- Jan 29, 2011
- 2
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Hi all, my name is Jason.
I was wondering if anyone could help me. Today I went out to my coop and found one of my ISA brown chickens dead in the nesting boxes. I currently have 6 birds (5 now), 3 differant ages. The coop is covered and about 3mtX3mt and they have an outdoor run a little bigger than that. The bedding area is closed in and about 1/2mt off the ground and is about 1.5mtX1.5mt with nesting boxes of the side. I live in victoria, Australia. It is summer but the temp. has not gone over 28 degres celcius recently and night time temps. aren't too cold. I culled 2 chickens in november and then introduced 2 more not long after. The 2 new chickens were points of lay and fitted in well. When I introduced the 2 new birds I noticed that the older birds feathers were a lot lighter, one in perticular was nearly light cream colour all over. This is the chicken I found dead. I belive that this is the bird that I thought was broody but not sure. Around the the same time I noticed one of the older chickens voice was gone. When I looked up the forums most people said it might be worms. So I wormed the chooks through their water supply. That chook still has not got her voice back. All other chickens voices are ok. The egg production was down too, 2-3 eggs a day. I thought between the worms and posibly a couple of chooks off the lay its ok. But I'm still only getting 2 mabye 3 eggs per day. Also noticed tiny little bugs (thousands of them) when I cleaned out the coop. Thought they were lice or mites so I sprayed . Next time I cleaned the coop they were gone. When I cleaned the coop and sanitised after finding the dead bird the bugs were back. There was no signs of damage to the dead chickens body, no odd shapes, nothing in the vent and nothing stuck in the mouth. They eat layer pellets, egg shells, food scraps, grass and garden clippings and anything they can dig up. There water supply is from a self replenishing water container that gravity feeds to drinking nipples. All birds appear to use the waterer. We do get a lot of wild birds getting in and out of the coop but that hasn't bothered them before. I've had chickens for about 2 years and they were caged birds. If the woman that sold me the birds is telling the truth that they are points of lay the dead bird would be about 2.5 years old.
The chickens aren't pets but I dont want the chooks to suffer.
Sorry if this is alot of rambling but I thought the more info the better.
Thanks in advance,
Jason.
I was wondering if anyone could help me. Today I went out to my coop and found one of my ISA brown chickens dead in the nesting boxes. I currently have 6 birds (5 now), 3 differant ages. The coop is covered and about 3mtX3mt and they have an outdoor run a little bigger than that. The bedding area is closed in and about 1/2mt off the ground and is about 1.5mtX1.5mt with nesting boxes of the side. I live in victoria, Australia. It is summer but the temp. has not gone over 28 degres celcius recently and night time temps. aren't too cold. I culled 2 chickens in november and then introduced 2 more not long after. The 2 new chickens were points of lay and fitted in well. When I introduced the 2 new birds I noticed that the older birds feathers were a lot lighter, one in perticular was nearly light cream colour all over. This is the chicken I found dead. I belive that this is the bird that I thought was broody but not sure. Around the the same time I noticed one of the older chickens voice was gone. When I looked up the forums most people said it might be worms. So I wormed the chooks through their water supply. That chook still has not got her voice back. All other chickens voices are ok. The egg production was down too, 2-3 eggs a day. I thought between the worms and posibly a couple of chooks off the lay its ok. But I'm still only getting 2 mabye 3 eggs per day. Also noticed tiny little bugs (thousands of them) when I cleaned out the coop. Thought they were lice or mites so I sprayed . Next time I cleaned the coop they were gone. When I cleaned the coop and sanitised after finding the dead bird the bugs were back. There was no signs of damage to the dead chickens body, no odd shapes, nothing in the vent and nothing stuck in the mouth. They eat layer pellets, egg shells, food scraps, grass and garden clippings and anything they can dig up. There water supply is from a self replenishing water container that gravity feeds to drinking nipples. All birds appear to use the waterer. We do get a lot of wild birds getting in and out of the coop but that hasn't bothered them before. I've had chickens for about 2 years and they were caged birds. If the woman that sold me the birds is telling the truth that they are points of lay the dead bird would be about 2.5 years old.
The chickens aren't pets but I dont want the chooks to suffer.
Sorry if this is alot of rambling but I thought the more info the better.
Thanks in advance,
Jason.
