Did I get dealt a crap hand or….?

[Dynamissa]

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!

I know this now! Haha.

I enjoy the girls a lot in the overall, but I miss out on A lot of things with the family because I’m left to triage what’s happening at home. I have to struggle to find people To sit them when we go on week+ vacations. We’re literally “backyard chicken”
People in that we live in a city on a quarter acre and our birds are ten paces behind the house. 5 - limit is 6 but one died early from .. of course .. some genetic predisposition toward early
Maturity and lay that resulted in a hemorrhaged liver.

I’m the only one who takes care of the animals we have and I work from home but it’s become a full time job, and it’s been summer vacation — with no camp. I’m burnt out and I just want to relax!


If there is a next time, I will definitely be looking into breeders.

 

[Fluffy_Butt_Hutt]

I enjoy the girls a lot in the overall, but I miss out on A lot of things with the family because I’m left to triage what’s happening at home. I have to struggle to find people To sit them when we go on week+ vacations. We’re literally “backyard chicken”
People in that we live in a city on a quarter acre and our birds are ten paces behind the house. 5 - limit is 6 but one died early from .. of course .. some genetic predisposition toward early
Maturity and lay that resulted in a hemorrhaged liver.

I’m the only one who takes care of the animals we have and I work from home but it’s become a full time job, and it’s been summer vacation — with no camp. I’m burnt out and I just want to relax!

I'm in a similar situation, close to city suburbs with a protected forest for a backyard. I'm also the only one in the house who takes care of the birds, mostly because I'm the most able-bodied. Limited space as all trees on our lot are also protected. I'm lucky that multiple teens and kids on our block love our birds! Never have to go too far to get someone to check their water and feed every two days if I'm out on something important.

My little pet peeve is my family isn't new to farm animals at all, but I am. I'm getting no hints! To be fair, I'm treating my chickens as princesses rather than livestock, but I've already eaten a roo (rest in peace Kacey, you were delicious) and will not be contacting a vet. If it gets to the point I cannot treat it at home, I believe I'm just prolonging my chicken and my suffering and delaying the inevitable.

 

[Pukkits]

I'm so sorry for your situation. I'm inclined to think terrible luck, but it does seem odd that it's from multiple breeds instead of just one bloodline from a hatchery.
I will admit I'm ignorant of some respiratory illness' can long tern effects, and others have already asked about pesticides and herbicides. Could there be any other environmental factors? Previous use of the soil they live on? Are the silly birds eating paint somewhere? Could your feed be moldy before you get it, or getting damp enough to mold as mycotoxins can cause reproductive issues?

We have a BO that sounds similar to your Delaware, weird feathers sticking out, crooked toe, etc. She has made it to 5, her major health issue was other hens trying to remove her from the flock with violence. We had to overhaul our flock, only keeping birds that got along with her, as she is sweet, silly and gentle. She's starting to show signs of age, as her original flock mates have already passed of cancer. Our vet says almost all hens he sees over age 4 have cancer.

I'm not sure what I'd do in your situation. We took a hen to the vet last year for a pinched nerve after a double egg left her unable to walk. The vet found cancer and was kind enough to offer medication for a few days to try to give her more time. It was unsuccessful. I've never dispatched a chicken before, so I took her back to the vet for final services. The whole ordeal was hundred of dollars. If I hadn't had a human family loss the day before, I'm not sure I'd have made the same choice. I feel with chickens it has become complicated due to the cost of avian vet services.

I think with our animals, our budget has gotten to thinking of if we spend a bunch on a low chance of continued life, it reduces the budget we have for the rest of our animals care. It's tough. It's crappy. We want to give them everything. In our house pets, two out of three have developed chronic health issues since adoption. Their conditions if left untreated would be life threatening, but treated they have a high quality of life and it's a very high success rate (dog is allergic to basically outside, rabbit has crooked little teeth that require frequent filing by the vet). Our most recent hen loss died a few weeks ago. She was losing weight and went through egg yolk perenitis (infection caused by an egg breaking internally) early this summer. We managed to successfully treat her EYP, but EYP tends to be a secondary condition not the original problem. Some palpation felt like she had cancer, so due to her age we let her go naturally. She lived four more happy, mobile months, taught the new pullets how to properly yell at the humans for attention and after one day of looking off, was gone by the next morning.

It sounds like your unfortunate draw of birds has really messed up your ability to enjoy chickens, and understandably so. Unexpectedly high maintenance birds you are the sole carer of and when you've got lots of family and work obligations is a recipe for not happy chicken keeping. I think if you can find them a new home, it's worth seriously considering. Maybe a cute chicken plushie for your kiddo in memory of their time as a chicken keeper?

