Have I Hurt My Rooster's Kidneys?

[ClareScifi]

Thanks, SueBee. You've helped me feel better. Are you the SueBee of SueBee Honey, my favorite brand?

Dainerra, I wish I'd thought to take my soft-shelled eggs (2 different girls laid them this morning) over to my Sunday School class. I thought of it after I'd "cracked" them and fed them to the cats. The preschoolers would have found them so interesting to look at and poke, as they are city kids, and this would have been a novelty for them. Drats!

Maybe they'll lay some more on another Sunday morning for me to take over to show the children?

That's true about calcium and kale and spinach and also chard, I think.

Someone in this group pointed out to me that if a chicken eats too much broccoli and cabbage and brussels sprout they'll get goiter, also.

 

[ClareScifi]

Dainerra,

Both of my Barred Rock girls, my first two chicks, were big eaters. Back in those days I didn't know not to give them rice and scratch, which they loved. One of them especially loved strawberries, blueberries and watermelon.

They looked fat to me. Last summer, one hot day when I was away on vacation, the very day I left, the one girl died. I was away and an autopsy wasn't performed. I do suspect it was Fatty Liver Hemorrhagic Disease that took her sweet, short life. She was only 17 months old, and she died on August 25, when it was 98 F out. I had always let her free-range and made sure she got plenty of cold watermelon on hot days, but since I was away, I had left the girls in the run, and I suspect the heat, in combo with her size, got her.

She had some symptoms, too. Longer than normal toenails and feather picking at her breast. Both are symptoms of Fatty Hemorrhagic Liver Disease. Barred Rocks are considered broiler chickens. How I still miss her!

Maybe her unexpected death is what has turned me into such a worrywart about my precious "Babies." I hatched them in her honor. She'd always been a broody girl, but we didn't have a rooster then. I wish we had-- she might still be alive. Maybe going broody and not having fertilized eggs to hatch caused her to overeat, out of boredom.

Her sister, who survives, was never broody, but the day my other girl died, her sister turned Broody suddenly, brooding her sis's death, no doubt (they were best friends), and hatched the eggs from a friend's farm. I knew she'd need companions for the long winter ahead, and I didn't want to introduce new chickens which might bring in diseases, so that is how I would up with all these chickens, and I wouldn't trade them for others or ever, ever consider culling them, unless they were suffering. :>)

I did have to rehome 2 of the roosters who hatched, which broke my heart. It was for the best interests of all. They were overmating my girls, and when I put them in a bachelor pen, they became despondent over no access to the females. So I found a nice farm where they could go together, with access to 16 hens for the two of them.

 

[suebee]

Thanks, SueBee. You've helped me feel better. Are you the SueBee of SueBee Honey, my favorite brand?

Dainerra, I wish I'd thought to take my soft-shelled eggs (2 different girls laid them this morning) over to my Sunday School class. I thought of it after I'd "cracked" them and fed them to the cats. The preschoolers would have found them so interesting to look at and poke, as they are city kids, and this would have been a novelty for them. Drats!

Maybe they'll lay some more on another Sunday morning for me to take over to show the children?

That's true about calcium and kale and spinach and also chard, I think.

Someone in this group pointed out to me that if a chicken eats too much broccoli and cabbage and brussels sprout they'll get goiter, also.

No, I not related to SueBee Honey. I really don't know why I chose that screen name.

Guess because I'm Sue..and sweet (Most of the time.)

 

[ClareScifi]

SueBee is a cute name.

Well, I've separated my boy today with his own food. Will let the hens mingle with him a few hours each, and then switch them back to their pen and layer mash. It is going to be a lot of effort, but I see no other way.

 

[ButchGood]

When I was in Pennsylvania my father and I had a good flock of 60 to 70 chickens. They all ate laying mash and only free ranged maybe 3 times a week. They also got all the food scraps from the kitchen. Our roosters lived as long as the hens. One big white Rock lived to 12 years old and disappeared one night, most likely from a predator. I think sometimes we worry about them a little too much, I know, because I'm guilty.

 

[ClareScifi]

Well, so far so good. I switched to Nutrena All Flock, and all the chooks seem to love it!

 

[RWise]

I dont use layer mash/pellets, a few months back I was given 2 RIR's and they came with a bag of crumbles. So I thought what the heck I'll put it out and let them have it. The birds went by and picked at it to not return to it. The geese ate it for 2 days and after several more weeks I poured it on the ground, my birds wont eat it! Hen or Roo,,, They do have toasted crumbled egg shell and oyster shell free access, and it vanishes, and all the bugs grubs and snakes they can scratch up. I get 6-7 eggs per week from all my layers. (depending on age)