Ideal Poultry Langshans - Show Me Your Eggs!

[HiEverybirdy]

It's been quite a week in chickenland. Monday morning, Frida Bakawlo wouldn't come off the roost. It was the first morning under freezing, so I wasn't concerned at first, until an hour later when she was still there, eyes closed, hunched up over a splat of yellow diarrhea.

I picked her off the roost to check her over. Swore I felt an egg, but just then, she woke up and flapped off to pretend to eat something. After pretending to eat, she went into the yard and pretended to be normal...for 1 minute. Then she closed her eyes and stood still.

Long story short, there was no egg, and it turns out bright yellow poop is a bad sign even if it's not yolk from an egg broken inside a chicken. Long story long, it took a while for me to confirm there was no egg, since I'm a noob and not very familiar with chicken anatomy. By that time, she'd had a couple nice epsom soaks, a quiet day in the warm house and wasn't better, so I decided to take poop to a vet to see if they could find anything remarkable.

They did: roundworms again. The flock was wormed 3 months ago for the same type. I never thought the worms would come back this badly so soon. Furthermore, it was shocking how everyone was normal one day, and the next, Frida was at death's door. My theory is worms built up in her intestine to the point where they may have blocked it, and her digestive system was shutting down.

Her crop did seem to be emptying slowly, and she wasn't pooping a lot of solids that first day, which may have indicated some kind of blockage and/or that she had been pretending to eat for longer than I realized. Though her weight and keel bone felt normal, and I believe she was laying regularly in the past week. So it probably hadn't been too long. The situation may have simply been brought to a head by the stress of sudden freezing temperatures.

Interestingly, her comb has stayed its regular deep pink throughout, but for about 24 hours, her tail was wayyy down and she was hunched up, eyes closed, not interested in much of anything. Monday night, when I got home from the vet, the sun had set, but I flipped on a light and started her on Panacur water immediately per the vet's instructions. Luckily, that's one of the only moments that day she decided she was thirsty. Tuesday morning, I started the rest of the flock on it, bummed to do that to them while 2 are definitely molting, but it's better than letting the worms catch up to anyone else. Meanwhile, Frida was already slightly better.

By Tuesday night, her eyes were open for longer periods of time. By Wednesday morning, she was more interested in food and her poops were solid again. I brought her out to see the flock through the fence each afternoon and get a little sun: 5 minutes Tuesday, 10 minutes Wednesday. Today, she was able to hang out with the flock and forage for over an hour. Her tail was high as could be, and she kept purring as they walked around, the way the flock always used to purr when they would nap together in the brooder. I don't know exactly what the purring means but it sounds happy. She seemed elated to spend time with the flock.

She looked so good I thought about letting her stay outside tonight but don't trust it yet. I want to see her eat more, and while her poops are solid, the urates are still suspiciously yellow. I hope we caught this in time for her to make a full recovery. Back to the warm study she went, and after eating and drinking a little more, she took a long nap.

Certainly a cautionary tale about worms, though I'm not exactly sure how to move forward. Do I worm every 2 months so this hopefully doesn't happen again, filling the birds with harsh chemicals and throwing away hundreds of eggs a year during egg-withdrawal periods? Do they grow more resilient against worms as they age? I'm reading a lot of conflicting info. I'm actually happy to rotate their ground in the future, but we live in the woods, and I think parasites are just a part of life here.

Not totally looking for answers right now but this post has become kind of a Black Langshan journal so thought I'd update it. For now, Frida's still with us, in the role of house chicken and coworker (she lives in my study) until she has bounced firmly back to her old, beat-of-her-own-drum chicken self.

Here's a picture of Frida enjoying a warm epsom foot bath. She liked these so much I did them even after I knew she wasn't eggbound. Seemed to raise her spirits.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Frida has been back with the flock for 2 weeks. The flock had their 2nd dose of Panacur a little over a week ago. Everybirdy has been looking and acting fine. Here's Frida sharing pumpkin with head hen Brahma Donna.

Frida's urates were yellow for 2 full weeks: nearly neon at first, fading to pastel before she moved back outside. Even now, there's a pale tint in the right light. I was thinking yellow urates indicated an infection from when she was fighting the worst of the roundworms but haven't tried treating her for that: it seems like her immune system is doing its job. She's active, social, has clear eyes & nose and a nice pink comb, enjoys food, and is shiny and heavy.

She is still taking occasional standing naps However, naps have always been Frida's MO, even back in the brooder. Maybe she has genetic issues (she also only has 1 wattle). That could've made her more susceptible to the combo of worms and freezing weather. She has a lot of new feathers coming in as well, which could be taxing her system.

Egg-wise, the Easter Eggers all started laying within the last 5 weeks and are carrying the weight of all these "winter layers," laying nearly every day. Pinkie the Langshan started laying 6 weeks ago and lays 3-4x a week. Brahmas Peep and Donna have slowed to 2-3 a week, while Frida and the molting Langshan BeBe and Brahma Eula haven't laid since October.

The slow-down is probably why nobody has laid from the roost in weeks. I'll have to watch out for Pinkie, though, as she laid the 2nd ever "oops!" egg in the yard yesterday. She definitely prioritizes being sociable over sitting on the nest.