 

[Bawkbok]

I felt like you - overly stressed about sick birds, losing valuable sleep, investing inordinate amounts of time trying to figure out symptomolgy (is that a word) to determine what the heck was wrong for next steps.
To get our (my) feet wet in the chicken world, we started with only three. One was dead within two weeks - came in sick. One definitely was purchased sick and I wouldn't have taken it had I known then what I now know. One was found in the nest one morning stiff as a board, fine the day prior, but obviously not. We tried again with three more, different breeds, sickness again, respiratory, failure to thrive and Mareks - all three died within months. We tried again, different local farmer, three more birds, three more reproductive catastrophes. I had enough. I was done. A year in, numerous birds and we had yet to get one egg!! We gave it one final try. This time from a national hatchery - all Buff Orpingtons, honestly because they were sold out of everything else and we hadn't had any of those yet. They are now around 9 months old. Not a sniffle, cough, illness, injury - the healthiest birds we've had thus far. They all continued to lay an egg almost every day without hardly taking a day off all summer long. I was shocked as we suffered through triple digit heat indexes for months. It is extremely hot and humid here and the heat is difficult to manage but we survived it. Chicken keeping is now a joy. The eggs are a definite super huge bonus.

I say all this to let you know there are others that have seen the same movie as you, you are not alone in that camp, so it's nothing you're doing wrong it just happens. It is extremely discouraging to care for sickly birds. Expensive too if they need antibiotics, etc. We don't have avian vet care anywhere in this entire county so we have to be our own vets.

Bad luck? of course, I think especially when starting out and obviously learning as we go.
I avoid farm swaps, feed store recommendations for local chicken sources, weekend sales like what TSC hosts in their parking lots, etc. Ironically, all our early birds came from what we thought were reputable local farmers but turned out to be disasters. We know others who buy from TSC and have had good luck. I think it just depends on a lot of factors.

You obviously care for them very much and your six year old is learning valuable lessons in animal husbandry, responsibility, etc.

I would encourage you to re-evaluate why you started with chickens initially. Are those reasons and goals still vaild? Is it better for your mental and physical stamina to call a hiatus, take a break, start over with different birds, continue to manage the issues or stop completely and tear down the coop? Only you can answer those questions.

I can't speak to what's happening in your flock. I don't have that kind of experience yet. Just wanted to provide moral support. I wish you the best with whatever you decide.

This is the right forum for support and acquiring knowledge.

 

[Dynamissa]

I felt like you - overly stressed about sick birds, losing valuable sleep, investing inordinate amounts of time trying to figure out symptomolgy (is that a word) to determine what the heck was wrong for next steps.
To get our (my) feet wet in the chicken world, we started with only three. One was dead within two weeks - came in sick. One definitely was purchased sick and I wouldn't have taken it had I known then what I now know. One was found in the nest one morning stiff as a board, fine the day prior, but obviously not. We tried again with three more, different breeds, sickness again, respiratory, failure to thrive and Mareks - all three died within months. We tried again, different local farmer, three more birds, three more reproductive catastrophes. I had enough. I was done. A year in, numerous birds and we had yet to get one egg!! We gave it one final try. This time from a national hatchery - all Buff Orpingtons, honestly because they were sold out of everything else and we hadn't had any of those yet. They are now around 9 months old. Not a sniffle, cough, illness, injury - the healthiest birds we've had thus far. They all continued to lay an egg almost every day without hardly taking a day off all summer long. I was shocked as we suffered through triple digit heat indexes for months. It is extremely hot and humid here and the heat is difficult to manage but we survived it. Chicken keeping is now a joy. The eggs are a definite super huge bonus.

I say all this to let you know there are others that have seen the same movie as you, you are not alone in that camp, so it's nothing you're doing wrong it just happens. It is extremely discouraging to care for sickly birds. Expensive too if they need antibiotics, etc. We don't have avian vet care anywhere in this entire county so we have to be our own vets.

Bad luck? of course, I think especially when starting out and obviously learning as we go.
I avoid farm swaps, feed store recommendations for local chicken sources, weekend sales like what TSC hosts in their parking lots, etc. Ironically, all our early birds came from what we thought were reputable local farmers but turned out to be disasters. We know others who buy from TSC and have had good luck. I think it just depends on a lot of factors.

You obviously care for them very much and your six year old is learning valuable lessons in animal husbandry, responsibility, etc.

I would encourage you to re-evaluate why you started with chickens initially. Are those reasons and goals still vaild? Is it better for your mental and physical stamina to call a hiatus, take a break, start over with different birds, continue to manage the issues or stop completely and tear down the coop? Only you can answer those questions.

I can't speak to what's happening in your flock. I don't have that kind of experience yet. Just wanted to provide moral support. I wish you the best with whatever you decide.

This is the right forum for support and acquiring knowledge.

