Yesterday was Bee Inspection day (Hive 2, our calm hive), with a quick bit of stuff in Hive 1, and our day to do the allotment chooks.
Plans of what we were going to do went well, no disagreements or discussions. We arrived, and set about our tasks. I poo picked (the chickens, not the bees), DH scrubbed the waterers and refilled, and topped up the feed.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of the DInners pull at the back of the head of another. I scooped up the pecked girl, and saw blood through the feathers. A quick inspection showed that she had been pecked on the head and was bleeding. Looked to me like it was caused by a cockerel (holding on).
So, I put the wound powder on, purple sprayed her, and shut her in the Big Girls coop while she dried and I carried on with everything else. I found a soft egg in the Dinners' coop. They are ony 17 weeks old, so it's remarkably early. So, I had to set up a temporary nest box in the coop, and DH managed to find me a rubber egg to put in it.
Next, I notcied that there was more poo than usual under the lower roosting bars, so I asked DH to put another long perch at the same height as the others. It was possible (though not really likely) that the injury had occurred as te birds were jostling for position on the higher bars.
Then we popped the injured hen back in with the others so we could keep an eye on things while we carried on.
We were now running very late. DH had a call scheduled for 1pm, and we still needed to do the bees. In the end, we just took a peek in Hive 2, and turned the combs over in the ekes in both hives, and fitted entrance reducers. This is because both hives are still relatively small and the bees find it hard to defend a large entrance - especially when they have food in the ekes which attracts robbers.
Hive 1 still unhappy, but this time we didn't have any followers.
We agreed that DH would pop back in the evening to check on the injured hen in case she was still being pecked.
And I bet you can guess what came next.
Plans of what we were going to do went well, no disagreements or discussions. We arrived, and set about our tasks. I poo picked (the chickens, not the bees), DH scrubbed the waterers and refilled, and topped up the feed.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of the DInners pull at the back of the head of another. I scooped up the pecked girl, and saw blood through the feathers. A quick inspection showed that she had been pecked on the head and was bleeding. Looked to me like it was caused by a cockerel (holding on).
So, I put the wound powder on, purple sprayed her, and shut her in the Big Girls coop while she dried and I carried on with everything else. I found a soft egg in the Dinners' coop. They are ony 17 weeks old, so it's remarkably early. So, I had to set up a temporary nest box in the coop, and DH managed to find me a rubber egg to put in it.
Next, I notcied that there was more poo than usual under the lower roosting bars, so I asked DH to put another long perch at the same height as the others. It was possible (though not really likely) that the injury had occurred as te birds were jostling for position on the higher bars.
Then we popped the injured hen back in with the others so we could keep an eye on things while we carried on.
We were now running very late. DH had a call scheduled for 1pm, and we still needed to do the bees. In the end, we just took a peek in Hive 2, and turned the combs over in the ekes in both hives, and fitted entrance reducers. This is because both hives are still relatively small and the bees find it hard to defend a large entrance - especially when they have food in the ekes which attracts robbers.
Hive 1 still unhappy, but this time we didn't have any followers.
We agreed that DH would pop back in the evening to check on the injured hen in case she was still being pecked.
And I bet you can guess what came next.
