Egg bound chicken ate her eggs

[aart]

Quote: Has she always had problems laying these funky eggs or did it just start?
Are the other birds laying OK?
Are they the same breed from the same place?

Not sure about your mix of foods, but if the other birds are laying OK,
then it could just be this one birds inability to process nutrition or something else genetically wrong with her reproductive system.
I like to recommend restricting the diet to only a well balanced chicken ration for a few weeks just to rule out a nutrition imbalance.

 

[donrae]

First, relax. Not ALL red sex links or ISA browns have this problem. if they were so problematic, the commercial houses wouldn't use them.

I've had red sex links that did just fine. Mine did tend to get more brittle shells after 2 years of age, but nothing that caused issues. Just thin shells. I sold them at 4 years of age and they were still laying well.

Now, being high production birds, they can have funky things happen. Most new layers can have shell-less eggs, double yolkers, etc. Most of the time it's just something that needs to be ridden out. Their system gets glitches and needs to work things out, just like human reproduction does at times. Keep an eye on her behavior and laying. You might offer extra calcium, although I don't think that's really the issue. Can't hurt, though. Also maybe boost the protein for a week or so. usually these things just work out on their own.

 

[enola]

This is a problem caused by ISA brown chickens and always happens to them, I've had a few and they ALL have problems, this is the most common one.

ISA brown chickens are the least healthy kind of chicken available, it is most often found in factories as a cage bird and is not a real breed at all, it's a hybrid bird, that is, the mother and father are not ISA brown chickens.

At 6 months they start laying same as most chooks, except the shell is usually very hard. So hard that if it is fertilized the chick usually can't break the shell. BUT, and here is why ISA brown chickens are so common, they lay about one egg per day rather than the usual 5 or 6 per week that other breeds do. That slight edge is why factories love them. This superavian (superhero) power is shortlived. At two years old ISA brown chickens are already beginning to break down internally. Rather than living for 8 years or so like regular backyard and pet breeds, ISA brown chickens are already about to die. GRUESOMELY most of the time. eggs without shells is a good day. They often can't make the protiens to make feathers anymore and go bald. They get airway infections, well, actually, you can look up all the awful details yourself.

ISA brown chickens are past their lifespan at 2 years old and so factories LOVE to dump them on unsuspecting members of the public because they can make a better buck than putting them down would make. They are worthless as a human's meal at two years, they have no meat on them. A dog would be hard pressed to get a meal out of one, well maybe a handbag dog. maybe.

Don't worry about it first off, the egg eating seems to be more related to the fails in eggmaking than bad behavior. Make sure they have a cup of shellgrit, if they freerange then put it out somewhere in the yard or in a shed with an open door rather than in the coop where it gets dirty and spilled. They eat almost none. You won't see it go down. You can also use a blender on the eggshells in your kitchen, with plenty of rinsing them as you go, and feed that to them when it looks like coarse sand. When they have good food including kitchen scraps from you and neighbors plus grit, they won't go after the eggs. Buy plastic eggs from china for about $3-4 a dozen, they get bored trying to break them. Make long dark nestboxes they can't see in because they are reasonably dark (we see better than chooks). This all reduces the problem down to the minimum which is ISA brown chickens WILL always lay eggs without shells and eggs with cracked and broken shells as soon as you buy ISA brown chickens because they are in the process of a gruesome death in front of the kids thanks to factory farms, thank you very much. Get  any other breed of chicken.

Presented with an egg that has no shell, any chicken will eat it for all the same reasons that we eat eggs. They are a good feed. ISA brown chickens will always eat their eggs because ISA brown chickens will always lay eggs without shells. Don't worry, take the preventative measures and like me and my mixed flock which still has I think 3 or 4 ISA brown chickens that are getting sicker, they'll live out what lives they have, lay what good eggs they can, and you'll still get the eggs from the rest of the flock and even from the Isas.

This is a very unfair review you have given this breed. Sure some of these things happen to some of these hens of this breed. But not every hen has all of these problems. I am sure that some of the members of this site have some Isa Browns that are several years old. Like Donrea said, if every hen of this breed had every one of the problems you mentioned, the layer industry would not be using them.

 

[GodofPecking]

Well I don't believe I've said that every Isa Brown chicken will get every disease. My friend told me today over the phone that he will need to kill 45 Isa Brown chickens. I could always make a video, though I do live a reasonable distance away from him. I saw his chooks when he bought them from a egg farmer who said they were '2 years old'. He bought 100, and some were pretty good.

He sold to me 5 ISA Brown chooks which looked pretty good. He'd picked out the best and taken some to the markets, I bought the 5 then. Best of the best you might say. Two of those have died so far in the few months I've had them. One at a time they'd stopped eating, didn't get back onto the perches with the other chooks (flock size about 24 assorted breeds), didn't return to the coop at night and I'd find them and gently carry them inside.

