Diagnosing and preventative care

[Loving my girls]

Don't use water in the coop, it can create mold issues.
DE doesn't work for mites , and it's awful for you and especially your girls to breathe.
I'd avoid i

Good food, enough water, enough space - as in at least or more than recommended. Occasionally free ranging does not change a too small coop.

A lot of people worry about being egg bound. I have had chickens for decades and never had one egg bound. I wonder if it is because their birds are in too small of pens, and do not get enough excercise.

Adding roosts and clutter in the run, can allow them more room in the run. If they fly up, that is exercise. Anything they can get under or on top of increases their space, and allows them to get away from each other, good for flock dynamics.

If a chicken is bright eyed, eating, and active they are healthy. I know a lot of people treat their birds a lot of the time. I don't and I have only had one sick bird, that I got from someone else, and I culled that bird. People don't like to talk about it but culling sick birds is a very good disease prevention for the flock. Keeping a sick bird continually adds disease to the flock.

Mrs K

Interesting idea about egg bound. I have never had a hen egg bound either and Ive had hens longer than I’ve been alive. My current girls have loads of space for making dens and playing sardines so, who knows, maybe you have something there

 

[Loving my girls]

Don't use water in the coop, it can create mold issues.
DE doesn't work for mites , and it's awful for you and especially your girls to breathe.
I'd avoid it

I clean the poop shelf everyday with cold water and use vinegar afterwards. There is no sitting water though.
Also I mop the floor with one of those butterfly mops so I get up all the water that I use to clean the floor. I do this every week or so, weather and mood dependent.
Once or twice a year I give the coop a spring clean. Everything comes out of the hen house and my husbands electric toothbrush starts cleaning all those awkward corners. I only do this when I know it will be hot and, at least, surface dry by bed time.
Water is my friend when it comes to cleaning my coop.
I’ve even got hubby to extend the water system so there is a tap in the run.
Everyone is different I guess, that’s what makes this forum so interesting

 

[Loving my girls]

A healthy, balanced diet that's 90% feed and 10% others.

Chickens are prey animals so they'll hide symptoms until they can't.
Withdrawn
Still
Pale
Hunched up
Tired
Eyes shut (ultimate indicator of suffering)
Best way is to get in the habit of checking your birds over evernight.
Feet
Crops
Eyes

I totally agree to the checking of hens while on their perches.
I like to go in when they’re in bed and just give them a little stroke. They make a noise when I do, I like to think of it as a ‘good night’ but if I’m honest it’s probably more of a ‘don’t touch the feathers’. Sometimes if I am concerned about something I will take her out of the coop and sit on my chair and check her over. Alternatively sometimes I just pick one and check her over.
Just to be sure of her being of course

 

[Mrs. K]

Everyone is different I guess, that’s what makes this forum so interesting

I think a lot of time, we give advice from the point of view of our own coop, climate, and number of birds. And yet in reality, people on here are from all over the world, have vastly different climates, and from 1 pet to more than 50 birds which all produce entirely different needs.

 

[Loving my girls]

I think a lot of time, we give advice from the point of view of our own coop, climate, and number of birds. And yet in reality, people on here are from all over the world, have vastly different climates, and from 1 pet to more than 50 birds which all produce entirely different needs.

Absolutely Mrs K. I couldn’t have put it better myself

 

[Perris]

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on a kind of mental “flow chart” so to speak on when you see a chicken that could be sick. I currently have a hen that has her tail down and I’ve read that’s a sign of something wrong and I just don’t really know where to go from there. Any “diagnosing” tips would be helpful.

I've found this to be a very useful thread for such situations:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...d-supportive-care-updated-01-17-2021.1048620/