- Mar 16, 2013
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Hello everyone,
My name is Katie and I live with my family in Washington state. We have a small farm where we raise beef cattle, meat chickens and laying hens. We also have 3 beautiful barn kitties.
Right off the bat I have a question and any information would be appreciated. We have (or I guess, HAD) 12 hens, a mixed assortment of banty babies, old hens that don't lay and a couple young hens that we got just last spring (so they have been laying for, give or take 5 months). In the mix with these new hens we got a Blue Andalusian. The reason for this was because we had a wonderful experience with another BA but she unfortunately, and somewhat mysteriously, died. She was doing fine the night before and the next morning we went out to the hen house to let the girls out and she was belly up (seriously) in the corner. So when the farm store had their Chick Days last spring and we saw they had BA's we couldn't pass up getting another one. They really are sweet birds.
BUT today my dad went out to let the girls out and found this new little Andalusian of the floor of the coop with her head in the corner. He pet her and figured maybe she just wasn't feeling well or maybe trying to pass a big egg. Anyway, after a while he went back in and checked on her and found she was barely breathing and that she had lost all color in her comb. He didn't want her to suffer anymore so he put her out of her misery and she didn't even struggle, I guess she barely even opened her eyes. He also said she wasn't bleeding and it didn't look she had any peck marks.
So I guess my question is: has anyone else had bad luck with Blue Andalusians? I love the breed, they are so pretty and well mannered, but I find it strange that we have had two of the same breed die at such a young age! I didn't get a chance to look at her myself or feel her stomach for egg bind (I actually just found out a couple minutes ago) so I can't personally say what she looked like, I can only go off what my dad has told me....
Anyway, any info at all would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Katie
My name is Katie and I live with my family in Washington state. We have a small farm where we raise beef cattle, meat chickens and laying hens. We also have 3 beautiful barn kitties.
Right off the bat I have a question and any information would be appreciated. We have (or I guess, HAD) 12 hens, a mixed assortment of banty babies, old hens that don't lay and a couple young hens that we got just last spring (so they have been laying for, give or take 5 months). In the mix with these new hens we got a Blue Andalusian. The reason for this was because we had a wonderful experience with another BA but she unfortunately, and somewhat mysteriously, died. She was doing fine the night before and the next morning we went out to the hen house to let the girls out and she was belly up (seriously) in the corner. So when the farm store had their Chick Days last spring and we saw they had BA's we couldn't pass up getting another one. They really are sweet birds.
BUT today my dad went out to let the girls out and found this new little Andalusian of the floor of the coop with her head in the corner. He pet her and figured maybe she just wasn't feeling well or maybe trying to pass a big egg. Anyway, after a while he went back in and checked on her and found she was barely breathing and that she had lost all color in her comb. He didn't want her to suffer anymore so he put her out of her misery and she didn't even struggle, I guess she barely even opened her eyes. He also said she wasn't bleeding and it didn't look she had any peck marks.
So I guess my question is: has anyone else had bad luck with Blue Andalusians? I love the breed, they are so pretty and well mannered, but I find it strange that we have had two of the same breed die at such a young age! I didn't get a chance to look at her myself or feel her stomach for egg bind (I actually just found out a couple minutes ago) so I can't personally say what she looked like, I can only go off what my dad has told me....
Anyway, any info at all would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Katie
and Welcome To BYC! Sorry about your birds, like TwoCrows said, so many things could have been the problem. Were they from the same hatchery? Might be just coincidence with the two you had? There is one pretty long thread on them, you could post in the thread and see if anyone else had similar problems 
