I made a chicken coat because of a rescue.

Yesterday, I acquired 21 new chickens in an unexpected way. A woman had advertised laying hens on Craig's List on Thursday afternoon. She said she had 25 and wanted $75 for them all. I wrote her an email and asked if she would possibly sell 8 or 10 hens at $4 apiece. I didn't have any response from her on Thursday so I figured she had another buyer. Then, on Friday morning, I had an email telling me to get over there if I wanted any because her son had let them out of the pen and they were all over her yard and her dogs were killing them. I scrambled to get crates together and get over there, even though I was supposed to be going to work. I took my chicken net and was shocked at the scene. Chicken carnage doesn't describe it - body parts laying around and about 25 or 30 bulldogs all over, mostly chained to trees. The bulldogs were looking well - in good condition overall, but the chickens, not so much. The woman explained that they were her 7 year old son's responsibility and that he had ADD and was not good at remembering to feed or water them, so she wanted them gone. I had not planned on taking them all, but at that point I could not help it. They were in rough shape, traumatized, skinny, thirsty, and sad. So I packed them into crates and drove them home. Yesterday they spent out in the enclosed coop and hoop pen. This morning I inspected every one.

No mouth sores and no pox.
No vent mites or lice found.
Almost all have bumblefoot on one or both feet.
Almost all seem skinny.
Many are missing feathers, some more than others.
Some have superficial wounds from the dogs.
Some are very pretty and look like they will be very nice hens.
There are 3 roosters and 17 hens. I think she had more than 25 birds.

Anyway, because of the major missing feathers, I decided to learn how to make a coat for chickens today, because it is cold here (we had snow yesterday) and I can't stand the thought of them being out in the cold without feathers. So I am making fleece coats. Sorry if anybody is offended by chickens in coats, but I hope you can see why these girls need them.

So I went out and rounded up Rosie as my coat model. I explained to her that this was serious business, and that we were helping other hens. She appeared to contemplate that, so I brought her inside and set her in a nice box next to my sewing machine. I put a towel in it and some shredded paper for her comfort.

No sooner did I get out my measuring tape when Rosie decided that it was time for some other very serious business. Egg laying time. She likes to cover herself in wood shavings in the coop when she lays. No shavings here, so the paper will do, thank you very much.

So I had to sit and wait for the entire proceedings, listening to her clucking, and watching her disappear....

I sneaked a few measurements while she was busy hiding herself.

And suddenly, the coat was made and the egg was laid.

We went outside for a "henwalk" session. Because she doesn't do the catwalk.

Here is the rough pattern, and I used velcro for the closure.

Oops, forgot photo.

Here is the back of one of the rescue hens.
She needs a coat.

These birds are awfully sad. Do you think there is any chance this is a naked neck or is it just feather loss?

Good for you. You are a great chicken person and those poor birds will soon be happy and health under you care.
Sandy

Hey Claire!! Some rock you're under -it's a hoppin' joint!! What does the skin look like? Can you see any sore-ish spots or anything? It doesn't look natural to me, but a turken doesn't look natural either. Maybe if you made a fleece tube -legging style? _/ and then sew the sides up? And how many jackets will you need to make? You might save time doing a no sew in an apron shape and just cutting tie-holes in the bottom of the apron -y'know, pass the strings under the wings and secure by the tie holes. Have to say your jackets are waay cuter though...

