Last year we were having a problem with our 3 year old hens having blood in their poop but no other signs of illness at all except two of them stopped laying completely. I finally looked in the chicken health handbook, and based on what I read I think they had coccidiosis or some other parasite...
I haven't posted in quite a while (not that I haven't been on this website - its still my go-to source for all chicken info all of the time). We have a nearly three year old cochin who has been broody perhaps 1/3 of her life who has been sitting for it seems like forever (at least five weeks...
Thank you both for your responses. These sites will definitely be very helpful in the future. If there isn't a post with this information under the learning center section there should be.
Does anyone know of a thread/website/book that outlines how to examine a chicken and diagnose based on exam and symptoms? There are 50 million things that can cause illness in a chicken (I had no idea they were so vulnerable!) and it would be very helpful if I could find a logical way to...
Another awesome, extraordinarily useful post on BYC!!!! Thank you! We followed your advice immediately after discovering an egg eater had developed, and after one night of putting out two soap-filled, pepper covered egg shells, we've have no more problems over the past five days. I have to...
Beautiful eggs! I want one of those kind! My Welsumner's eggs are sometimes that dark, but often much lighter. Not that the color of the egg effects the taste of the egg, but they are so pretty to look at.
A while back someone posted that they had a chicken that didn't start laying until she was 1 1/2 years old. So I think there is still hope for your 37 week old.
We had an infestation of lice several months ago, and we used pyrethrin spray (it was sold for use in dogs). We sprayed it on our gloved hands and worked it into their feathers near the vent and belly. We repeated this application 1 week later, and voila, all lice gone. The egg sacs took a long...
Mrs. K :
Even with a fantastic board like this, there are many things you learn by experience. All of us have lost chickens. All of us have had to buy eggs sometimes.... ugh!
It does help to start with sturdy breeds of chickens. but even so, you can have wrecks. It is looking at the glass of...
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Thanks for your wisdom. In hindsight, we realize we didn't choose the best mix of chickens (we were going for different types/colors/look, which are definitely not the best criteria!). My cousin, who raised chickens in childhood, said basically the same thing, that it is probably better...
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In re-reading my post, you're right, I come across as mostly concerned about how many eggs we get. My main point in the post was how frustrating it has been to have as many challenges as we've had, and how that affects our morale as well as how many eggs are laid. I knew that our breeds...