Chickens getting skinner and not laying a lot of eggs

[AndrewP07]

Hello, I recently moved from the city to the country. We had 11 very nice looking, healthy hens, and when we moved to the new house, it came with 9 hens. They looked pretty skinny though. Their egg production was perfect, and we brought ours over, and combined the flocks. No roosters at the time. This was back in early april. Come to now, we have 2 roosters, and recently acquired 7 more hens and another rooster bringing the total to 26 hens, and 3 roosters because a hen died recently. Most of my original hens now look like the skinnier ones that came with the property, and the 7 we acquired are looking very healthy. Tonight I did a head count, and found out we were missing a chicken. Looked around and found the newest rooster laying by the fence. One eye is pretty cloudy, his crop was empty, and he was feeling pretty skinny. Also forgot to mention that I am only getting 12 eggs a day out of 26 hens. Any ideas?

 

[Debbie292d]

When chickens look skinny, it could be a sign of worms. Have you looked at their poop? Also, having worms could stress out the hens as well.

Regardless, until you have more symptoms, I would always say start a regimen of probiotics and vitamins. We use raw vinegar (1 tablespoon per gallon of water), Hydro Hen, or Greek yogurt for the probiotics and Nutra Drench for the vitamins.

With a grain of salt here, as I'm not sure to believe it or not, but I do it anyway, is put red pepper and garlic in their feed. It's said it will make their innards uncomfortable for worms, but still, if they got worms, I'd want to know they were all gone and would probably buy something for it.

 

[Sussex19]

Could you post a photo of the roosters eye?
Worming them all would be good. (not with vinegar or any other natural ways, as while they might work for preventing worms, once there is a significant amount they don't do anything)

 

[Eggcessive]

Combining chickens can sometimes introduce diseases from a flock that are carriers. Worms, coccidiosis from the new soil, and diseases can make them skinny. Too many chickens, especially roosters, may cause upset in an established flock. I would use a safe effective wormer, such as Valbazen 1/2 ml orally is good, and SafeGuard horse paste or liquid goat wormer 1/4 ml per pound is also good. Best advice would be to ask your vet to allow a fecal float to look for what worms or parasites they have. That may be hard in some area. Probiotics in the diet a couple of times a week can be beneficial to chickens. If one dies, the best way to know what they are carrying is to have the state vet do a necropsy on a body that has been kept cold. A cloudy eye could be from injury, infection, a cataract, or something more serious. Pictures may help.

 

[AndrewP07]

Update: The rooster has died

 

[Eggcessive]

Very sorry for your loss. The state vet is valuable when ever you lose a chicken, because if you keep the body cold, but not frozen, they can do a necropsy/autopsy and testing to look for whatever was wrong. It is a good way to know if it was a contagious disease. Here is a list of the state vets to contact if you still have the body:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html

 

[AndrewP07]

The one in my state is on the other side of the state. We buried the body anyway