Are my chickens OK?

[Newman]

First off, I'm new to raising chickens, these are my first. I have 6 hens, about 7 months old, 2 RIR, 3 barred rock, and 1 buff orph. I bought them at about 2 months old from an ad on craigslist in my town.

My concern is their wet poop and the clear liquid they regurgitate. I think that most of the girls, 4 or 5 of them, are showing these symptoms. They have been doing this since I've had them. The poop under their roost is mostly liquid, but one or two of them seem to produce regular solid poop. Occasionally I will notice one of the girls vomit up some clear liquid, which the other girls immediately run over and start eating.

As far as I know, everything else they do is fine. But never having raised chickens before, I'm not sure if these symptoms are normal. They started laying eggs at around 5 months and seem to be producing eggs normally. From the 6 girls we get about 2-3 eggs per day. When the weather was warmer, we were getting 3-4 per day. They seem to eat and drink fine, they are currently eating layer crumble. They also eat our table scraps and free-range around the yard most every afternoon.

They are in a new coop that I built. Clean wood shavings on the floor and in their nest boxes. I have a feeling they have some kind of infection or disease from the people who raised them as chicks. But with no other symptoms and decent egg production, I'm not sure.

Please let me know if I should do anything or if the girls are healthy and this behavior is normal.

Thank you so much.

 

[ladrholman]

HI, I am new too... Not sure on the regurgitation.... but have you looked at the poo page to see if your matches ......

http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

 

[drumstick diva]

. I'm wondering if your girls are eating something that doesn't agree with them, like coop shavings or something when they free range. You say they requrgitate clear fluid, when do they do that? If just after drinking maybe they are taking in too much. It is a puzzle since they are acting normally and laying eggs. You don't mention any blood in the poo or mucous, and they have been doing this awhile this is not normal but, doesn't sound ominous either. I'm still think it's something they are eating , not poisionous but upsetting to their digestive track. Chickens will eat anything, styrofoam, etc. I suggest you take a good hard look around coop, run etc. to see if anything looks pecked at, or partially eaten .

 

[drumstick diva]

PS what kind of wood shavings do you use? I know most people regard cedar as a no no.

 

[Newman]

Thanks for the link to the "poo page", I think the poo I'm concerned with is similar to the "Ceacal" poo. Maybe my girls are doing this more frequently than the "8 to 10 droppings" suggested.

The wood shavings I'm using are pine.

The only thing I can think of that they are eating could be the "zeolite" I've been using to keep the shavings dry and sprinkle on the roost poop tray. I've been using zeolite as my ranch store recommended it over DE, which they don't carry.

I've seem them regurgitate the liquid long after drinking water, so I don't think it's a matter of them drinking too much.

Thank you for your help!