Did I get dealt a crap hand or….?

[Appalachickens]

Right. Only those who approach their chickens as pets, like their cats or dogs go to a vet. They go for longevity and don’t care much about egg productivity.
An implant to stop laying costs and only works for 2-6 months.

Makes sense. Guess you fall into the vet camp or the stewpot camp.

 

[Dynamissa]

Oh, so like Norplant. Thanks. Still a little confused - I guess that would only make sense if your chicken is completely a pet and not livestock?

Pretty much

If they free range, take a look at the plants you have growing that they can get to. There might be something they shouldn't be eating, even just a nibble for taste.

No.. they are confined to a run.
unfortunately our town doesn’t allow
Free range.

 

[BDutch]

If they free range, take a look at the plants you have growing that they can get to. There might be something they shouldn't be eating, even just a nibble for taste.

I never took away poisonous plants. My chickens are cautious and don’t eat them. Never had a chicken who suffered from something that could have been poisonous.

But I dont use pesticides/herbicides and don’t buy plants /bulbs/seeds that probably contain lots of it. The compost pile is not used for bought non-organic flowers someone kindly bought for me.

I do have old and healthy chickens. They free range almost every day 2-6 hours.

 

[BDutch]

Makes sense. Guess you fall into the vet camp or the stewpot camp.

Neither.
I let them live a natural life to some extent. At least without medication that needs prescription.

Rules and regulations for medication and poisons (pesticides) are very strict in the Netherlands.

fyi: I have 8 chickens. 3 are 10+. 1 10yo still lays good eggs a couple of times a week.

 

[Penpal]

BDutch mentioned pesticides. Is it possible that one or more of your neighbors have been spraying pesticides or herbicides?.

 

[BDutch]

BDutch mentioned pesticides. Is it possible that one or more of your neighbors have been spraying pesticides or herbicides?.

True, not everyone who has chickens or other animals thinks about use of pesticides as a threat.

On another forum there was someone who had sick chickens after she bought a new lawn in rolls for a quick fix. She hadnt thought about the abundant use of pesticides and herbicides the growers use for the perfect green grass.

 

[Appalachickens]

Neither.
I let them live a natural life to some extent. At least without medication that needs prescription.

Rules and regulations for medication and poisons (pesticides) are very strict in the Netherlands.

fyi: I have 8 chickens. 3 are 10+. 1 10yo still lays good eggs a couple of times a week.

Then that's great. I am with you on the natural life.

 

[SamLockwood]

My girls are 1 year and 4.5 months.

We had 6 when we started. Lost a girl who showed very early maturation signs early (looked like a whole cockerel at 8 weeks, first laid at 13 weeks. Liver hemmhorage at 5 mins months)

Now one of my girls, who has been laying and being normal, stopped laying for 5 days. Still visited the box though. then stopped eating / drinking / moving. Brought her to the avian vet here — her abdomen was filled with proteinaceous fluid. They drained 250ml of yolk out of her. (?!)

I’ve got another girl who always had meat spots in her eggs but she laid daily up until a couple months ago .. it was the nasty heat wave in the northeast with high humidity and high temps. I thought that was the problem. Suddenly her eggs were GARGANTUAN and the shell was messed up. Then they were thin shelled. Then shelless. Then breaking on the way out.

As of a week or so she hasn’t laid at all and now she dropping feathers. She’s acting normal right now but my other girl was as well right up until she wasn’t. No weird posture no weird poop no nothing.

Is she internally laying too?!

I feed them nutrena layer with oyster shell free choice. They get a couple handfuls of BSFL divided up between the five of them sometimes.

Is it something I’m doing?? They’re hatchery birds - Is this a bad hand or something? Like really bad? I’m distraught.

The vet will do the implant but it’s $360 here and they say it may work anywhere for 2 weeks to 2 months. I can’t do that, as much as I’d like to. These girls are basically pets, my 6 year olds favorite animal. She named them all… but we just can’t pull that for such a flaccid guarantee… and now I’m concerned I spent a small fortune on 5 extra days with the confirmed internal layer.

I don’t know what to do or why I’m freaking cursed. These girls are hard bonded with me and snuggly as hell.
I’m attached. I’m compromised. I don’t give a damn about the eggs, I just want them to not have such a shitty premature death..

Are they all the same breed? If so are they a breed that tends to be sold out a lot? It could be they're somewhat over-bred and the genetics are weak.

I say this because my cream legbar hens I got from one particular hatchery seem to be prone to health problems: I've had three die prematurely over the last two years.

I also had a cockerel (blue cuckoo maran) that I had to put down at 5 months old due to terminal cardiovascular problems. They've sinced discontinued that breed at that hatchery.

Even if there's not some inherent issue with the breed, I've noticed that if you have a dip in temperature or humidity or some other mishap during the incubation process at the wrong time, you can either lose most or all of the hatch or you'll suddenly get a profusion of health problems or deformities. One time I had a power failure about a week before hatching day with a clutch of guinea eggs. Most didn't hatch, but I had 5 healthy-looking keets emerge. Initially they seemed fine but they started getting more and more lethargic and within 10 days they all died. From the symptoms it looked like maybe their lungs didn't develop properly and the larger they got the weaker they got.

If I can have 5 problem birds out of a batch of two dozen, it's no stretch of the imagination that a place that hatches thousands of chicks a day could have sent you a batch of "duds" by mistake.