Can't believe somebody would keep pit bulls and chickens together! How insane is that!!

sounds to me like the woman was an animal horder and needs turned in for neglect. my children with add/adhd r 12 and 8 and they would never do that and that po's me she would use that as an excuse to cover her ignorance and laziness. why on earth were they loose for the dogs to attack?? at her sons age she should be responsible as the adult to go with him to feed and care for them or check after he is done to see it was properly done and noone missed. i hate people like that they should not own animals and from the sound of the dogs i bet she has a puppy mill going too. that just urks me to no end!!!

ok, i'll get off my soap box now, sorry for vent.

u are an awesome loveing and careing person, bless ur heart for all u are doing for these dear sweet chickens and thank u for being there and takeing them all it. in time they will mend and be beautiful again, they have a great loveing home now thanks to u and someone who cares about them for the first time.

love the coat and pics!!!! i needed an idea for my pug how to make her some for her christmas basket but didn't know how to i'm gona try to use ur pic as a pattern to make her some so she don't freeze when snow hits.

blessings and prayers sent ur way for a full recovery for all ur new babies,
silkie

Thanks Grownut. I noticed that the neck skin looks particularly red in color - not the usual yellowish pinkish tone of the rest of her skin. This makes me think it is abnormal. Also, I don't think naked necks have this little front tuft of feathers on the bottom of the neck, and then go back to naked? (see picture here). I have never had a naked neck anything so I don't really know.

They weren't pit bulls, they were bulldogs. English bulldogs. She had many that appeared to be lactating, or at least have been in the past. Very pendulous teats. Then there was a pen of younger ones and lots of growling and carrying on. Most unpleasant in my opinion. But even so, they are very heavy breed dogs and quite capable of ripping chickens apart, which they did. I guess her son wasn't supposed to leave the barn open, but the barn that the chickens were in was filthy also, and they never saw the light of day. I'm surprised they're not actually worse than they are. There were no fresh shavings, no fresh anything really - just crusted feces everywhere, which is probably why they all have bumblefoot.

I like the tube suggestion. Will consider this in the next model!

I thought that front tuft was a little funny too. Regardless, with your weather it wouldn't hurt to have something...

I think Naked Necks are suppose to have a little tuft of feathers: Graham says:

"...the skin of the neck has the redness of a recently healed wound...."

And:

"An interesting point worth noting is that you will sometimes find a clump of feathers at the base of the neck, just above where it joins the breast."

But it could also be the result of picking and malnutrition. I think the mutation for naked-neckedness pops up occasionally in the same way "frizzledness" does.

looks like a buff turken to me. on a showgirl it's called a bowtie. there is a technical name for the gene that caries it and i always get em confused i think it is homozigous i believe. i call them bowties it's easier,lol.

This message was edited Nov 8, 2008 5:18 PM

she is missing some feathers but i'm pretty possative she is a purebred standard buff turken.

Claire this is so sad :(.... i can't stand abuse:(......

Claire you spoke of all the Dogs were they Pit Bulls if they were you may have stumbled into a Dog Fighting ring??
If you think it is i would call someone.

i had that thought also and i agree

Claire,
Your kindness overwhelms me. That is so awesome that you took them all and even kinder of you that you and Rosie made them coats.

I hope I don't offend, that that was a very stupid woman. I agree 100% with Silkie, she sounds like a hoarder and no person with common sense would consider a 7yo fit to care for the animals. They are her responsibility, not the sons.

SOME PEOPLE - SHEESH!

My Turkens(naked necks) have the red neck skin, but I think It is sun burn. The hens are the only ones that have the "bowtie" The roosters do not. This is not the best pic, but you can see the tuft.
Gretta and Ava. My blondes!
George

My mistake. One of my roosters have the bowtie also. The other does not.
Regards(other rooster is named Bo)

Is that a covering of really short feathers on their heads? And how do they handle KY winters? Really glad to see the girls,btw -lovely.

Duuude -Bo looks fierce...a rebel...and handsome.

This message was edited Nov 8, 2008 5:06 PM

Yes they have what I think looks like a wig on! I have raised them before and they did great in our winter. Big birds. Lay nice large brown eggs and lots of meat on their bones. I am raising them to sell offspring. They are also broody. They are so ugly they are cute. They were raised from day old chicks. The other 2 hens I have are black. with a shine of red on their breast. They are "Shug" and "Celiy"(I loved the movie "the color purple"!)
George

actually turkens r very hardy birds and sow r showgirls due to the turken genes. george love ut turks!!! oh and when they don't have bowties it is heterozigous. sorry if i spelled either of those wrong.

