Recent content by holderh

Thanks!

We hatched some duck eggs and now have 5 ducklings. They are 2 weeks old and have been kept inside our garage with a heat lamp. I moved them to an outdoor brooder today ( Dog kennel) that is inside our outdoor chicken/duck run.I like to get them outside ASAP to safely be introduced to the rest...

Update: Well, after almost a year they started laying again! Got 16 eggs today! And it’s been the coldest week of the year 🤷‍♀️

No way! That was a helpful comment but I have checked everywhere on our property because it’s driven me nuts lol.

Yes thank you! I’ve thought many things and have conducted many experiments to try and figure this out. I used to leave feed out 24/7 but had a few that would drop dead with the water belly. So I was worried I was over feeding . We haven’t had water belly issues since I put them on the all flock...

They do have typical laying spots around the farm , but we haven’t found any. That’s why we locked them in for awhile.. that only produced angry birds 🤣

Just curious tho ... if they free range how much additional feed should each bird get... maybe they just haven’t had enough pellets. Although, i feed them no different than I have the past 9 years.

I haven’t checked that .

Yes. I only have 1 or 2 that is a year old. The rest range from 3-6 and one of them is 8 or 9. I just thought it was odd to not get any eggs at all. I did clean the coop today and there was none hidden. I’ve checked all of there normal spots and left them in the run in for a good month 🤷‍♀️

Hi! I’ve had chickens going on 10 years now and this is the first year I’ve experienced this problem. My chickens are usually free range and were on layer pellets. Last year around April/may they quit laying. Their ages range from 1yrs -9 yrs old. I realize the older hens will not lay often but...

So I had a broody hen who sat on a clutch of eggs for a while. I don’t know for sure how long, but a cat scared her off her nest. She left it over night and it was a pretty cold night. Upon examining the eggs one chick was either hatching or the egg cracked but it was dead. It looked like it was...

Thank you! I will check into all of that. I have looked for an all flock feed where I live and no one has any. I do have access to farmers who can mix some feed for me but I wouldn’t know what to ask for. Does anyone have a good mix they use? The reason I think it’s water belly is their abdomen...

No we haven’t. I wouldn’t know what to really look for. I thought it was probably due to their age, but I was hoping to find a common denominator as to why it’s happening. We have had chickens for about 7 years and have lost one or two that way... but lost the majority predictors. We moved our...

Does anyone know if layer pellets contribute to water belly? My chickens are 💯 free range. They sleep in the coop but otherwise are pretty much on their own. We feed a layer pellet that we get at co-op, but for the past year we have had probably a dozen on more chicken s die from water belly...

Sadly, he died through the night. Thank you both for your comments. That makes a lot of sense that it could be the layer pellets. I will look into another feed. Thank you!