Discouraged

[MysteryChicken]

Welcome!
We either raise our own chicks, or buy chicks, vaccinated against Marek's disease, from good hatcheries.
Were you getting chicks, or adult hens, and did you get some older birds? Diet, housing, diseases from those sources, and bad luck, all have a role.
We will try to help!
Mary

Right about the Raise your own chicks. I do that every spring, I hatch chicks from my own flock.

Occasionally I do get new blood, to add but main sources are hatcheries.

 

[Tonyroo]

Sorry your having a terrible experience with your birds.

Maybe it might be a good time to take a break from it. And start up later being better informed, goal of having close to zero issues with a flock.

Like with all animal husbandry, they require daily maintenance and observations.

Also I agree with @MysteryChicken, I have only done hatches to acquire my own flock. I never wanted to accidentally introduce new live birds from other sources in fear of they might be carriers of diseases.

 

[NatJ]

I don understand how my mom had and my aunt has way more chickens for way more years and never had all these issues. Actually they have never had any issues.
I don't understand what they are doing so different except they bought from a hatchery and i bought from a farm.

Buying from a hatchery might be part of the difference.
For example, hatchery chicks do not arrive with lice. And hatchery chicks are usually the sex you order (at least mostly).

I can think of some other things that might be different:

They might house the chickens differently. Bumblefoot, broken toenails, and frostbite can be more likely or less likely depending on how the chickens are housed.

They might feed or tend the chickens differently. That could avoid the grass digestion issue and the issue with not handling the food.

They might have different breeds. That could prevent frostbitten combs, and maybe some of the reproductive issues.

They might have some problems that they haven't told you about, because they deal with the problems and don't think it's a big deal. For example, some people consider extra roosters a big problem, and other people happily have fried chicken for dinner.

They might not pay as much attention as you do. So they might not have noticed if their chickens had lice, bumblefoot, undigested grass, broken toenails, frostbitten combs, and various other problems (now or in the past). Some of those things can heal by themselves (like most cases of broken toenails), so if they did not notice at the time, it might not be obvious now.

And if they live in a place where roosters are allowed, of course they would not be forced to get rid of roosters.

 

[AngelicaRoss]

I have had 24 chickens in 4 years and have lost 10. I lost one last week due to cancer and one yesterday from something unknown. I keep having about the same health problems as you. It never ends and I'm going to just give up. It's so much work, money and heartache.