Recent content by Dville Chix

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    Help! 3 year old hen refusing to eat, losing weight, otherwise looks good.

    thanks for suggestions.... Her crop was absolutely empty both yesterday afternoon and this morning. She finally ate a little watermelon and canned (unsalted) corn late this morning, but only a little bit. I would say that she has eaten less than 30 calories. We have tried dry mealworms...
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    I have a flock bully

    Also--forgot to mention--To treat the injuries I recommend blu-kote. You can get it at tractor supply or any other farm supply. It is an antiseptic that will help prevent infection AND it stains the injury blue. The other hens will peck at a visible (red) injury, so the blue conceals the...
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    I have a flock bully

    I had a similar story with my small flock. All the chickens were about the same age and there had been no trouble at all until the dominant hen (our only barred rock) turned nasty one day. She relentlessly pecked at our olive egger (the lowest rank hen). At one point she tore a 1" hole in the...
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    Help! 3 year old hen refusing to eat, losing weight, otherwise looks good.

    Hi... I have a 33 month old speckled sussex who is not eating. She is still drinking. She has been gradually losing weight for a couple months and over the last couple days has begun refusing to eat at all. She is down to 4.1 lbs and we will probably begin tube feeding her today. We had...
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    2 yr old speckled sussex hens not laying for months

    Update 7 months later: Neither of the two specked sussex ever resumed laying. The birds stopped laying at age 18 months and they are now 30 months old. One of the two came down ill three weeks ago. She clearly had intestinal issues or a blockage because her crop would not empty. She would...
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    2 yr old speckled sussex hens not laying for months

    Yes, that coop. It has an attached run that doubles the overall space available. Started the light in December, ended it late March or early April. It was on a timer that shut off at ~9:30pm. That gave them about 14 hours of light daily. The bulb was in a brooder type lamp suspended from...
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    2 yr old speckled sussex hens not laying for months

    They molted in the fall -- It was not a dramatic "nearly naked" molt, but there were a lot of their feathers about and they definitely looked ragged before looking shiny and new. They are exactly 24 months old. The winter lighting was a 40W bulb on a timer inside their small coop (~1 cubic...
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    2 yr old speckled sussex hens not laying for months

    We have two speckled sussex hens that are now 2 years old. They both stopped laying midwinter and have never restarted. They were laying reliably for over a year before that. Our other 2 hens (one olive egger and one barred rock) are laying fine and did so through the winter. (Light in coop)...
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    MARYLAND THREAD!

    I don't know what you mean exactly. I registered my flock with MDA, but my flock is not NPIP. Does that affect whether I can find someone to process my birds?
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    Looking for a chicken processor in central Maryland

    My husband really doesn't want to process the birds. He said he would rather give them away than slaughter them ourselves I am perfectly willing to do it, but he isn't. I am really hoping to find someone to do it since we have already raised the birds to slaughter weight.
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    Looking for a chicken processor in central Maryland

    So this is interesting... In the state of Maryland, one can process chickens and sell to the public without a license or inspections if they process fewer than 20,000 birds per year. If they sell at a farmers market or sell to restaurants there are more restrictions. HOWEVER, the...
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    Looking for a chicken processor in central Maryland

    This is turning out to be a much more challenging problem to solve than I expected. I have not found anyone (via google searching) that says they process chickens. I thought maybe people who process ducks/geese for hunters might do it. It turns out those folks don't really want to process...
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    Black Copper Maran over Black Americuna, results in White Chick

    Ugh! Not sure where you live, and not sure how these things are viewed, but... When I was a kid in rural WV in the mid-70's any dog caught attacking livestock was shot on sight. It didn't even have to be YOUR livestock. It was viewed as a public service and a civic responsibility to...
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    Injury

    I suggest bluekote for the wound after treating it. It is a mild antiseptic, but also dyes the skin violet. That way the skin won't be red. Other hens will be less likely to peck at her wound. Tractor Supply and most farm supply stores sell it. It comes as a liquid with a dauber, aerosol...
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    Black Copper Maran over Black Americuna, results in White Chick

    I understand that you don't care about the beard. However, if your chick did NOT grow a beard, it would prove that the mom was an easter egger instead of an ameraucana. If your chick DID grow a beard, then it proves nothing because an easter egger often has at least one copy of the beard gene...
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