It's been one of those times where everything bad seems to come all at once. I guess that's the price you have to pay for having a relatively smooth run for a while. Recently I mentioned we were changing runs in order to sort out a rat problem. At the same time I was trying to deal with Precious having a sour crop relapse and keeping her separated in the cruiser, so she didn't eat solids, while wanting to move the chicks outside and needing that cruiser for them. As you're probably guessing, things didn't go smoothly.

I changed the doors over on the coop, to lock the flock out of the run with the rat problem and give them access to the other run. Then I put the rat bait block out. The next morning the bait was untouched and the holes in the feed bin lid were bigger. I'd put the bait in a sheltered spot under the bin, so maybe they hadn't noticed it. The next night I put two bait blocks out, right next to the lid corners they were chewing on. The following morning they were still there, surrounded by more chewed bits of plastic!

Rats are fast learners and adapters. I figure these ones are the descendants of the ones that died from being baited over half a year ago and knew they shouldn't eat it. If you've ever tried catching rats in traps you'll know you've got to keep moving them, changing them, changing the baits and constantly try to outwit them. I started out with humane, catch and release traps, but they only ever worked once! I really don't like killing any creature, but my only other recourse would be to not have a garden that is edible; a concrete jungle maybe. So I needed a change of bait.

I wasn't going to be able to get to the shops to find different bait for at least another day, so I tried smearing some old peanut butter on these baits. Success! The next morning there were just a few crumbs and a blob of peanut butter left. I then had the opportunity to get some different baits and they have been disappearing without a trace until this morning. Fingers crossed this means the problem is sorted, for the moment (a rat problem is never permanently sorted).

In the meantime one of the young roosters from our previous hatch had been having some puzzling issues. He wasn't developing as quickly as the rest and had some strange injuries on his leg and abdomen that didn't seem to be something that he'd have gotten from fighting with the others. It was almost like an infection was coming out from inside him. I applied antiseptic and the wounds gradually seemed to be healing, but I think now that it was only externally, because he later lost use of his legs and rapidly went downhill. I suspect that the infection continued through him internally. It always seems to be the sweet natured ones that we lose.

One of our hybrid hens, Austra, also died over the weekend (another sweet natured one). She was 3 years old, which is classed as a average for a hybrid, because they have so many laying issues and it was a laying issue that took her. I had hoped that because she took a little laying break this year and did a proper moult, replacing all her old feathers with shiny new ones, she'd have had enough of a break to rest her reproductive system. Sadly it obviously wasn't enough and her returning eggs were still bumpy and thin shelled.

Thankfully her sister's eggs, while very large, have returned to looking healthy and she's only laying every few days instead of daily. Blood spots are more common in them, but that's not unusual as hens get older anyway. It's one of the reasons why laying hens are usual not used commercially after a year or two of laying.

Precious wasn't responding to her treatment as well as usual so I brought her inside and moved the chicks out into the cruiser. They were about bursting out of their brooder, so they were very excited to have some room to run and flap. When it looks like the worst of the rain has finished I'll look at letting them out with the main flock, to give them even more space, as being part araucana they don't do well with being cooped up. Their pin feathers are coming through in patches at the moment. That teenage stage. Unfortunately, that means pink patches of skin are showing which entices curiosity and the odd bit of pecking. This is something I'll have to check up on regularly. Smearing Sudocrem on any sore looking areas usually helps to disguise it and discourage further pecking. I never had this problem until I started breeding araucanas!

Precious seemed to be on a downward spiral. Her crop was fermenting so much that she was vomiting some of it up and ended up breathing a bit in. Then she spent a hour or two sneezing and snoring as her breathing rattled away. She went off her food and was very subdued yesterday, so I thought we were going to lose her. Obviously fate decided I'd had enough to deal with for the moment and this morning she had eaten the yoghurt part of her food, drank all her drink, her tail was back up and she was looking alert again. As she obviously didn't fancy her solid food I made her a mixture of tinned tuna, yoghurt and added her medicine, which she ate up. She's not out of the woods yet, but things are looking more promising. She started her old trick of eating the newspaper lining on her floor, so I put her back out with the flock for the evening and I'll take her out for separate feeding and crop massages.

So today I can breathe a little sigh of relief and hope for a week with less problems ahead.