A Bielefelder Thread !

[kris86AR]

My one femal CL is gasping for air with every heart beat.... Dosent want to walk and its abdomen feels tighter possibly bloated more than the other 32 chicks i have right now. Laying down and refuses to walk. 4 days old.... What to do. None of the other chickens are havkng any problems. So shouldbt be heat l, food, water or brooder bedding.... Could she be backed up with poop? Should i just leave her alone instead of compounding problems?

 

[Saris]

My one femal CL is gasping for air with every heart beat.... Dosent want to walk and its abdomen feels tighter possibly bloated more than the other 32 chicks i have right now. Laying down and refuses to walk. 4 days old.... What to do. None of the other chickens are havkng any problems. So shouldbt be heat l, food, water or brooder bedding.... Could she be backed up with poop? Should i just leave her alone instead of compounding problems?

*hugs

Have you seen her poop? It's been a while since you posted, if she is still with you I would maybe rub her bum and see if you can make her poo. Or she could have yolk sac infection and there's not much you can do about it.

 

[Cynthia12]

I was thinking the same thing about the yolk infection Saris.

 

[Sylvester017]

My one femal CL is gasping for air with every heart beat.... Dosent want to walk and its abdomen feels tighter possibly bloated more than the other 32 chicks i have right now. Laying down and refuses to walk. 4 days old.... What to do. None of the other chickens are havkng any problems. So shouldbt be heat l, food, water or brooder bedding.... Could she be backed up with poop? Should i just leave her alone instead of compounding problems?

If the other chicks are behaving normally then she probably has something wrong because of hatch or infection or just something internal wrong that you can't diagnose. Chicks are delicate and they go through a lot just to hatch out of their egg. Not every chick will survive every time you hatch. We lost our chick to a sudden seizure out of the blue at 21 days. Nothing looked wrong, she was active, and then suddenly seized. We can only do what we can do and Mother Nature does the rest.

 

[kris86AR]

Ok thanks. What are yalls thoughts on electrolites, apple cider vinegar, sugar water, gro gels, and other "boosts" for baby chicks

 

[Cynthia12]

Ok thanks. What are yalls thoughts on electrolites, apple cider vinegar, sugar water, gro gels, and other "boosts" for baby chicks

It wouldn't hurt to try to give it some electrolytes. Not everything, just try one..sugar water does what the electrolytes do pretty much. I thin mine out, don't make it as strong as they suggest. I find it to be too strong for the little ones, especially the ones that are having problems, just a tiny tiny drop every two or three hrs. Then slow it down to just a couple of times a day after day two if the baby is still thriving. Good luck.

 

[Coop de Grass]

Quote:
Hugs...

 

[Sylvester017]

Ok thanks. What are yalls thoughts on electrolites, apple cider vinegar, sugar water, gro gels, and other "boosts" for baby chicks

I still can't figure out what people use ACV for? I asked the question of Mark at chickenwaterers.com and this was his reply to my question about using ACV in the chicken water:



"...I did quite a bit of research on ACV and didn't find much compelling to recommend it. If you want to read the blog posting I did on this, you can find it at:

http://blog.chickenwaterer.com/2012/12/dont-use-apple-cider-vinegar-acv-in.html
(LINK BELOW WORKS BETTER)

The article is titled "Don't Use ACV" but what the article really concludes is "there's no real evidence that it works, so don't bother." By the way, yogurt is a probiotic because the lactobacilus bacteria it contains can survive in the gastrointestinal tract.( Lactobacilus doesn't need oxygen to survive). ACV contains Acetobacteria that people also think is a probiotic but this type of bacteria does need oxygen to live and so it can't survive in the gut. ACV is not a probiotic. The best time to give your chickens probiotics is when they are baby chicks. At that time, the normal flora in their guts has not developed yet and they would be more prone to get salmonella or coccidiosis. Commercially available probiotic solutions are sold for chicks but you can also try giving your chicks some sauerkraut.

Putting some ice in your water jug is a nice touch. Chickens prefer cool water and it will increase their water consumption. Leghorns given cool water versus warm water laid about 10% more eggs because their overall water consumption rate was higher.

