[Buffy the eggs layer]

Hi everyone,


  well she ate from a dish today and so I gave her oats and cat meat. ( my hens never miss any opportunity to break into the house and steal cat meat) Turns out she likes oats but not cat meat. But I like a girl who knows her own mind. When I got back at lunch time she was spring cleaning her nest area so its time for a muck out I think.


She still needs lots of sleep as you would imagine but has longer and more frequent activity periods between the rests. I dosed her so heavily in diatom that she looks like the snow queen from nania but her occasional head scratch tells me they are still biting her. They need to bite her in order to be killed off by the drops unfortunately so I'm trying to see her scratching as positive. A friend of mine rescued 3 rhea a few years ago and one was so weak from a flea infestation that he couldnt stand up. he was recuperated with broccoli and critical care formula so I have given her broccoli and critical care in her water. Oh it turns out she likes sardines too.


the other two who remain in the quarantine coop are getting a similar treatment as one of them is clearly weak. The other one looks ok on the surface but they all must have been bitten to death. They do like cat meat it turns out and had cat meat with oats and blueberry actimel this morning. The weaker one of the two gets her encouragement to eat from the stronger one so I'm maintaining this status quo for the time being.


No one is laying at the moment so ivermectin and cat meat isnt ending up in my breakfast eggs.


I feel confident that they will all make it now though i know that it will take some weeks of nursing and nailing all those bl@@dy mites. I think their may be a story behind these hens. I noticed the poorly one has compacted gunk under her outer toe nails which I have only ever seen in hens made to stand around in filth and droppings. The coops they were in when I got them had a deep shavings base and were very clean so it didnt come from there. I discovered recently that the person that I bought them from has only had them a month. I think the place where they got the dirty toenails is the place where they got the mites.


Despite all the cost, care and heart ache I'm not sorry that I bought them, but I am sorry that they have all had to suffer like this.


Devon, now she has more composure the beak fits together fine though it is a little hooked. Im sure it will change once they get ranging. I bet they have never done that before either. I didn't plan to breed from them though so thats fine.