Hi!

[Mjfchickens05]

Hello everyone I am new to having chickens so I am so glad there is a website like this because I have no clue what I am doing lol. But I have 5 golden comets I figured I would start small but want lots more if I can just get the hang of it. My pretty little ladys are about 14 weeks old I have had them about a month now and they are still not laying normal. I have never gotten 5 eggs before and some days I get no eggs just not sure what I am doing g wrong. Some eggs are really thin and cracked before I even get to them, so I have been trying oyster shells which they show no interest in them. I just put it in a dish in there run. I also feed them layer pellets and scratch corn in the evenings. I am also learning so far they love watermelon and tomatoes. And also one of my little ladys seems sick she was one of my bigger hens, she seems tired all the time. She will fall asleep standing and just not her normal self anymore she is not eating or drinking like she use to but not losing any weight she is still one of the bigger hens. She also seems like she has a big lump that has formed on her leg not sure if it is normal and I just some how over looked it when we got her. Thanks on any feedback I might be able to get because I am so lost.

 

[Mjfchickens05]

Not leg I meant she has a lump on her throat sorry about that I must have been typing and thinking at the same time lol.

 

[Trux]

If those girls are laying eggs they have to be older than 14 weeks, maybe more like 20 to 24 weeks. They are just getting started, so give them time. When mine started laying, I started to give them wet food. All it is, is the normal chicken feed soaked in water and I added some scratch grains to it. They gobble that stuff right up and my egg production went up quite a bit.
With 5 hens you can expect 2-3 eggs a day and some days you may get 4-5 but for the most part 2-3. Takes a hen roughly 30 hours to produce an egg.
You also need to read up on what you can and can not give your girls as far as scraps...watermelon is good but anything in the nightshade family is a no no so I would skip the tomatoes. Lettuces kale cabbage mustard greens things of that nature are great. You can also sprout wheat and give it to them, takes like 7 days and you can have several trays going so you can give it to them everyday or however you want to. As for the lump on her throat post a picture so we can see it please. AND BTW

 

[Mjfchickens05]

Thank you for the advice. I will post a pic of it when I get home later today. I did read up on what kind of stuff to give chickens to eat. I read on there that they can have tomatoes just not the plants, that the leaves where toxic to them I had no clue they could not get just the tomatoes. Good to know I hope I did not poison her then. I am so glade I found this site.

 

[Mjfchickens05]

This is what I am taking about see how big her neck is? Is that normal? And she is acting a little better today, she came running to the gate when I opened it and did eat a little bit. I dont know if I am just being paranoid but as you can see she is standing up sleeping in the pic.

 

[Peppercorngal]

Looks like she may have a sour or impacted crop. Chickens will act sick, listless and won't move around or eat. They just stand and sleep. Pick her up and feel the lump. If it feels soft and full of water it could be sour crop. If it's hard it could be impacted with grass or other things she ate. With either one you need to massage the crop. With impacted crop plenty of water is needed, but no food. With sour crop massage and hopefully she will "throw up" the rotting food in the crop. Good luck at least with a diagnosis.

 

[Mjfchickens05]

I picked her up and felt it. It feels really hard like a bone. So I can just keep massaging it and it should go down? She was eating and drinking so I should keep her from eating just let her drink water?

 

[Peppercorngal]

Usually a chicken with a impacted crop does not eat. A normal crop should be firm but pliable, it would feel sort of like a bean bag with rice in it. An impacted crop is hard like a rock because it's grass and food that is all stuck together and blocking the chickens food from reaching the gizzard, which is the part where it's ground up. What do you mean it feels like a bone? In any situation you should be feeling something more like a pouch. it's located on the front (usually right side) of the chicken in front of the breast. If it feels like a bone, you may be feeling the breast bone! How is she acting now? Still eating and drinking?

 

[aart]

Is that pic reversed?
Crop is on their right side.

Cut back to only the layer feed and clean fresh plain water for a few weeks.

 

[Peppercorngal]

It could be something other than the crop. Maybe it's a tumor in the neck????