Please Be Gentle lol

[/IMG]Im JR.  I live in 21538, and its been in the lower 30's here during the day, just to give you an idea of the climate.  I have a flock of 12 girls, and 3 baby polish chicks, one of which is just getting his wattle coming in!  I have had these girls since mid October and hav e yet to see a single egg.  I feed them the good laying mash from TSC and make sure they have water 24/7.  I supplement oyster shell in their feed.  They are in a 12x12 run, with the coop in that.  The coops are each 2.5 x 4 ft.  I have recently let them start free ranging in the yard.

Since Ive had them there are a few that have been 'sneezing' and the other day I noticed a bit of discharge like snot from the nose.  I started putting oxytetracycline in the water, again from tsc.  Can anyone offer any assistance with why Im not getting eggs? and am I doing the right thing with the meds in the water?

Thanks... I will post pics shortly... but one of them is black, one is white, one is white with brown speckles towards the back and looks like it has the head of a seagull, while the rest are red with either black or light tail feathers.

You're not getting eggs because they're too young. Looks like possibly a few more months to go, judging by their development, but it can change quickly.

Dunno about the meds in the water, generally not such a good idea to medicate for who-knows-what; without a clear idea of what you're treating for it is a stab in the dark which can help raise the general antibiotic-resistance levels of all diseases normally treated with those meds, but, good luck with it. If you've read on a fairly reputable site that using those meds for those symptoms is correct, and it's in the correct dosage and form, then hopefully it's right.

Best wishes.

Oh, also, hello and

When you see those girls start getting red combs/wattles, might be an idea to stop them free ranging for a bit to make sure they lay in the nests, or they may make nests outside the cage.

Fake nest eggs often help give them the idea of where to lay, as well as prevent anxiety-induced nest abandonment due to finding the entire clutch stolen on a regular basis.

Some hens don't mind people raiding the nest, some very much do mind. Some hens can't even abide seeing humans remove eggs from the nest, lol.

Thanks for the reply! One has recently started (today ) making a low clucking noise that is sustained. "Buuuuuuhhhhuck" any idea what the white ones breed is? I bought them from a lovely lady in pa but I feel I may have received her "scraps"

gonzoin21538 said:

Thanks for the reply! One has recently started (today ) making a low clucking noise that is sustained. "Buuuuuuhhhhuck" any idea what the white ones breed is? I bought them from a lovely lady in pa but I feel I may have received her "scraps"

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If you didn't specifically ask for a given breed, you may have gotten mutts/mongrels or mixed breeds, and that is what the white one looks like. Also, if you said you just want them for eggs, many breeders see that as a green light to give you defective animals, since they expect you'll be rid of them once they stop laying or slow down, not keep them and breed them.

Better photos would help but it looks like you may have gotten a Rhode Island Red female, perhaps, and a Black Australorp, and maybe the white is a Longlay or similar, some kind of Leghorn mix, but I'm not sure, they don't look pure to me. But it might be the camera.

Looks like the B.Orp will be the first to lay, with that amount of comb and wattle, but I can't see the red girl.

As for the vocalizations, chooks have a huge repertoire of noises they make, they can be quite vocal; the so-called 'egg song' is actually identical to the alarm call, and I believe it's just a modified instinct changed by human interaction. Normally if you hear the 'egg song' it actually means something's given them a fright or even attacked them, but some spacky individuals do make that noise for the sheer heck of it, it seems. My hens don't make that noise unless attacked.

Best wishes.

I thank you all for the responses. I'll try to take individual pics tomorrow. They haven't been attacked and it literally just started today... Allllll day lol.

gonzoin21538 said:

I thank you all for the responses. I'll try to take individual pics tomorrow. They haven't been attacked and it literally just started today... Allllll day lol.

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It doesn't sound like the alarm call/egg song, that goes more like 'bok-bok-BAGARK!' lol. Sometimes more 'boks', sometimes only one...

They also have a 'dinosaur roar' which sounds just like something out of jurassic park movies, and a high pitched, drawn out, soft noise they use for suspicious things they can spot at a distance, and a variety of specific and unique complaining noises which range in meaning from 'I'm crowded, get out of my personal space or I'll peck you' to 'let me out the cage' to 'where's the roosters, I'm ready to breed NOW' to 'I'm thirsty/hungry' and other meanings...

Lots of warning noises too, sooner or later you'll see two hens 'have words' lol, interestingly they often solve their conflict with words alone, no combat. Roosters will do the same. Fertile hens will often make a certain noise which brings all the boys running to compete for her attention, since it means she's building a clutch and now is the opportune time to pass on their genes, if they impress her, anyway. (Hens lacking brooding instinct don't make that noise).

Sounds like maybe one of your girls is asking where the boys are; if so, she's a likely broody in future.

Best wishes.

chooks4life said:

It doesn't sound like the alarm call/egg song, that goes more like 'bok-bok-BAGARK!' lol. Sometimes more 'boks', sometimes only one...

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Having a quiet giggle over here - you've described The Egg Song perfectly!

Can I add that depending on the day, it can also be more or less 'desperate' sounding also!

- Krista

krista74 said:

Having a quiet giggle over here - you've described The Egg Song perfectly!

Can I add that depending on the day, it can also be more or less 'desperate' sounding also!

- Krista

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lol, yeah, some hens are just fond of the song itself. And plenty of roosters.

I had one hen teach the whole flock to sing the chorus. It was terrible, since I had over 100 chooks at that stage that all insisted on hanging out in the house yard rather than roaming the acreage. All day, every day, the song was sung, nonstop, until of course I trained most of them out of it and removed the lead singer, who just would not quit.

I also had one hen who had it the wrong way around and missing a syllable, she'd just out of the blue, suddenly shriek 'BAGARK!-bok.' It was almost like a seizure, the first part raucously screamed and the second part almost inaudible. From a distance it might have sounded like someone was getting murdered.

Apparently the double 'bok' is necessary for respiration purposes, because whereas normal bok-bok-bagarkers never ran out of breath, this hen would run out of breath very quickly, but couldn't seem to stop herself. The more she repeated 'BAGARK!-bok.' the more out of breath she got, and the more out of breath she got, the more hysterical she got, repeating it louder and louder until I was thinking she might pass out for lack of air...

Ah, the things chook-books don't teach you about, aye? lol.

Best wishes.