Help! My chicken are dying :/

[Mrs. K]

@ Enola - you have had chickens since 2009 and never had a chicken die? Wow...

 

[enola]

@ Enola - you have had chickens since 2009 and never had a chicken die? Wow...

To be more accurate - I have never had a (healthy) chicken "just drop dead". I have been keeping chickens since the 60's, not since 2009. That is when I found this site.
I have had many chickens die. Accidents, predator kills and one time 2 roosters got into a fight on a 100*+ day that died of heat stroke. Coccidia gave me a lot of problems after I moved to this place.

I hand check my every single one of my chickens regularly. If I check one and it seems thin or does not act like it normally should, I worm the entire flock and/or treat the flock for coccidia, after looking for mites.
If treating for mites, internal parasites and coccidia doesn't do the job, I separate the chicken from the flock, if the chicken continues to decline, i cull.
I don't use antibiotics, never have and never will. There are no special needs chickens here.

 

[Mrs. K]

hmmm - I have not often, but when I get an old chicken, acting healthy, laying eggs, dead below the roost in the morning.

I don't have real fancy chickens, just hatchery chickens, and I do get real winters, which I think shortens their lives. Mine do free range, so I am sure that they must have some parasites, but I have never seen evidence in the poo, and their feathers are bright, combs are good. I have never wormed them.

Different ways, makes this site very ineresting.

Mrs K

 

[enola]

I am in the south, so mild winters, which probably helps. But, I cull all hens after their second laying season is over, which probably also helps. I never really worm on any type of schedule. And most of my chickens are just barnyard mutts from hatchery chickens, except for my Araucanas.

 

[Mrs. K]

Oh, I do believe that culling does keep things much more healthy. while I cull anything that is sick, only two in 7years, I am not that quick to cull after the second year of laying unless I need to make room in the coop due to new chicks coming in to the flock. Hence some of mine do die of old age.