I haven't lost any other breed to disease, just the ISA Browns, I think one or possibly two of the ISAs left still lay occasionally, very very weak shelled eggs that usually break with handling, or are broken a little in the nest.

One of the ISA Browns has a chronic problem breathing and often has a foamy eye. She can get around and up onto the perches, but doesn't lay, but I feel she has a reasonable life even though she is ill. She usually doesn't forage. The other breeds all do, often in neighbors yards, and they cross the roads too (!)

So out of the 100 my friend got, 45 are to be put down, I have seen those 45 and such a very very heartbreaking sight they are. My friend loves animals, and cares well for all the animals I've seen him and his family keep. The ISA Browns no longer have anything looking like a feather coat, most have stalks of feathers coming out of their wings. A lot are pretty much bald, they all look very very unhealthy. I guess I can take some pictures if you'd like to see, though it's not pretty in any way.

ISA Browns that are over 2 years old, about 2 1/2 years, look to me more what you'd see in the newspaper with "RSPCA raid" written over the top of it. I got the best of the best and 40% are dead, 20 % are sick and about 20% lay on occasion. I don't think that what I've said above was controversial at all.

I have read somewhere that they cannot make new feathers because they lack something genetically and get to pecking. Luckily my 5 don't do that so much that it is any kind of problem.

I think mine have an excellent diet, apart from the wheat, pellets and grit, my yard is a haven for living things with every bug and critter a chook could want and lovely friendly neighbors who drop off scraps. Another neighbor has a little dog that recently visits about the same time the neighbor who drops off scraps does, and apparently that explains the little dog getting fat recently according to the owner. My chooks and I do not mind at all, it's just doing what a puppy does and the chooks get plenty of the scraps. A feral cat was an actual problem but that has been fixed since.

So 60% of the best of the best are sick or dead, and 45 are going to be put down because they are in a condition that nobody would argue with the course of action. Photos, video, proof? I don't know what you'd like or if you'd like anything at all, but I honestly believe it is quite fair or even generous. They do lay everyday from the time they start laying until they reach 2 years and are economical to keep.

I'm not sure that pretending there is no problem when there is a ISA Brown breed related problem does justice to the poultry keeping community, INCLUDING commercial breeders and egg producers. Do we really want to push an open and honest industry into something more dark and dishonest and shady ? Or permanently put off backyard keepers from keeping poultry ? How would this site function if every family got ISA Browns and watched them die horribly and fast in front of the kids. Would that put them off keeping chicks, and therefor this site, or would it be better to openly and honestly discuss that ISA Browns like all breeds have problems and openly honestly talk about those problems, and recommend breeds that suit the owner. ISA Browns are great for egg producers, but one size doesn't fit all, and pretence doesn't help anyone. Am I wrong on all of this ?

 

[GodofPecking]

Like Donrea said, if every hen of this breed had every one of the problems you mentioned, the layer industry would not be using them.

I disagree, they'd still be a suitable chook even when they all got every one of the problems mentioned. The problems don't show up until the chooks get to about 2 years old. That means they lay an egg a day for 18 months, or 365 days plus 182 days or 547 days, which is about 550 eggs. 550 eggs divide by 12 is, err will I need to cheat and use the calculator, 120 times 4 is 480 70 is 8 dozen plus 40 dozen.

48 dozen eggs at $3 per dozen is $150 or there abouts. if they laid like other breeds for 18 months, say, 5 eggs per week rather than 7, it would be $130 approximately, plus feed differences, so just in output there is $20 per bird extra, add that to the food differences and there are no doubt significant benefits from having a chook that lays 7 eggs a week and doesn't eat much.

ISA Browns are I would say a good breed for egg producers, but not for kids.

Is my math wrong in such a way that the precise figures would show the opposite, that they are a poor choice for cage farms ?

 

[aart]

ISA Browns are great for egg producers, but one size doesn't fit all, and pretence doesn't help anyone. Am I wrong on all of this ?

You might be right for the situation where you live and have experienced...getting birds from a commercial producer.
But it certainly doesn't apply to every situation where ISA's are kept around the world.
Source of birds can make a big difference.

Speaking of pretense....why not put your location in your profile...I believe you live in AU?
Knowing where a poster if from can add vital information from which other members can infer application to their situation.

 

[enola]

I am beginning to suspect husbandry may be a cause of most of these horrible shortcomings that you insist these breeds are genetically predisposed to.

 

[blucoondawg]

The one with the chronic breathing problem likely lives in a refrigerator with no ventilation, imagine that.

 

[aart]

The one with the chronic breathing problem likely lives in a refrigerator with no ventilation, imagine that.

Nods. Would be the perfect place to incubate a respiratory bacteria or virus.

 

[TalkALittle]

The one with the chronic breathing problem likely lives in a refrigerator with no ventilation, imagine that.

Blucoondawg, I don't know you but I like you.