Kind regards,

-Mark

http://blog.chickenwaterer.com/2012/12/dont-use-apple-cider-vinegar-acv-in.html

 

[DesertChic]

I agree the B/W Amer and Blue Amer are the sweeties. We lost our Blue Amer before POL - so sad. My Blue Wheaten Ameraucana (my avatar) is 3-yrs-old and very nice to our two Silkies. Amers, and EEs, seem to have a non-combative nature. They prefer to flee rather than fight if possible. One of my Silkies went bonkers on our B/W Amer fighting her and the Amer defended herself but she was not retaliatory -- only defended herself. Any other chicken breed would've drawn blood on the squirrely Silkie. The B/W Amer kept away from the Silkie while the Silkie was in her hormonal jag. Silkies are sweet birds but they have a bad day too once in a while. Amers are wonderful birds to have around other so-called gentle breeds. Amers are more like the sentinels of the flock rather than the alpha leaders. They are so wary, skittish, and alert, they spook at any hawk, mylar balloon, or plastic bag that floats across the yard. My girl is never snoozing if the coop door or egg door is opened at night -- all the others are not moving but the B/W Amer stands up and murmurs/talks if there's disturbance in the roosting coop. I don't know how these Amers or EEs get any sleep the way they always seem to be in a hyper-tense mode. The only thing that bothers us about the B/W Amer is that she is an unreliable layer and has extremely noisy egg songs. Quirky too -- her suspicious nature keeps her from rushing into new things in the yard. She waits several days before trying a new feeder or waterer. She went in and out of the new coop several times a day to scope things out, test the perches, sniff the nestboxes -- like I say, she's our sentinel. A really sweet bird to have in the flock. I keep following the Bielie thread because so many say they are such gentle natured birds. The only thing keeping me from trying Bielie is that they get so heavy. Since the assertive Leghorns and aggressive Marans beat up on the Silkies I keep all my breeds 5-lb-&-under around the Silkies.

Well, for what it's worth, one of my Biel girls is best friends both with my lone Buff Silkie and my two bantam-sized Frizzled EEs. She's such a big girl (over 8 lbs now) that she doesn't care to roost with the others. Instead she lays down in the pine bedding and the three bantams crowd around her so they can all sleep together. One of the frizzles sometimes tries to climb underneath my big Gretel as a chick would its mama, which is pretty hysterical to watch. Gretel has also protected all three of my bantams from excessively amorous cockerels on many occasions.

 

[Cynthia12]

I still can't figure out what people use ACV for? I asked the question of Mark at chickenwaterers.com and this was his reply to my question about using ACV in the chicken water:



"...I did quite a bit of research on ACV and didn't find much compelling to recommend it. If you want to read the blog posting I did on this, you can find it at:

http://blog.chickenwaterer.com/2012/12/dont-use-apple-cider-vinegar-acv-in.html
(LINK BELOW WORKS BETTER)

The article is titled "Don't Use ACV" but what the article really concludes is "there's no real evidence that it works, so don't bother." By the way, yogurt is a probiotic because the lactobacilus bacteria it contains can survive in the gastrointestinal tract.( Lactobacilus doesn't need oxygen to survive). ACV contains Acetobacteria that people also think is a probiotic but this type of bacteria does need oxygen to live and so it can't survive in the gut. ACV is not a probiotic. The best time to give your chickens probiotics is when they are baby chicks. At that time, the normal flora in their guts has not developed yet and they would be more prone to get salmonella or coccidiosis. Commercially available probiotic solutions are sold for chicks but you can also try giving your chicks some sauerkraut.

Putting some ice in your water jug is a nice touch. Chickens prefer cool water and it will increase their water consumption. Leghorns given cool water versus warm water laid about 10% more eggs because their overall water consumption rate was higher.

Kind regards,

-Mark

http://blog.chickenwaterer.com/2012/12/dont-use-apple-cider-vinegar-acv-in.html

I personally don't use it, but some folks swear by it.

I give my chickens plain yogurt every now and again. They love it.