Bloody chicken poo and reduction in laying, coccidiosis... Questions.

[City Chicken]

I have two separate flocks... One laying hens... They have tapered off from 10-11 a day to 1-3 eggs.... I put a lamp in their coop.... But am not getting results, how long does this take?
Could early stages of coccidiosis affect their egg laying?

30 / 6 weeks old chicks, three dead this morning with bloody stool. The rest look fine. Ive started them on meds for coccidiosis (i got the chicks from another party).
What are the chances the rest will make it?
They are on pasture... This shouldnt have happened.

How do i dispose of bedding and dead chicks? Compost pile? Or bury?

Should i medicate my hens also who are in a different spot because of this outbreak with the chicks? They are not together, but the hens do sometimes come over and eat the chicks leftovers, means that cross contamination is sure.
I know coccidiosis is always present, but not sure if it means i should medicate the laying flock or not. Perhaps just medicated feed, not medicine directly?

 

[Eggcessive]

Your older chickens should be immune to the coccidia in your soil, unless the 6 week olds brought a different strain from their last home soil. You can always do a preventative dosing with Corid on your older chickens just in case--that is half strength or one third strength of the treatment dose in the water for 5 days. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/818879/updated-corid-and-amprol-amprolium-dosing Be sure and treat all of the birds with vitamins and probiotics or yogurt after treatment to help the gut bacteria get back to normal and replace lost vitamins. I would carry the litter far away from chicken, burn it , or put it in garbage bags for haul away. Same with chicks or bury them deep.

 

[cafarmgirl]

Being on pasture does not mean chicks can't or shouldn't get cocci. It's in the soil and they are susceptible. I would go ahead and treat everybody, it certainly won't hurt, just in case the chicks brought along a strain of cocci the older birds aren't immune as Eggcessive mentioned. Better safe then sorry.

As for the older flock laying less... that is normal for this time of year. Especially if any of them are molting.

 

[Eggcessive]

Make sure your lamp provides at least 12 hours of light during the day. I put one on a timer to come on at 5 AM and off at 6 PM. It goes off during the light of day and comes back on. It might take 2 weeks to see results. Cafarmgirl is right about it being molting season--I have many not laying now.

 

[City Chicken]

So in the end i lost 8 to cocci i think.
The rest seem fine, no more bloody poo.
They were the smallest, so i think it must have been affecting them for quite some time.

Also, have had a mild increase in laying... One day git 5 instead of 2... Light has been on about a week.... Hoping that another week will give results. We are seeing results from the quail.... Slowly increasing from 1 egg for 8 birds to 3.

Im going to sell a few hens if they dont start soon.
I cant sustain feeding them all winter if i cant sell the eggs. We will probably eat our rooster too since i wont be using him for hatching next year.

We dosed the older flock twice and gave a few days of medicated feed just in case, but i see no signs of illness. So im thinking they are probably in good shape.


Thanks for everyones input!