Lastly, for the past few weeks, Frida and BeBe have been roosting in the little coop with the Easter Eggers and their cockerel. In fact, by the end of last week, all the birds were rotating roosting in the tractor semi-regularly, which is baffling. It got crowded in there! Recently I moved the tractor to new ground, and Pinkie and all the Brahmas moved back to the big coop

 

[jessieclark]

Thank you so much. That's such a kind compliment! I'm the same about egg photos and appreciate you taking the time to share those!

That's funny yours hang out in the corner near the kids The Brahmas are our most social butterflies. The Langshans are friendly but more likely to hang back...until the treats come out. They do love food.

The Brahmas ask to be picked up. I love that. The Easter Egger pullets fly onto my shoulder uninvited, ugh. They're 3 months younger than the Brahmas and Langshans and will always be smaller, so I think they're trying to level the field. The Langshans, however, wait until I sit on a chair. Then they might like to nap on my lap if I'll sit a spell. That's their speed.

So, your Langshans are talkative? Where are yours from? I've heard some are loud, but ours are nearly silent unless someone's hogging their favorite nest box or startles them while they're trying to lay. Then they launch into impossibly loud bakaws until the #1 cockerel runs up to shepherd off whoever isn't laying yet.

Speaking of which, Pinkie was finally in a nest box earlier! She's the Langshan I hadn't seen lay yet. The #1 cockerel wasn't around, so I sat at the edge of the coop and waited. (I don't interfere if he's keeping them company while they lay--he takes that so seriously). This was my chance to confirm whether Pinkie's indeed laying now, at 32 weeks.

Of course, as I sat there, our tiny herd of EEs rumbled over and jumped on my lap. Startled, Pinkie launched into those impossibly loud bakaws. #1 cockerel came stomping up to deal with it. Pinkie jumped up to tell him about it, and as they toddled off together, dashing my hopes of confirming her egg laying, bloop! Out popped an egg on the ground.

The cockerel stopped to look at it. When I quickly picked up the egg, he followed Pinkie back across the yard where they got back to foraging together like nothing happened.

But something is different: Pinkie is right next to cockerel #1 every time I look out there. Months ago, that was normal. She was right in the middle of the pecking order and very sociable. But as the last of the 32-weekers to lay, she's practically been in exile lately. Weeks ago, I was sitting with them when a rainstorm started, and all the chickens ran under the covered runs except Pinkie, who huddled under a sapling. When the rain got really hard, I scooped her up and set her in the back of the coop, where she stood by the door and watched the rain.

She never seemed afraid to be with the others; she just didn't fit in for a while. As of this afternoon, she's herself again. I gave them scratch with extra raisins and sunflower seeds in celebration of her first egg, and she was right there next to the cockerel eating treats, proud as can be.

So, that's 6 pullets laying in our flock so far, with the 3 Ideal Black Langshans laying at 24, 26, and 32 weeks.

This event put to rest another mystery, more or less: Pinkie's egg was so little it was very possibly her first, so she probably isn't the phantom roost layer.

Another clue? The phantom roost layer laid a big, perfect roost egg just this morning in the spot Frida Bakawlo has taken to sleeping in, directly to the left of the cockerel. This means a pullet who has been laying for 6 weeks is still laying eggs off the roost. Really!?

Frida's always been a "beat of her own drum" bird, and she's laid dozens of eggs in the nesting box, but hopefully she'll start batting a thousand soon.

Long post, but it was a big day in the world of our flock Here are pictures of Pinkie as an exile in the late summer wildflowers, Pinkie in the nest box, and Pinkie's first confirmed egg. No real bloom on it, but I wouldn't expect it yet. We'll see what she lays in the next few weeks.

View attachment 2362949View attachment 2362950,View attachment 2362951

I love her feather color and the pink egg color! Where did you source your pink-egg-laying langshan from? Everywhere I see them - they are straight run and pink blooms are not a promise.

 

[Finnie]

The value of the Langshan comes from their productivity and hardiness.

My first two black Langshans (from a show breeder) would have been 9 years old this spring. They died over the winter. Pretty pleased with that age.

I also had two that died who would have been 7. Those ones descended from chicks I got from MMcM. First time in 9 years that I have no Langshans. I’ve had a lot of different breeds of chickens, and a few I really love. But whenever anyone asks me what my favorite is, I always answer Langshans without any hesitation.

 

[Finnie]

They really do make an impact. I’m down to my last 3 ( a Splash Male and two Black Hens) After some predator losses I shipped the remaining breeders I had to a friend until I can afford to make a large enough covered run (go figure after 28 years ranging during the day and no predator losses finally the biggest red tail I’ve ever seen started picking them off).

That trio is about 9 so doubt I’ll even get eggs, but did last year so who knows and even then if male is fertile! If not this will be the first year in 30 I don’t set any Langshan eggs. Not gonna lie, a little sad about it.

Someday I hope to work with White Langshans again too, every line I’ve found is very prone to ocular Merek’s aka grey eye. Some people vaccinate to avoid it, but I don’t vaccinate. Might have to break down and try some hatchery ones and see if I can work them up to snuff. I think the only hatchery left that has them is McMurray though.

I ordered both black and white chicks from Murray McMurray to arrive in April.

 

[Finnie]

I'd be very curious to see your whites as they mature. Normally hatchery stock is very subpar, but...Murray McMurray does have 5 APA certified flocks with the White Langshans being one of them. (Others are Buff, Partridge and Silver Pencilled Plymouth Rocks and White Polish if I recall correctly.)

I can try to make a point to post photos of them here from time to time.