What I wanted to get out of it essentially was the happiness of a clucking flock, my daughter having her favorite animals present. We weren't in it for the eggs, just the vibes. But the first death hit hard, two in tandem (I'm pretty sure its just a matter of time now..) is going to wreck her. We also lost our elderly dog to nasal cancer last year so she's seen a lot of pet death at age 6.

But everyone has been telling me what I do is not sustainable and it isn't. I'm trying so hard to spare her pain (it hurts when they die yes, I raised them and took care of them more or less alone, but I understand this stuff by now). I don't think managing the issues is where it's at .. and if I'm down to three birds I'd rather they get to go to a bigger flock with people who can intergrate them, and they can free range, since we're not allowed to let them do that here.

But yes, thank you for speaking up. I always knew reproductive issues were mroe common after two years but these guys... just barely hens. It's awful.

 

[BDutch]

I’m the only one who takes care of the animals we have and I work from home but it’s become a full time job, and it’s been summer vacation — with no camp. I’m burnt out and I just want to relax!

Our neighbours on one side have cats, on the other side cats and a mini pig. They like to go on a vacation every now and then too. We make appointments who takes care of the cats, pig and chickens every vacation. Doesn’t cost a thing (but a little thank you present) .

My chickens have a food container , several food and water stations. Convenient in case something might go wrong with one of them. They have an auto pop door to run which is safe enough for daytime predators, and big enough to stay inside it for several weeks. So the neighbour only needs to check / fill up once a day.

Ask around in the neighbourhood if you can make such an arrangement.

 

[BDutch]

and if I'm down to three birds I'd rather they get to go to a bigger flock with people who can intergrate them, and they can free range, since we're not allowed to let them do that here.

Like the others I dont know why you have (hopefully had) all these issues and deaths.
If the 4th doesn’t make it will be heart breaking but you still have a small flock. Three chickens is really enough for company. .

If you have a big run the chickens don’t need to free range to be happy. And if your garden is fenced, all around, you have a very big extended run. Somewhere between ⅛-¼ of an acre is a paradise for 3 chickens.
So I think if I was in your shoes I would keep the 3 if there is someone else who can look after them if you are not around.

 

[ChickInnMama]

I don’t know if you’ve rehomed the healthy girls yet. But if you are keeping them, even for now I can just share what some of the members on here with a lot of experience told me to do for our girls when they had this issue. A few months ago one of our production breeds (I will never get another production breed hen and I will only buy my chicks or pullets from local certified farmers now, we got our last batch like that and they are all healthier)… that said, when our girl Bugsy started with the few huge eggs which turned soft shelled eggs which turned into egg yolk coming out in her poop etc I asked on here and I was told to give her electrolytes in her water and a calcium pill with Vit D in it (I just got them at Walmart). I started her on the pills right away, they said not to do them longer than a week or two so I stopped after two weeks. We do give them to her occasionally because we have pullets that are on chick food in with the hens now so everyone is getting chick feed and fermented layer feed (New Country Organics). I will say, when I ferment their feed all my birds seem healthier. Most of my bigger hens are molting or were molting, it’s just that time of year. And I know that’s so hard on their bodies and now two of my other ones have yolk in their poop sometimes, I do what I can for them and ours are definitely more pet than livestock at this point though we bought them as livestock lol. Since I started fermenting their feed again about a week and a half, two weeks ago they are looking better. Bugsy is still alive months after her issues started and we just know she won’t be laying any more eggs and she’s a freeloader but we’re okay with that, same thing for PepperAnn and Wanda now. I’ve thought about getting rid of our chickens multiple times just because of the stress, we homestead so we have other animals and it’s always hard for us to go out of town anyway so that’s not a deal breaker for us with the chickens, it’s just we’ve had quite a bit go on with them health wise and at times I just don’t want to do it anymore, but I just bought more chicks at the beginning of summer so… I hope your girls are doing better and I hope that encourages you!! They can bounce back some and just keep going, ours have even in the intense Florida heat we had over the summer

 

[MROO]

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

Many of us wander around the middle ground. My birds are pets with benefits (for both sides.) I won't/can't take them to a vet, but will do anything and everything possible to diagnose and treat (often aggressively) any issues. There is so much experience and help here on BYC! It outweighs anything a pet-vet is able to provide ... and there's always someone here 24/7/365!

 

[Appalachickens]

Many of us wander around the middle ground. My birds are pets with benefits (for both sides.) I won't/can't take them to a vet, but will do anything and everything possible to diagnose and treat (often aggressively) any issues. There is so much experience and help here on BYC! It outweighs anything a pet-vet is able to provide ... and there's always someone here 24/7/365!

Totally get that, and my feeling is similar. We're not going to a vet, but I'll treat what I can. I think of mine as livestock, having grown up on a farm, but I also try to give them their best life while they are here and can often be found sitting in the coop with a couple on my lap. Growing up, we didn't have chickens but we butchered cows and pigs, and yet my brood sow had a name and I would spend a lot of time with her.