- May 23, 2013
- 6
- 0
- 9
I am, as you'll see by my description here, a total newbie. My main concern here is egg production, as the chickens look healthy and active regardless of what may have hit them.
I'm trying to figure out if our chickens had a run of IB. I've read the threads, and I've researched online, but IF my chickens do have IB, it's so subtle I can't figure it out. The timeline doesn't help, as you'll see, because I made so many mistakes, that it's hard to know WHAT could be interfering with their laying.
Timeline:
Three weeks ago: Brought home 7 new hens from a local seller. Did not quarantine. (I know... BIG mistake. I didn't know enough. I'll never do that again, if just to avoid this worry. ) At the time, all I had was two adult roosters and seven 3 month old chickens, so ALL of the laying hens came from the same place at the same time, but still-- if they had IB from the previous owner's flock and brought it to my babies... well.. that sucks.
For the first week, the 7 adult hens were giving us 5-6 eggs a day.
Two weeks ago: Dog got in the chicken pen and killed one of our roosters, and one of our laying hens died at the same time, though she looked un harmed. Maybe heart attack? We caught her pretty quickly, so all the other chickens had just taken cover under or in a henhouse and escaped unharmed.
Around the same time: One of our young chickens was breathing heavy one night, and then was dead the next morning. It was very sudden. After that, about half the flock was showing signs of being sick. They all acted pretty normal, but were sneezy and some were wheezy. Only two really showed the wheezing badly-- one young one, and one laying hen.
**Egg production suddenly dropped from 5-6 a day, to 2-3 a day.
I treated the entire flock with tetracyclin in their water for the 6 days (threw out all eggs for two weeks from the start of treatment time), and all of the chickens seemed fine. within a few days.
So I'm naturally concerned that perhaps what went through my flock was IB. We have NOT had the classic funky wrinkled/lumpy egg. Occasionally one of the eggs will look like it has a faint wrinkle in the shell. Is that normal? They are all a normal shape, though occasionally they'll vary and look like a torpedo, or may be significantly smaller than the rest. But for the most part, the eggs that I DO get look pretty normal.
My laying hens (6 of them) are all around a year old, give or take 2-3 months, so I know weird things can happen with their laying patterns.
Since I'm so new at this, I can't tell what's normal.
Other things I've noticed:
--Laying hens are missing/have broken feathers on their lower back, and some at the base of their wings. Originally I thought they were molting at a weird time, but I realized it's probably my big ol' roo. The babies are not missing any feathers, so I'm thinking I can safely assume the feather loss and egg production drop isn't due to any sort of pest, or the babies and rooster would be missing feathers too, correct?
--Two of the hens are very anti-social. They roam the yard and peck around albeit on their own, but whereas all of the hens and rooster and babies all hole up at night in the large henhouse, my laced wyandotte and white leghorn each go by themselves in the other two small henhouses and roost for the night. I think my leghorn is one that's not laying, because I see no white eggs lately. My wyandotte has lots of the broken/missing feather evidence, but my leghorn seems to have NONE of it. Her feathers look pristine. (Is that weird, considering I've got a big, active rooster?) The last egg I remember her laying was a shell-less egg. that is the only shell-less or even soft-shelled egg I've seen so far.
--Lastly, this morning I noticed that though they all are breathing fine, there is still the occasional sneeze, and I see evidence of nasal secretions on quite a few of them. HOWEVER, I did just replace all the bedding in the coop the other day (pine), and it kicks up some pretty good dust when I clean out and refresh the coop bedding. AND, it's been very rainy for the past two-three weeks. The chickens have had a heat lamp through it all, though, if that matters...
Anyone experienced enough to know if this sounds like IB hit my flock? I don't want to sacrifice one of my chickens for testing, unless it's likely that's what is going on.
I'm trying to figure out if our chickens had a run of IB. I've read the threads, and I've researched online, but IF my chickens do have IB, it's so subtle I can't figure it out. The timeline doesn't help, as you'll see, because I made so many mistakes, that it's hard to know WHAT could be interfering with their laying.
Timeline:
Three weeks ago: Brought home 7 new hens from a local seller. Did not quarantine. (I know... BIG mistake. I didn't know enough. I'll never do that again, if just to avoid this worry. ) At the time, all I had was two adult roosters and seven 3 month old chickens, so ALL of the laying hens came from the same place at the same time, but still-- if they had IB from the previous owner's flock and brought it to my babies... well.. that sucks.
For the first week, the 7 adult hens were giving us 5-6 eggs a day.
Two weeks ago: Dog got in the chicken pen and killed one of our roosters, and one of our laying hens died at the same time, though she looked un harmed. Maybe heart attack? We caught her pretty quickly, so all the other chickens had just taken cover under or in a henhouse and escaped unharmed.
Around the same time: One of our young chickens was breathing heavy one night, and then was dead the next morning. It was very sudden. After that, about half the flock was showing signs of being sick. They all acted pretty normal, but were sneezy and some were wheezy. Only two really showed the wheezing badly-- one young one, and one laying hen.
**Egg production suddenly dropped from 5-6 a day, to 2-3 a day.
I treated the entire flock with tetracyclin in their water for the 6 days (threw out all eggs for two weeks from the start of treatment time), and all of the chickens seemed fine. within a few days.
So I'm naturally concerned that perhaps what went through my flock was IB. We have NOT had the classic funky wrinkled/lumpy egg. Occasionally one of the eggs will look like it has a faint wrinkle in the shell. Is that normal? They are all a normal shape, though occasionally they'll vary and look like a torpedo, or may be significantly smaller than the rest. But for the most part, the eggs that I DO get look pretty normal.
My laying hens (6 of them) are all around a year old, give or take 2-3 months, so I know weird things can happen with their laying patterns.
Since I'm so new at this, I can't tell what's normal.
Other things I've noticed:
--Laying hens are missing/have broken feathers on their lower back, and some at the base of their wings. Originally I thought they were molting at a weird time, but I realized it's probably my big ol' roo. The babies are not missing any feathers, so I'm thinking I can safely assume the feather loss and egg production drop isn't due to any sort of pest, or the babies and rooster would be missing feathers too, correct?
--Two of the hens are very anti-social. They roam the yard and peck around albeit on their own, but whereas all of the hens and rooster and babies all hole up at night in the large henhouse, my laced wyandotte and white leghorn each go by themselves in the other two small henhouses and roost for the night. I think my leghorn is one that's not laying, because I see no white eggs lately. My wyandotte has lots of the broken/missing feather evidence, but my leghorn seems to have NONE of it. Her feathers look pristine. (Is that weird, considering I've got a big, active rooster?) The last egg I remember her laying was a shell-less egg. that is the only shell-less or even soft-shelled egg I've seen so far.
--Lastly, this morning I noticed that though they all are breathing fine, there is still the occasional sneeze, and I see evidence of nasal secretions on quite a few of them. HOWEVER, I did just replace all the bedding in the coop the other day (pine), and it kicks up some pretty good dust when I clean out and refresh the coop bedding. AND, it's been very rainy for the past two-three weeks. The chickens have had a heat lamp through it all, though, if that matters...
Anyone experienced enough to know if this sounds like IB hit my flock? I don't want to sacrifice one of my chickens for testing, unless it's likely that's what is going on.
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