or so, but they snuck out when the wind blew the door open so I left them out. 

I hope to have more pictures for you soon.

I had them all in this past weekend but didn't get them finished before company came....

Talk soon,

Michele

Our hen(s) were broody and one (whale) has two new chicks about 5 days old and the other (henry) has three so far and is not off the nest yet. 

We are watching and waiting and hoping that the two sets get along as we have not had them have their chicks in the coop before.

Lost a silkie chicken, to that hawk I think.  I was in a hurry for a meeting and forgot to pen them.  She wasn't with them when we finally found them hiding in the foliage under a tree.  Sad week for losing one's animal friends.

They look so cute running around the yard. They are really getting "big" now and they are so fluffy.  We find these to be excellent foragers returning to their crate each evening. However, we do have to run around and try to fetch them when we hear our resident crows yelling at a local very large hawk.  We usually pen them when we leave the house for long as well.

Kiera took out Charlie's last hen today.  She wouldn't even leave the roost to eat, he was being so horrid to her.  No, we are not the "cook the darn thing" types, tho dad doesn't understand that.

Charlies used to go to roost early but since we moved he stays up til the last minute.  Maybe I should feed him some California Poppy (sedative).

I tried putting the other two Reds in with him when we first set up the coop at this house, but they were so miserable, I let them out to range.  (Course I rarely find my egg..)