Docile or poorly chicken

[Mr MKK FARMS]

 

[chickenunited28]

Hi all, Lemon my hen went to the vet on Thursday. The vet believed she was egg bound so did an ex ray. When they contacted me they started my saying ..... its not good news I am afraid, she is not egg bound, when looking at her ex ray we could not see her chest, it was hard and not good. Then they told me she then took a turn for the worst and stopped breathing. They tried to revive her but no, she had passed away. The vet believed she had a server chest infection. She has had no visible signs pink comb, clear nose, shinny clear eyes and her crop was 1/3 full. It is believed she had started to go broody and as she was not at full health could not fight it.

so I am now one chicken down. I guess its a learning curve.

I am now keeping my eye on the other two as typically they are broody I think so of course I am paranoid. They will not get off their nest box in the morning and they do a strange nose at me, one has removed some feathers from her chest and the other puffs up like a balloon! They also see more docile, less energetic and warmer. I am removing them from the nest box and stopping the accessing it. They are not eating half as much and prefer to chill in the mood trying to hatch wood chippings, Mavis using the chipping and a nest seen her picking them up and putting it under her. They are not pooping much either and when there do there massive. I did not realise how stressful a broody chicken can be, I guess I am worrying there ill like my other one. Are they broody?

Anyway I am thinking off getting a couple more once I know my other two are healthy and get over wanting babies, any advice for adding to a flock and which ones don't go broody?

Cheers

 

[TwoCrows]

Hi all, Lemon my hen went to the vet on Thursday. The vet believed she was egg bound so did an ex ray. When they contacted me they started my saying ..... its not good news I am afraid, she is not egg bound, when looking at her ex ray we could not see her chest, it was hard and not good. Then they told me she then took a turn for the worst and stopped breathing. They tried to revive her but no, she had passed away. The vet believed she had a server chest infection. She has had no visible signs pink comb, clear nose, shinny clear eyes and her crop was 1/3 full. It is believed she had started to go broody and as she was not at full health could not fight it.

so I am now one chicken down. I guess its a learning curve.

I am now keeping my eye on the other two as typically they are broody I think so of course I am paranoid. They will not get off their nest box in the morning and they do a strange nose at me, one has removed some feathers from her chest and the other puffs up like a balloon! They also see more docile, less energetic and warmer. I am removing them from the nest box and stopping the accessing it. They are not eating half as much and prefer to chill in the mood trying to hatch wood chippings, Mavis using the chipping and a nest seen her picking them up and putting it under her. They are not pooping much either and when there do there massive. I did not realise how stressful a broody chicken can be, I guess I am worrying there ill like my other one. Are they broody?

Anyway I am thinking off getting a couple more once I know my other two are healthy and get over wanting babies, any advice for adding to a flock and which ones don't go broody?

Cheers

I am so sorry about your hen. You did all you could for her.

As for the other broodies, these are totally normal behaviors....the puffing up, growling at you, not eating much, leaving you smelly poop the size of grapefruits,

, so I wouldn't worry too much. But if you don't have fertile eggs or just don't want them to be broody, you can do as you are doing. It is hard to break a really determined broody as it is all hormone driven. Even if there are no eggs available they will brood their feet or rocks if that is all they have! I have a hen that I tried every method on her to break her broodiness and all it did was get her depressed and stop eating. I found that letting her just set in a box, with no eggs, she got tired of it after a week and went back to laying quick like. But each broody is different.

All breeds can have potential broodies, but some breeds are less likely. You might check out this chart as it lists the broodiness level in the different breeds....

http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html

I would give all your birds a good once over to make sure they are healthy....looking for mites or bugs, (irritated red skin or mite eggs at the vent and behind the neck, broken or stripped feather shafts, etc..) check for respiratory ailments since you just lost one to a possible chest infection...(listen to the breathing, are there runny noses, watery eyes, swollen faces) If so you would want to treat everybody with antibiotics in the water. Duramycin which you can get at most feed stores, is really good for respiratory ailments.

Worm them as well if you haven't already.

When you get them all healed up, introduce new birds slowly. Keep the new ones in a cage or behind a fence, but with in the flock. Everybody sees, nobody touches. Leave them this way for several weeks. This will keep them not only quarantined but allow the original flock to work much of the pecking order out with no injuries.

After a few weeks, let them out. The fighting should be very minimal. Of course always intervene if it turns bloody.

I hope your heart can heal soon and good luck with future flocks! Oh, and those broodies!!!

 

[TwoCrows]

Good day everyone. I new here at BYC. But i have been visiting this site for quite sometime.
Btw i'm from manila, philippine. Have 3 hens-all are bisaya chickens/mongrels. One already lays eggs. Our helpers are the first to get to eat the eggs for breakfast. Good news- it is not in our grocery list anymore.
Always talk about chickens and eggs with my bestfriend- but she is not interest with the topic.

Hi there,

and welcome to BYC!

This is the place to talk chicken!

Great to have you aboard and enjoy all your poultry adventures!

 

[gander007]