California - Northern

[PetRock]

Hope everyone has a great day. I'm off to the Imaging Center to get another MRI on the brain.. Wish me luck

I wonder while looking at my brain if they can tell I'm chicken crazy

I hope not, because I'm sure I'm Certifiable... Just Say'in!

I'll be praying!

 

[liz9910]

Chickens eat everything! Mine ate broke plates. It is amazing that they make it in the wild sometimes.

I try to make sure there is nothing bad out in the yard. I can't imagine what they ate last year when the outside of the house was painted!

Mine will peck and eat peeling paint! Silly chickens.

 

[Nikon]

I ordered some more cochin bantam frizzle eggs. Today was day 18 " locked down"
Out of 36 shipped ....all 36 are fertile and currently in lock down. That amazes me...
A few look a little iffy but 36 out of 36 developed shipped eggs. Amazing

Don't tell my Joe that! Ahhh he already wants to build another coop and make a "chicken sky bridge" so they can visit one another's coops. :S

 

[tommysgirl]

today I built a pallet coop for the teenagers.
Started with a 6 x 2 bareroot tree pallet
70 bucks worth of stuff and there you go. I need to put a cap on the roof so a tarp for tonight.
I moved the chicks I got from Candy plus the Emp's and crele pene's I hatched in the 5x3 grow up pen. The Black Penedesenca and the 3 crele roosters I got back from Deb out in the brooder and guess what a olive egger just hatched and 3 more zipping .. of course the darker empordanesa and penedesenca nothing yet as they take longer it seems so no more mixing them in the bator

This is great I am going to try my hand at making a pallet coop for isolation purposes out of a tile pallet. Can I ask you questions if/when they come up


Deerling and Nikon BEAUTIFUL BABIES!

So sorry for the sick birds you guys!

I have two hens in chicken jail. Isolated my one with the yolk covered beak felt all smug about it then went in and found one of my Australorps with a yolky beak. Sure enough she was sitting on a smashed egg! So she is also in the pen. Yesterday all six laid normal eggs so that is good news even though the one egg was broken...these are what we are calling the "worm eggs" so it not like we will miss it but it is so disheartening that my babies have this bad habit. I feel like one of those "My kids will NEVER..." parents who got bit in the butt when their kids do just that. Do you think that maybe the AL is the egg breaker and that the Del was eating it because it was there and not because she broke it in the first place?

For now I am able to separate them during egg laying time and let them range with everyone else is out too. The AL egg eater is in LOVE with Ray and was distraught all day while I had her away from him. As soon as I released them she ran as fast as she could to him...like it was the beach scene in the movie "10" if I wasn't so annoyed with her I would have thought it was way cuter.

Had a frank "come to Jesus" chicken talk with my sweet husband last night. He has been a greatly supportive chicken partner but the fact that there are 25 chicks coming in the mail and 22 eggs still in the bator has him legitimately concerned. He wants me to come up with a number of laying hens which we won't exceed....I think that's reasonable, like making cuts in a roster after try-outs We have space for like 40 but don't want 40 free ranging all the time and since we believe in free ranging everyone as much as possible. Also need to save room for babies hatched by my future potential broodies.

So here is what I am keeping from the shipped chicks

2 California Greys for white eggs 1 if I get two+ dorking pullets (3 white egg layers)
2 EE, 1 if the 2 Ameraucana chicks hatch I will keep both (3 or 4 colored egg layers)
2 Part Rocks
1 Speckeld Sussex or 0 if I get 2+ dorking pullets

From the hatch...limit 10 girls 1 boy

I am probably going to be loosing two of my current laying hens because of this egg eating business so that will open up space for 3 culls from Kim's Delaware and Dorking flocks.

I think 24 sounds like a good number. That means we will only be adding 16 or fewer of the new babies. 6-10 per coop space with plenty of room for everyone including short term chicks.

Now will DH think it's a good number...probably he will not be quite as enthusiastic as I am about it but just wait till these new babies get here.

 

[ronott1]

Quote: The first time I ran into the egg eating thing was when my father in law bought a place that came with chickens. He killed the chicken each time he saw yolk on its beak. He soon had no more chickens.

Get some Granulated Sea Kelp, Food Grade Diatomaceous earth and mix it into their feed. Make sure they have free choice calcium and get them some big ole bird from Southland Organics.

I am not convinced that your hens are egg eaters.

Edited to add: I don't normally suggest using Soy, but you might consider giving them some Calf Manna or some other source of animal protein too.

Seriously, almost all cases of egg eating is mal nourished or parasite infected hens.

 

[tommysgirl]

Hope everyone has a great day. I'm off to the Imaging Center to get another MRI on the brain.. Wish me luck

I wonder while looking at my brain if they can tell I'm chicken crazy

I hope not, because I'm sure I'm Certifiable... Just Say'in!

Best of Luck Molly. Will add my prayers to those of the rest!

 

[ChickNmamma]

Quote:
Good Luck Miss Molly...

I was just thinking that when I read your post.. I can see the far side cartoon - exactly like that...

 

[tommysgirl]

The first time I ran into the egg eating thing was when my father in law bought a place that came with chickens. He killed the chicken each time he saw yolk on its beak. He soon had no more chickens.

Get some Granulated Sea Kelp, Food Grade Diatomaceous earth and mix it into their feed. Make sure they have free choice calcium and get them some big ole bird from Southland Organics.

I am not convinced that your hens are egg eaters.

Edited to add: I don't normally suggest using Soy, but you might consider giving them some Calf Manna or some other source of animal protein too.

Seriously, almost all cases of egg eating is mal nourished or parasite infected hens.

Thank you so much Ron...would you suggest that I keep these two separated and take a wait and see attitude?

I had been feeding Leyena before making the switch to King and because it had calcium in it I wasn't supplementing. I am now. Plus every night the girls and ray get yogurt or buttermilk mixed with their feed as a bedtime snack. I have also given them premium fish based cat food in the past as part of that snack as well as smelt (surf fish) any thoughts on that?

Hoping the worming will take care of this. I so hope you are right. I don't want to loose my girls but I can't have them breaking and eating eggs.

 

[ronott1]

Quote: Yes, keep them separated and make sure they have good old golf balls where they lay eggs.

King feed is lower in calcium so the added calcium is needed more with it. The lower calcium makes if safer if you give it to the rooster though.

An egg eating hen is so rare that it is extremely unlikely that you would have two ever. They will stop when the problems are gone so yes, give them time. Any hen will eat an egg if it is broken, just like they will eat a flock mate if is injured. You would not cull them then, you cover the wound with blu kote and remove them until there is no more blood. When the flock mate comes back he is no longer "food".

The eggs are like that too.

The cat food is a good idea. I use a brand that Costco sells. Mine get a coffee mug of it each afternoon along with two mugs of BOSS)black oil sunflower seeds.

 

[WildflowerJLH]

After several weeks of not having time to "get caught up" on this thread, I am now 200 pages behind. We'll just start fresh today. How has everyone been?

Molly, I will keep you in my prayers. I have had more brain MRIs that most people, due to a congenital malformation that was not diagnosed until I was in my 20's. I hope you get the answers you are looking for.