I wouldn't pay $360 for whatever an "implant" is, even if they claimed it to be 100% effective. These are animals that often don't live more than a few years even if you're doing everything right: predators, bird flu, even just dumb accidents and they're gone. There's a reason why their reproductive strategy is to produce mass numbers. That implant could work fine and then one night they'll fight over roosting space, and one of them gets knocked off the roost and breaks her neck.

If it was me, I'd make them as comfortable as you can, double-check to make sure that you're not doing something wrong or if there's not something weird in your soil or water that's affecting them, and if the worst happens and they all end up having problems I'd have to decide if I'd want to risk going through all that again and if so do I go with a different breeder or breed.

 

[Dynamissa]

Are they all the same breed? If so are they a breed that tends to be sold out a lot? It could be they're somewhat over-bred and the genetics are weak.

I say this because my cream legbar hens I got from one particular hatchery seem to be prone to health problems: I've had three die prematurely over the last two years.

I also had a cockerel (blue cuckoo maran) that I had to put down at 5 months old due to terminal cardiovascular problems. They've sinced discontinued that breed at that hatchery.

Even if there's not some inherent issue with the breed, I've noticed that if you have a dip in temperature or humidity or some other mishap during the incubation process at the wrong time, you can either lose most or all of the hatch or you'll suddenly get a profusion of health problems or deformities. One time I had a power failure about a week before hatching day with a clutch of guinea eggs. Most didn't hatch, but I had 5 healthy-looking keets emerge. Initially they seemed fine but they started getting more and more lethargic and within 10 days they all died. From the symptoms it looked like maybe their lungs didn't develop properly and the larger they got the weaker they got.

If I can have 5 problem birds out of a batch of two dozen, it's no stretch of the imagination that a place that hatches thousands of chicks a day could have sent you a batch of "duds" by mistake.

I wouldn't pay $360 for whatever an "implant" is, even if they claimed it to be 100% effective. These are animals that often don't live more than a few years even if you're doing everything right: predators, bird flu, even just dumb accidents and they're gone. There's a reason why their reproductive strategy is to produce mass numbers. That implant could work fine and then one night they'll fight over roosting space, and one of them gets knocked off the roost and breaks her neck.

If it was me, I'd make them as comfortable as you can, double-check to make sure that you're not doing something wrong or if there's not something weird in your soil or water that's affecting them, and if the worst happens and they all end up having problems I'd have to decide if I'd want to risk going through all that again and if so do I go with a different breeder or breed.

Honestly, I think I’m done after this unless I can get 100+ birds … at least then I know I can’t keep up with specific health issues in a flock like that lol. The biggest thing is that these are my 6 year old’s
Favorite animal — and technically pets so of course I’ve pushed myself to be vigilant and do what I can within our means to keep them healthy.

But it’s gone from being something that relaxes me to something that stresses me out 100% of the time. I wake up in the middle of the night anxious about them (and I’m already prone to anxiety and depression — GAD). I am considering rehoming them to a local farm that said they would be happy to integrate the healthy ones into their flock. It’s breaking it to the kid that’s the hard part. She doesn’t even partake in their care or look at them very often (you know kids … also since they’re standard size mini dinosaurs they low key scare her now … she likes the chick and teenage phase).

I’m rambling…

The two problem ones are a buff Orpington (runt … or maybe a bantam? She’s a whole 1.5lbs)

And a Delaware who definitely didn’t win any genetic lotteries… weird feathers, weird eggs, bad markings, etc.

 

[Fluffy_Butt_Hutt]

Honestly, I think I’m done after this unless I can get 100+ birds … at least then I know I can’t keep up with specific health issues in a flock like that lol. The biggest thing is that these are my 6 year old’s
Favorite animal — and technically pets so of course I’ve pushed myself to be vigilant and do what I can within our means to keep them healthy.

But it’s gone from being something that relaxes me to something that stresses me out 100% of the time. I wake up in the middle of the night anxious about them (and I’m already prone to anxiety and depression — GAD). I am considering rehoming them to a local farm that said they would be happy to integrate the healthy ones into their flock. It’s breaking it to the kid that’s the hard part. She doesn’t even partake in their care or look at them very often (you know kids … also since they’re standard size mini dinosaurs they low key scare her now … she likes the chick and teenage phase).

I’m rambling…

The two problem ones are a buff Orpington (runt … or maybe a bantam? She’s a whole 1.5lbs)

And a Delaware who definitely didn’t win any genetic lotteries… weird feathers, weird eggs, bad markings, etc.

Your six year old seems very fond of them, but surprisingly, kids will move on well if you distract them with something else. I also agree that when they start getting sharper beaks and claws, it's not safe for kids. I lightly file down each chicken's beaks and claws weekly just to make it so they can't draw blood from me with a simple curious peck. After some tedious work, I can sit with them and have them jump on me as much as they want. It sucks to end the chicken journey, but it'd probably be for the best if you don't want to raise or buy some chickens from someone else.

Many others have already said it, hatchery chicks aren't always the best in long-term genetics. You don't know their parents or lineage, and that's why a majority of my flock is from others my state, even if I drove two hours both ways to get them. Knowing temperament, possible issues, lifespan of those in their flock, etc. is so important!