obi wan henobi
In the Brooder
Hi all, I'm hoping someone can help me solve this mystery.
We got four hens in July - 2 ISA browns, 1 leghorn, 1 australorp. They took their time to start laying (around 26/27 weeks) but were happily doing so.
About a month ago we added an araucana and a welsummer. We introduced them slowly, and even then it took them a while to settle down. Even now I sometimes see the new girls getting snipped at if they walk too close to the originals.
Around the same time, we noticed a massive reduction in eggs. At first we attributed this to the stress of welcoming new hens. Still only a few eggs. Then we thought the new girls might have brought lice with them, so we treated all hens and the coop accordingly (even though the only evidence we saw was a few slightly runny scats and two of the girls had messy vents). All droppings appear to have returned to normal, the girls with messy vents are all tidy and feathers are growing back in. They have their pellets with the occasional meal worm feast and sometimes scraps.
Last week we got 6 eggs. They were all brown. Usually we have brown and white. The week before they were mostly white. I'm not expecting anything from the new girls as they're only 20 weeks now.
I don't know what is going on at this point. Does anybody have any theories ?
We got four hens in July - 2 ISA browns, 1 leghorn, 1 australorp. They took their time to start laying (around 26/27 weeks) but were happily doing so.
About a month ago we added an araucana and a welsummer. We introduced them slowly, and even then it took them a while to settle down. Even now I sometimes see the new girls getting snipped at if they walk too close to the originals.
Around the same time, we noticed a massive reduction in eggs. At first we attributed this to the stress of welcoming new hens. Still only a few eggs. Then we thought the new girls might have brought lice with them, so we treated all hens and the coop accordingly (even though the only evidence we saw was a few slightly runny scats and two of the girls had messy vents). All droppings appear to have returned to normal, the girls with messy vents are all tidy and feathers are growing back in. They have their pellets with the occasional meal worm feast and sometimes scraps.
Last week we got 6 eggs. They were all brown. Usually we have brown and white. The week before they were mostly white. I'm not expecting anything from the new girls as they're only 20 weeks now.
I don't know what is going on at this point. Does anybody have any theories ?