Dear Big Trev,

No vets in Melbourne know anything about hens. Except for one who is two hours away and deals with prize winning pedigrees and expects you will want to spend lots of money doing anything you can to save a crook chook.

The online forums offer some basic advice but it’s so difficult to know what’s wrong with a sad hen.

There seems to be a fairly common theme of ‘cull her’ amongst the more rural hen keepers.

I don’t want to spend a mint taking a vet to the other side of the city for the best bird care in Melbourne but I’m not a ‘better just let her slowly die while I stand about not caring’ kind of chook owner.

So my question is : how do I find the happy medium between livestock and pets when it comes to my backyard hens?

Thanks, Maddy.

Well Maddy first off let me say how sorry I am to hear that you’ve been having trouble with the health of your dear Chookies.  I know the extent you go to provide them with excellent shelters, fresh food and medicine so I can confidently say it’s certainly not a lack of effort and caring on your part that this seems to be happening.

As you’ve pointed out, in big cities vets hardly work with poultry so don’t know how to deal with them.  Whilst a growing number of people keep a few hens in their backyard, in capital cities it’s primarily cats and dogs the vets deal with and that’s what they train in.  In the country vets tend to know a bit more about chickens, but as you also point out, there tends to be a ‘cull them’ mentality.  Chickens in the country are not birds people generally make emotional attachments to, and given they are not very expensive to replace most farmers will simply kill a crook chook and get rid of it before it has a chance to infect any other of the flock.

So if country vets are out and city vets are out, what does that leave us with?  The specialist vets like the one you have mentioned which is a two-hour drive away.  And indeed yes they deal with the ‘speciality breeds’ that people have mainly for shows.  I was amazed when attending a poultry auction in Bathurst a few months ago how much 3 small Silkies went for – more than I think I’ve spent on my entire flock combined!  In these cases vets feel free to charge a mint as there is a significant financial loss to the owner if they lose a bird.  What help is this to the backyard chook enthusiast? None.

Online forums can be tricky.  I mean, how do you know if the person who wrote what you are reading has any real idea what they are talking about?  Most loonies and know-it-alls end up on the net these days and will happily preach about that which they know little.

So back to your main question: how do I find the happy medium between livestock and pets when it comes to my backyard hens?

It’s really finding the balance that works well for you.  You obviously have great affection for your chookies but not the same kind of love you would have for say a cat or dog.  I relate completely.  And anyone who thinks people don’t get attached to birds at all should have seen how upset my 5-year old son was when a wedge-tailed eagle nearly killed our Frizzle Rooster, poor little bloke was in tears and insisted on sitting with me in the pen while I tended to the rooster and, thankfully, was able to fix it up.  But if we had lost the Rooster, it would not be the same as losing our beloved Burmese Cat or Shetland Sheepdog.

If I may make a recommendation, I would stick with the most common and generic breeds of chicken.  They are usually not expensive, and it also means there is a wealth of information out there regarding any issues that may arise with them.  Also look for hardy breeds, in a big city like Melbourne chickens have to deal with a lot more noise and air pollution than they do in a rural setting and can be subject to greater amounts of stress than they would pecking around on a farm. Don’t go for the biggest chooks, they wont do well in a small yard.  Don’t go for the most prolific layers unless you want to treat them completely as livestock, as they tend to have shorter lifespans.  Don’t go for the fancy breeds unless you want to treat them completely as pets, they tend to be fragile and require a high level of maintenance.  For a happy medium between pet and livestock – common and hardy – that’s the ticket!  This will also stop you suffering too much of a financial loss if a chicken is lost.

By getting breeds that fit these two categories, it will mean you can have a few lovely chookies in your yard that shouldn’t get too sick too often, and you should be able to find information on them fairly easily.  Perhaps invest in a book or two about whatever breeds you select.  If sickness occurs you can always try ringing around various vets – you may at least be able to get some advice and some vets will actually give you a syringe of whatever elixir is needed to take home to treat your poultry yourself.  If no vets are helpful and you need to turn to the net, be selective about what sites you visit and see if several different reputable sites will have a consensus about what might be wrong.  Avoid the chat forums – that’s where all the self-professed experts (i.e. nutters) reside.

And sadly, to live in that happy medium between livestock and pets one has to realize that sometimes you will lose a bird no matter what you do.  We’ve lost chickens to heatwaves and hawks, and likewise lost ducks to travel-stress and foxes.  It’s always sad but it’s an inevitable fact of poultry ownership – sometimes the feathery buggers check out no matter what you do.  Between the dangers I just listed your chooks also have to deal with dogs, cats, eagles, lice, mites, fleas, ticks, intestinal worms, diseases and sometimes even each other.  Sometimes I wonder how they survive at all!

I hope this advice is of some help to you Maddy, and I hope your dear chookies get well soon.

Got any other advice for Maddy?  Pop it in the comments section below.

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