Backyard Hencam

Daisy is Soaking in the Laundry Tub

Daisy had an egg break inside her and it has made her sick. It is hard to know what exactly caused this. Something has gone wrong with her “egg-making machine”. She was always a good layer. She was the first of our flock to begin laying eggs at 5 months.

What’s Wrong With this Hen?

Last week I found her with her head drooping down facing the corner. She didn’t eat or drink but was able to join the others on the roost inside in the evening. This went on for another day. On the second day we turned her upside down. A piece of what looked liked plastic was sticking out of her vent. I pulled on it gently but it caused her discomfort. I took a picture of it (yes, folks, I did) and posted a question on the Backyard Chicken Forum, “First Emergency: What is this sticking out of my hen, and what do I do about it?” You can see the post with all the graphic pictures by going the Backyard Chickens forum and search the topic. You’ll see that it is a common problem and causes much illness and death in hens.

Backyard Chickens is a website with nearly 50,000 members (including me).

Members can post questions and answers. Everything I’ve learned about chickens, I learned on this site. Kind of like, “Chicken lovers helping chicken lovers”. They were quick to advise me and give me support.

Turned out that daisy had an unformed egg break inside her. What I saw was the membrane inside a broken egg that had dried and gotten stuck. We would need to soften the membrane and get it out. Daisy tolerated mineral oil being put in her vent (where the egg comes out). I’ll leave it to your imagination as to how we did that. She tolerated soaking in a laundry tub full of warm water. She tolerated have the membrane pulled from her body. She tolerated being dried with a hair dryer. And, finally, she rather enjoyed sitting in a cage in the laundry room, under a heat lamp, warming herself.

As the sun began to set, Daisy wanted to rejoin her flock. We put her in with her sisters and she went off to roost. Hopefully, she will recover. I’m hesitant to be too hopeful. When things go wrong with the “egg-maker” it is often a chronic condition. We’re keeping a close eye on her. Daisy is a sweet, sweet, hen. I would hate to lose her.

Indoo.r Cam Focused on Nest Boxes

We’ve had people ask us how we put the images from a camera onto the website for public viewing. As novices, we found it challenging to do and even more difficult to explain. It has taken us awhile to write out a brief explanation of the process that we went through to make our images public and hope you will find it helpful.

We’ve written directions and put the explanation as a “page” or article so that the title will be permanently displayed across the top of the first page of our website. You will find the explanation under Hencam Tech Talk on the menu bar across the top.

I hope this will be of help to any of you wanting to embark on this journey. Please let us know if you have hencams so that we can see your completed project and visit your site.

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Brooke and Don at San Simeon Beach

We had visitors over the Fourth of July weekend. On our agenda was playing in the sand and water at San Simeon Beach, peeking over the bluffs at the elephant seals along Hwy. 1, watching the Cayucos parade, and of course, exclaiming over fireworks ignited over the ocean at the beachside Shamel Park in Cambria. We had what felt like a private viewing from our deck. Snuggling under blankets, our granddaughter never made it to the fireworks finale before her eyes closed and she fell sound asleep.

Parading in Cayucos

We were away from home much of the time over the holiday, but when we did come home, visiting the hens and gathering eggs was the thing granddaughter Brooke wanted to do the most.

The hens are used to children and, like dogs, follow them around hoping they will drop a crumb or two on the ground. The hens have never pecked a human but I remember as a child being chased by a hen or rooster. The more we ran from them, the more aggressive they became. My poor mother used to have to take a broom with her to hang out the laundry. She’d swing that old broom and the hens would take off running.

I’m glad our hens are tame. I made an agreement with them early on that they would have to be pets as well as egg layers or they’d end up in a soup pot. So far, so good.

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Panasonic camera for Backyard Hencam

There are two Panasonic cameras on the hens. We’ve been working on moving the outdoor camera the last few days, trying to find the best view. The outside camera has been at one end of the run since we began this project. We mounted it about 4 feet off the ground and put a “hood” over it to protect it from the elements. What we’ve learned in the last four months, is that the hens prefer to hang out at the shady end of the run, which happens to be right under the camera! When you’ve come to Backyard Hencam to visit the chickens and the screen is empty, you’ve probably wondered, “Where are the chickens?” Well, they are, in fact, “chillin” under the camera and out of site!

New Location of Hencam

During the next week, we are going to mount the camera in different locations in the run so that you’ll be able to see the hens where they hang out during mid day. We know you want to see action, not just a blank screen.

There seems to be no place that will show you the entire coop. I told Don we could buy another camera and put one at each end. This didn’t go over too well. We had a hard time getting both cameras working on the website in the beginning so neither of us really can bear to think of adding a third.

We have moved the camera to the opposite side of the run to see how this works for viewing. We’re still experimenting. Let me know what you think!

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Rosie is balding. She’s been been getting the feathers picked off her head for some time now. Poor Rosie. She is at the bottom of the pecking order. She is also an annoying glutton, grabbing the tastiest of treats, ducking, and running away with them. See “Rosie” on Six Hens. In frustration, the other hens will peck her head, but Rosie stands her ground, treat in beak, and an absence of feathers on her head.

Chickens can be vicious. They eat meat when it is available and will practice cannibalism at times. When a flockmate is injured, other chickens will continously pick at the wound. So far, they have not drawn blood on Rosie’s head so I’ve been able to ignore the behavior.

"Pick-No-More Lotion"

In Farm Supply they sell “Rooster Booster, Pick-No-More Lotion” for $12.99. “Gads,” I thought when I picked it up, “Rosie is only worth about $20 as a laying hen! Am I really going to spend $12.99 for an ointment made to keep chickens from eating each other alive? Of course I am.”

Ointment being applied to Rosie's head

“Rooster Booster” has aloe vera and calendula for healing, and coal tar to discourage roosters from pecking the heads of their “victims”. Growing up, the old neighbor, Mr. Light, just put a glob of hot tar on the head of  chickens with peck wounds. On the label of “Rooster Booster” it says, “Not for human Use”. What are they talking about? I can’t think of any situation that would warrant “Rooster Booster”  being applied to a human!

Rosie has had two applications applied to her head thus far. I’m hoping that if the others hens will stop picking at her, the feathers on her head will grow back. I have no hope for her gluttonous behavior. That’s just Rosie.
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