And the two terms mean one (heterozygous) copy or two (homozygous) copies of the naked neck gene--sorry, I don't know the designation for that gene.
Suze

yes that is right. in showgirls for example if u breed a bowtied to a silkie u get 50/50 silkie/showgirls. if u breed non bowtied to a silkie u get 100% showgirls. i think my boy without always throws without. not sure how it would work as turken but should be similar.

Claire,
You are a saint. There is a place in heaven for you, I'm sure :)
Teresa

OK, thank you for all this help - I do believe you are right and it must be a turken. This group of birds is a bit odd. A crele rooster, a turken, what next? There is only one like that so I guess it is the only turken. She still needs some feathers to grow back in some places, and she is the one now wearing the purple coat.

I don't think it was dog fighting related. The dogs were English Bulldogs. I posted here a picture of an English Bulldog. Different from a pit bull. I got the picture from this site http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/bulldog.htm (for the credit of the copyright)!

She said that they breed English bulldogs for sale and that they are very high quality dogs. I have no idea since I couldn't tell you a quality bulldog from a hole in the wall! I only really know about greyhounds. But they seemed to look good. No evidence of fighting with the dogs - just the fact that there were so many of them and all chained to different trees - I didn't like it. But, I don't *think* the dogs were being abused. They didn't look skinny or neglected like the chickens. She said they were building a new kennel building for their breeding operation but I couldn't see any new buildings started. I didn't really ask.

I couldn't believe that somebody would leave a child with ADD in charge of chickens like that, especially a 7 year old. It is part of their condition that they will not always focus on what needs to be done, I would think, so she should have been checking up on them. At least that seems sensible to me.

I will have to make coats for about half of them I think, and focus on their feet, but otherwise they are doing well today.

But that leaves to question where were the breeding quarters for the Moms and pups.

May be a puppy mill instead of a dog fighter i don't like animals on chains or roosters on cords.

Silkiechick - there are some great dog coats shown here - and one is even a pug modeling the coat (scroll down a ways to see that one). Our greyhound loves his coat in winter.

Maybe it will give you some ideas for your pug's coat.

http://www.bwdogcoats.com/dog-coat-photos.html

I got to get my jack/rat a sweater she don't like them but i make her wear them she has paper thin fur and gets cold easy.

Well that was my first thought too - puppy mill. It kind of had that chaotic appearance like it was just all about more dog breeding. But I tried to be objective and noticed that none of the dogs were dirty or had any feces on them, none of them were skinny or flea-bitten or appeared to have any health problems, and they were all relatively well behaved in terms of treatment towards people (not so much on chickens, but that is sometimes the way dogs are). I personally think they are trying to make money off breeding them, so they want the dogs to look good. I just don't think it was very well run. I went inside the house when she went to look for change and there was a momma dog in there and she said that momma was going to have a c-section soon and I asked why and she said most bulldogs need c-sections instead of natural birth. So the momma dog looked fine and at least she was in the house. I don't approve of it but I couldn't entirely justify calling the animal cops on them because the dogs weren't in bad condition. The chickens, on the other hand, were bad, but I took those with me! They also had horses that looked good. I think it's just that the chickens were something kid decided he wanted to have, and lost interest, and nobody cared.

Any one knows how to knit? I will gladly send the ton of fine, silky fur that my boy sheds.

I was thinking I should just shear my Icelandic sheep and make coats out of that for the poor chickens!

That will work but Andre's fur is a nice honey brown so it would match their feathers. In fact it would be nice to shear him would save on all the brushing.LOL

Oh my goodness, I didnt go all the way thru this thread, that is just to sad but glad you could come to the rescue. OMG Claire you are a true GEM for being there. It is your calling. I rescued a few tonight but not near at all in the state them girls were in. I feel good as you should by far.

Ever look into felting Claire? I have been dying to try that for a few years now...