I just wanted to say hi. I'm a new chicken owner. I live in the SF Bay Area. My husband grew up with chickens but it was more of a farm situation. They ate them after they stopped laying eggs. I'm vegetarian and our chickens now are for eggs and just to have as pets.
We started out with four hens, each a different color and I guess type. I'm sorry to be so ignorant about all this. My husband got them when they were 4 days old and kept them under a warm light and then once they got bigger, we started letting them outside for an hour or two. Now they live in a coop and a pen that's about 15 x 15 feet. They were all doing great, but about 6 months ago one of them got sick and died. I called a vet but by the time he was able to come it was too late. That chicken hadn't been eating and we could tell she was sick. But the other 3 were all fine. Then about 4 weeks later one other one just dropped dead. I mean, it appeared to be totally healthy and was eating and running around and very active, and then it just keeled over and died. We think that a neighbor may have used poison to kill rats and that maybe our hen pecked on the dead rat.
So now we have two more hens. One lays eggs regularly, but the other one doesn't lay at all. She always had problems with soft shells, etc and we give them oyster shells and egg shells, but she just doesn't lay.
In any case, we may get two or three more hens but I'd like to be as informed as I can. I don't know if chickens are hard to keep healthy or what we might be doing wrong. I had no idea how much personality they have and how much I'd like having them as pets, but I don't want to get them and keep jeopardizing their health, if that's what I'm doing.
Thanks.
Kevin
We started out with four hens, each a different color and I guess type. I'm sorry to be so ignorant about all this. My husband got them when they were 4 days old and kept them under a warm light and then once they got bigger, we started letting them outside for an hour or two. Now they live in a coop and a pen that's about 15 x 15 feet. They were all doing great, but about 6 months ago one of them got sick and died. I called a vet but by the time he was able to come it was too late. That chicken hadn't been eating and we could tell she was sick. But the other 3 were all fine. Then about 4 weeks later one other one just dropped dead. I mean, it appeared to be totally healthy and was eating and running around and very active, and then it just keeled over and died. We think that a neighbor may have used poison to kill rats and that maybe our hen pecked on the dead rat.
So now we have two more hens. One lays eggs regularly, but the other one doesn't lay at all. She always had problems with soft shells, etc and we give them oyster shells and egg shells, but she just doesn't lay.
In any case, we may get two or three more hens but I'd like to be as informed as I can. I don't know if chickens are hard to keep healthy or what we might be doing wrong. I had no idea how much personality they have and how much I'd like having them as pets, but I don't want to get them and keep jeopardizing their health, if that's what I'm doing.
Thanks.
Kevin
We give them 
I've had hens that just can't put a shell on for any reason. If you are providing a good layer feed and they still lay soft shells, it's either a genetic trait or something is not right internally. Some respond to Caltrate, however most of my birds with this issue eventually died from some reproductive trouble. Laying is stressful on their bodies and the slightest imperfection in the "pipes" can be fatal.
