Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Well Sharol if it was low that would explain why you haven't had any pips yet. I'm still hoping for you.
I was out putting up a new section of garden fence and looked up just in time to see a coyote run off with a duck in it's mouth!

I am so upset. Fluff was right there with me but he was sleeping in the newly tilled dirt in the garden. I got two barks out of him when the ducks came running back my direction. He had no idea the coyote was even there. Marshmallow was in the house sleeping. I just don't expect predators in broad daylight. This is the second time since I've had chickens that a coyote made it in. I am sure he'll be back. I just hope my dogs are paying attention next time. It just reminded me I need to finish putting in fencing and get an electric fence up on the back side. I imagine it was a young one and isn't smart enough to stay away yet.

 

[sharol]

I'm not giving up. While I was fooling with the thermometers, I candled a couple of the "good' eggs to see if I could see anything. There were veins visible in one of them, and darker areas, but no movement that I could see (but I only looked for a few seconds -- didn't want them to chill at all).

Now I don't know what to do about the humidity. It has dropped back to about 40% as the water evaporated, and if they still have developing to do, I don't want the humidity too high or the air cell won't be large enough for them -- assuming any are still developing. ON the other hand...

Obsessing again. Never mind me.

Well Sharol if it was low that would explain why you haven't had any pips yet. I'm still hoping for you.

 

[ivyrash]

Well Sharol if it was low that would explain why you haven't had any pips yet. I'm still hoping for you.
I was out putting up a new section of garden fence and looked up just in time to see a coyote run off with a duck in it's mouth!

I am so upset. Fluff was right there with me but he was sleeping in the newly tilled dirt in the garden. I got two barks out of him when the ducks came running back my direction. He had no idea the coyote was even there. Marshmallow was in the house sleeping. I just don't expect predators in broad daylight. This is the second time since I've had chickens that a coyote made it in. I am sure he'll be back. I just hope my dogs are paying attention next time. It just reminded me I need to finish putting in fencing and get an electric fence up on the back side. I imagine it was a young one and isn't smart enough to stay away yet.

That makes me so mad! They are so stinking brave, it's like their not even scared! You know they will be back cause now they got food. I always hope I have a gun handy when they come back!

 

[ivyrash]

So when I got home and checked on my daughter's little hen she seemed to be doing better but as I was feeling around I thought I could feel an egg and so decided to give her a soak and a massage and see what happened. She soaked for around 10 min and my daughter massaged her for a few minutes and then she started looking like she was going to fall over and drown so we pulled her out of the water and set her down and sort of held her up cause she would have literally flopped over if we didn't keep her up and next thing you know out popped an egg. The egg shell wasn't very hard. I was able to break it in my hand pretty easily.

If she wasn't egg bound would she still pop out an egg like that? She is 2 to 3 years old, is that old for a chicken? I know they only lay around 3 years but will live several years so not sure what is considered old. The egg did not seem overly large to me but I'm not the one laying it either.

 

[HEChicken]

Danz, that is awful about the coyote in broad daylight. The dogs work so hard at night - I'm sure this one caught them unawares since it was during their sleep time. It will likely be back and I'm sure they'll get it next time.

Sharol, I wouldn't worry too much about the humidity at this stage. The first 7 days are the most important to have the humidity at the correct level. After the first week, it is hard to correct issues caused by humidity in that first week, but that also means you can make fewer humidity errors then too. Its hard not to obsess isn't it?

Ivryrash, not ignoring you but I have no experience with egg bound. Sorry....

 

[sharol]

Soft shelled eggs are harder to lay. I have a hen that routinely lays a soft shelled egg from the roost over night and then at least 1 normal egg some time during the day. it is as if the soft one is blocking the path until she goes to sleep and relaxes.

i hope your little hen recovers from this to lay normally again. My Delaware has been doing it since her 1st real molt at about 15 months (she is almost 3).

So when I got home and checked on my daughter's little hen she seemed to be doing better but as I was feeling around I thought I could feel an egg and so decided to give her a soak and a massage and see what happened. She soaked for around 10 min and my daughter massaged her for a few minutes and then she started looking like she was going to fall over and drown so we pulled her out of the water and set her down and sort of held her up cause she would have literally flopped over if we didn't keep her up and next thing you know out popped an egg. The egg shell wasn't very hard. I was able to break it in my hand pretty easily.

If she wasn't egg bound would she still pop out an egg like that? She is 2 to 3 years old, is that old for a chicken? I know they only lay around 3 years but will live several years so not sure what is considered old. The egg did not seem overly large to me but I'm not the one laying it either.

 

[ivyrash]

That's ok, I understand. Unfortunately I'm getting some experience I guess.

