Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Thursday 7 June 2012

A poorly Tiny Hen


Tiny Hen in the house as she is poorly :-( Hoping that being in the warm, with no bullying, getting some food, vitamins and drink down her will help matters.

 Tiny Hen is one of the barn caged birds I rescued at the end of April, along with Titch, Babs, Bunty and Ginger (RIP - fox attack )

Tiny and Titch were very bald and Tiny was also the smallest hen I have EVER seen.

Although she was quite ok at first, and laid some eggs, she is now looking a bit " hunched" and is not feathering up or putting on weight.She has laid a few soft shelled monster strange eggs as well.

She is also being chased around by some of the other hens and I suspect is not getting a fair share of the food, despite me putting one feeding station per hen, spread around the hen run so all the girls can eat at the same time.

Yesterday when I went out in the morning to check on all the girls she was just stood in the run, not moving, eyes closed, shivering :-(

So I picked her up and brought her inside the house. She had a box in the kitchen with food and water until bed time, but then went into the downstairs cloakroom for the night.
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 WHAT a messy eater! can you see how she has spattered cat meat all over the place :-) I am just glad to see that she has perked up and is eating something.

Fingers crossed that Tiny Hen gets better - am hoping rest, quiet, no bullying and lots of feeding will help her get better - oh and love and cuddles from me :-)

5 comments:

  1. hope tiny hen gets better soon!
    think she likes being indoors and can't say i blame her in this recent weather :-)

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  2. It sounds like she's rather live in a cage like she's been used to than enjoy her freedom. Perhaps it was too much freedom all at once. After all some people are like that, so why not some chickens.

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  3. aybe, Kain, except she was an ex barn hen, so not in a cage - and up until this week she was happily doing lots of chickn stuff just fine. I think she was being pushed around and not getting enough food, and was getting more and more stressed.

    She is really much better now and could actually go back with the others - but she seems to want to stay with me, so who am I to stop her :-)

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  4. Sorry to hear Tiny Hen has been poorly, warmth and extra TLC does wonders for these hard working girls. Her egg laying days are probably catching up with her, but being in knowledgable hands I'm sure she will continue to do well xx

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  5. Sorry to hear Tiny Hen has been poorly, warmth and extra TLC does wonders for these hard working girls. Her egg laying days are probably catching up with her, but being in knowledgable hands I'm sure she will continue to do well xx

    ReplyDelete

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