[Mel]

 Hi all,

Well I have been thinking that I should really share all our experiences with others on the forum-so others can learn from the mistakes we all make from time to time.

As you know,I purchased 14 hens for around £1.60 each..(my  mistake)-From Fabian Eagle. And we had the operation on one girls Impacted crop- well she is fine today,mmm,but no egg that I have seen of yet. Scaly leg,shall add some more pictures,incredibly,it is getting much better already. Vent lice.... remarkable improvement after bathing all of them,powdering and de-infesting them.One dropped dead yesterday-and was the best looking one amongst all of them..     .Nothing wrong with it as far as I could see and right in front of me at the time.   One last weekend had to be put down.due to unexplained golf ball size lump on the side of it's head which appeared from one day to the next!-and It really was horrid to see,the hen could not close her beak,almost as if her head was going to inflate and pop...it was honestly nothing like I have seen before!!  ..what was that???!!!! 

-I have thought along the lines of rat bite? Though I have not seen any this year at all...we managed this last winter!!

My Main flock have been kept well away,most of which I bred myself,in fact they are laying profusely at the moment which is a godsend -at least my bio security appears to be working

And the remainder are laying very well,they are well on their way to being brilliant,I have even noticed that one has become darker in colour-unless it fell from the skies!   

cost of birds-reality. £1.60 each = £22.50
Cost of Transport £20.00
Cost of Flubenvet £26.97
Cost of Scaly Leg Treatment-half bottle used £3.68
Cost of Vaseline £1.49
Cost of lice treatment £12.00

Altogether £96.64  so around £7.00 each.

Though if you were being paid,then how many hours is that,you could add feed to whilst they have been convalescing.

I am however,very happy that the ones I have saved are starting to look really nice and healthy and are now laying fine!

Would I buy like this again.......I have to admit,I am only going to breed my own from now on.!

[manian]

thanks for the update leghorn.
we are looking at breeding our own
thanks
Mx

[Mel]

Thank you for your response. and glad it helps! 

Where is every one else-come on,send in your input for all,we all make mistakes-if you believe you do not-get help

[deepinthewoods]

surely alarm bells should have gone off at the price of £1.60 each??? then surely you should have spotted scaly leg etc etc

[Henstock]

You can get perfectly reasonable hens from £1 from various laying farms, my main layers were £1 each from a free range farm who were replacing their 72wk old chickens. Although free range many were featherless as they prefer to stay in the shed near the food. But pretty healthy and pest and disease free as they are vacinated and treated for such.
Yes scaly leg should be noticeable but if the chickens were already boxed when Leghorn arrived it may not have been visible. I have bought boxed birds from auctions where this has been the case.
As for the other problems, the lice could very well have been the contrbuting factor to the death, lice and mites can bring a bird down in days.
Impacted crop is usually as a result of diet the birds are not used to, which is likely in a change of home.
As for the lump on the head, I have no idea but it sounds horrible.
Sorry you've had such a bad experience.
I now breed my own layers, and sell a few to help towards feeding the rest. That way I know the history of the birds. I would never knowingly sell an ill or infested bird and treat all birds regularly to prevent problems.
The best thing about buying birds like this is too see them come from the sorry state you get them in to lovely healthy chickens clucking round your yard.
Well done on what you have done so far Leghorn!

[Mel]

surely alarm bells should have gone off at the price of £1.60 each??? then surely you should have spotted scaly leg etc etc

Not really. My first flock I bought from a local gamekeeper all for the grand sum of £10.00 for 30 hens and two roosters.I still have them today and they are exceptional birds.if you read the very first post regards the impacted crop you shall see re scaly leg..I posted this so people can learn from it,it is not a debate!

[Mel]

You can get perfectly reasonable hens from £1 from various laying farms, my main layers were £1 each from a free range farm who were replacing their 72wk old chickens. Although free range many were featherless as they prefer to stay in the shed near the food. But pretty healthy and pest and disease free as they are vacinated and treated for such.
Yes scaly leg should be noticeable but if the chickens were already boxed when Leghorn arrived it may not have been visible. I have bought boxed birds from auctions where this has been the case.
As for the other problems, the lice could very well have been the contrbuting factor to the death, lice and mites can bring a bird down in days.
Impacted crop is usually as a result of diet the birds are not used to, which is likely in a change of home.
As for the lump on the head, I have no idea but it sounds horrible.
Sorry you've had such a bad experience.
I now breed my own layers, and sell a few to help towards feeding the rest. That way I know the history of the birds. I would never knowingly sell an ill or infested bird and treat all birds regularly to prevent problems.
The best thing about buying birds like this is too see them come from the sorry state you get them in to lovely healthy chickens clucking round your yard.
Well done on what you have done so far Leghorn!

Thank you so much! The hen with the crop-well,she was hidden behind many others in the cage.i have no idea what some of the contents were within her crop-it was really something horrid as you all may have seen.She is fine and I am still waiting for that first egg hehe!--Though like a few of my pensioners,they stopped laying ages ago,they are here for their "good life"