 

[chicken danz]

Ivyrash a lot depends on what kind of chicken she is as to how long she will lay. Three years is about as long as you can consistently count on laying with an average layer. But she could lay a lot longer. Things like soft shelled eggs and problems start creeping up with age. This may never happen again or it may. Or she might go on to lay normally for a while. Or she might quit laying all together. One way to tell if she is done laying is by leg color.
When a hen is young she will have yellow in her legs. The color goes away when she is actively laying. When she stops laying the yellow will return to her legs. It's a good way to judge them. Now if you have a yellow legged breed the yellow is more intense before and after.
You probably saved her life by soaking her and such. The real danger is those eggs easily break inside the hen and then they get an infection and die.
I've got several hens in the three year+ range. It makes me pretty nervous.
I'm afraid to let my birds out today cause it is supposed to be super hot out. That means the dogs will be somewhere trying to achieve shade and stay cool. But if I don't let them out they will cook. I sure hope if the stupid coyote comes back the dogs notice and take care of it. I get so nervous worrying about my birds when something happens.
Last week it was the owl. This week the coyote. I get especially worried about the turkeys and the ducks. The chickens do a pretty good job of allerting and giving the dogs a heads up.

 

[ivyrash]

Ivyrash a lot depends on what kind of chicken she is as to how long she will lay. Three years is about as long as you can consistently count on laying with an average layer. But she could lay a lot longer. Things like soft shelled eggs and problems start creeping up with age. This may never happen again or it may. Or she might go on to lay normally for a while. Or she might quit laying all together. One way to tell if she is done laying is by leg color.
When a hen is young she will have yellow in her legs. The color goes away when she is actively laying. When she stops laying the yellow will return to her legs. It's a good way to judge them. Now if you have a yellow legged breed the yellow is more intense before and after.
You probably saved her life by soaking her and such. The real danger is those eggs easily break inside the hen and then they get an infection and die.
I've got several hens in the three year+ range. It makes me pretty nervous.
I'm afraid to let my birds out today cause it is supposed to be super hot out. That means the dogs will be somewhere trying to achieve shade and stay cool. But if I don't let them out they will cook. I sure hope if the stupid coyote comes back the dogs notice and take care of it. I get so nervous worrying about my birds when something happens.
Last week it was the owl. This week the coyote. I get especially worried about the turkeys and the ducks. The chickens do a pretty good job of allerting and giving the dogs a heads up.

I have come home to dead chickens inside the coop before. I decided at that point that they had better odds free range than I could ever give them in my coop. Mine seem to do pretty well on their own.

My neighbor called me at work this morning to tell me that she had seen the fox headed for our place and wanted to let us know in case our birds were out. I called home and I think they penned the birds up for a while. It's crazy how brave they are.

I was thinking about giving my egg bound hen some calcium since the egg was fairly soft. They have access to oyster shell all the time but something is obviously not right. She is a silver duckwing between two and three years old. She has never been a great layer. We get a few eggs from her here and there.

 

[Trish44]

My hens won't eat the oyster shell at all, I crush up the egg shells from the eggs we use & feed them back to them & they love it. I even crush up the shells a lot of the time from the chicks I hatch & feed them back, it's all shell. As long as they're crushed they will eat them. I just collect them for a few days & let them dry out & they're easier to crush. I don't have that much trouble with soft shells usually.

I moved the little turkeys to the turkey pen today, I figure they're big enough to go in there & they will have more room to run around now. The ducklings were glad to see them again, they were chattering & trying to preen the turkeys. I don't know if the turkeys were as glad to see them this time, the ducks are getting pretty big now.

I had one little chick hatch last night, a Cream Legbar & I left it in there till this morning. When I got up there were 5 more hatched, 2 black Ameraucanas, one lavender Ameraucana, & 2 more Cream Legbars. I got two pullets & a rooster in the Cream Legbars. That's one thing I like about the sex linked birds that you can sex them at hatch.

Danz I moved the little Lemon Cuckoo Orps to their own pen in the run today so I could keep them separate & I have 5 left of the ones I got from you. If I had to guess right now I would say I have two roosters & three pullets & if that's what they are that would be great. That way I would have a backup rooster. They sure grow fast, the first group I got from you are all feathered out already & the last ones are starting to get feathers.

These next few days are going to be scorchers, I'm not looking forward to it at all. I would rather my birds that free range would be out of the coop when it's so hot. At least they have bushes & trees they can get under for shade out there. I have one silly little broody hen still sitting on eggs in there. I need to take the eggs & candle them to see if there is even any reason to leave the eggs, I may do that later. I found one egg this morning when I looked under her that had pipped but died before it hatched, it may have gotten too hot. I still have a broody Swedish Flower Hen that had hatched 4 chicks so far last I looked, I need to go check on her again & see if any more hatched since yesterday.