California - Northern

[ChickNmamma]

CHickens just want t babies. They don't seem to care if they are theirs or not. I joke they believe in nature o ed nature.

Be careful - not all hens will accept all colors of babies. I have three that are prejudiced on the colors. My Blue Silkie hen does not like E based chicks (Black penguin - Sumatra). My Black Sumatra will kill any chicks that are NOT E based (she killed 3 Silver Phoenix before I moved the co-broody silkie to her own coop with the remaining eggs). And my Partridge Silkie warns off every color except Partridge - she was co-broody with the Blue and attacked the chicks she hatched from the Blue's eggs (white, blue and black) - but the Blue accepted those.

So - when you graft chicks onto a momma - whether by giving her eggs to hatch or the actual chicks - watch her with them for the first 20 minutes or so. There is a difference between peck, peep, shovel under for warmth and peck, peep, growl (warning) attack. Take any that she growls at and attacks away, she will not mother them.

 

[tommysgirl]

going to be reworming today or tomorrow. used Wazine have fenbendazole...safe-guard for the next go-around. how much do I give LF hens and Rooster?

 

[Happy Chooks]

@HappyChooks I have my suspected internal layer and I was hoping you could tell me if yours were seemingly fine for weeks at a time, had bouts of lethargy from time to time and laid a variety of oddities but rarely in the box and intact.

Yes, she would seem fine, but not really want to be bothered. I started suspecting internal laying when she was frequently spending time in the nest box, but no egg would come of it. Otherwise, she seemed healthy. Toward the end, she was losing weight around her keel bone. I was getting some strange fart eggs as well, but I have other white layers, so I couldn't be sure they were coming from her. She was 4 1/2 years old.

 

[chickee]

I think the buttercups are really cool looking, especially the roosters with their comb that looks like a crown I saw them at the Stockton show last year and really liked them. @chickee you used to raise them?

I never got a chance to

We sold our home in Kenwood and I had to sell all of my chickens because I couldn't take them with me. The Buttercups were the first to get snapped up. My rooster had a perfect crown! And his color was a beautiful deep orange. He had a wonderful temperament too. The hens reminded me of pheasants. Really neat breed!

 

[tommysgirl]

Yes, she would seem fine, but not really want to be bothered. I started suspecting internal laying when she was frequently spending time in the nest box, but no egg would come of it. Otherwise, she seemed healthy. Toward the end, she was losing weight around her keel bone. I was getting some strange fart eggs as well, but I have other white layers, so I couldn't be sure they were coming from her. She was 4 1/2 years old.

Thank you so much for the information. I am sorry you lost her. :-( What you describe is what I have seen in Della. She is in an Up period right now and not laying anything but last week was solitary and puffed up for a few days, earlier this month she was laying in the yard and on the poo tray and the eggs were huge and encased in a membrane that had yolk and albumen also. This girl has laid an egg in an egg twice. I am sure that is what is going on with her. I was hoping she just had a freaky system but the sickly periods and several months long periods of non-laying seem to indicate that she is laying internally. She started laying the first week of Dec last year and was great for about 6 weeks. Then the first egg in an egg and things got weird.

When I searched for the condition on BYC I saw a post by you asking about a timeline. Is this the bird you were asking about? Did you do a necropsy?

 

[chrissyr]

Fed the babies some very small mealworms. At first they were leary of my hand, then eating right out of it. The Jubilee Orpington cross is such a piggy! Had to grab her (positive thoughts its a she) and hold her while the others ate some or she'd of eaten them all. She is always first in line and right up with mom on foraging. Then back in their coop with some chick grit with their regular food. These babies are so cute!

 

[ronott1]

Fed the babies some very small mealworms. At first they were leary of my hand, then eating right out of it. The Jubilee Orpington cross is such a piggy! Had to grab her (positive thoughts its a she) and hold her while the others ate some or she'd of eaten them all. She is always first in line and right up with mom on foraging. Then back in their coop with some chick grit with their regular food. These babies are so cute!

Sounds like good times!

Can you get a video of them sometime? Or Pictures?

We love both!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Thank you so much for the information. I am sorry you lost her. :-( What you describe is what I have seen in Della. She is in an Up period right now and not laying anything but last week was solitary and puffed up for a few days, earlier this month she was laying in the yard and on the poo tray and the eggs were huge and encased in a membrane that had yolk and albumen also. This girl has laid an egg in an egg twice. I am sure that is what is going on with her. I was hoping she just had a freaky system but the sickly periods and several months long periods of non-laying seem to indicate that she is laying internally. She started laying the first week of Dec last year and was great for about 6 weeks. Then the first egg in an egg and things got weird.

When I searched for the condition on BYC I saw a post by you asking about a timeline. Is this the bird you were asking about? Did you do a necropsy?

Yes, that post was about the same bird. No, I didn't do a necropsy. Cynthia helped me diagnose her and she was positive that is what happened with her. (she has necropsied several of her own hens, and she has a lot of experience with it) With her age, and that she was a hatchery hen, it was a safe bet.

Necropsy doesn't hurt when a young bird dies. Typically, it is the older birds. A friend of mine had a cream legbar die young (before 1 year old), sent her in for necropsy and it turned out she was internally laying. I had never heard of it in a young pullet before, but it does happen.

 

[BCollie]

Help! I have an emergency... My brother came in and told me that one of my chickens was bleeding, "the black one". She was in the coop so it was easy for me to grab her. I got her and brought her in, it looked like the side of her neck was wet but when I wiped it with a paper towel I saw it was wet not with water, but with blood. Her comb is dripping blood from the tip of one of the spikes(she is a Black Andulusian so she has a large, floppy, spiky comb). I wiped it off and sprayed it with Blue Kote, it stopped bleeding for a minute but started again. I have her in the house right now and she was just standing on the floor, and I was watching her just drip a drop of blood from the tip of her comb every few seconds. She is acting fine, she just flew up to perch on top of the dog crate...but I don't know what else to do! Hellppp, what do I do? How do I stop the bleeding?

 

[BCollie]

She is still perched on top of the dog crate, just eating some sunflower seeds I put on it(it's covered with a blanket)