I'm Gonna Cry! (long discription)

[Chickaroo!]

My girls are layers. The man I got them from guessed they were about 1yr. when I got them. So, I got the layer feed, placed crushed oyster/granite in a seperate bowl and gave them fresh water w/1 tbs. of ACV. I guess I'll only worm them if I see worms in their poo? They all seem happy and are eating as usual.

And I don't think anyone was "biting my head off". I know you just wanted to get your point accross and I truly appreciate the advice!

Actually, feel free to pass on anymore knowledge you may have...I'll take it!

Now, maybe I'll be on the right track...FINALLY!!

Thank you a million times over for all the help. I'll keep everyone posted.

 

[dbjay417]

i dont think I'll ever buy grown birds from some one again. Mine luckily are in good health, but I'd hate to inherit a problem like the one you've got.

 

[Chickaroo!]

I agree with you dbjay. While I am glad to have my girls, I think I may try out either hatching chicks or buying chicks next time. Although, that too scares me because I'd be afraid I'd do something wrong and they wouldn't survive.

 

[SpottedCrow]

I've raised chicks from 3 day olds.
I prefer older birds...just for the reason that you said...I wouldn't want to screw up the little tidbits...
Slifer and Obelisk were both a few months old when they got here and Penny was about 9 months old when she came.
A lot of it is how the birds were raised.
Penny came from a chicken show and Slifer and Obelisk came from a local farm.

 

[LoneCowboy]

I think you are on the right track. You have the most important thing when it comes to chickens, and that is that you care enough to take care of them the best way you know how. That's the first step. You'll do fine if you go with that and then ask those on here when you have a question and read other's posts. You'll learn a lot form just reading.

Good luck and I hope they all do well.

 

[chicknmania]

If I can throw in my opinion, I think once a month for deworming is really too much. What kind of dewormer shot did the vet give them? Was it broad spectrum or just for roundworms? We deworm ours twice a year (every six months) with a broad spectrum dewormer. Ours are free range so we can pretty much count on them picking some kind of parasite up. We hate having to wait to eat eggs after deworming them, but, keeping them parasite free is very important. We also sometimes give ours DE to dust in or eat, if they want...they don't seem to like it very much though.

 

[Chickaroo!]

To be honest, I'm not really sure what kind of wormer shot the vet gave them.
But, so far all the girls seem very happy. I went out to their coop several times today and only saw about 2 or 3 very small drops of diarrhea

I'm going to work on building them a portable coop too so that I can move them around the yard sometimes. Just to give them a variety.

I'm soooo happy that everyone has been so kind in giving so much advice....THANK YOU!

 

[silkiechicken]

Chickens should have a few dropping every day that look like melted chocolate or stinky brown slime. That is their cecal poo and it's normal. Just FYI.

 

[Chickaroo!]

Thanks SilkieChicken! This morning when I let the girls out of the coop, I did see a few droppings on the ground in their run that did look like melted chocolate. They were pretty dark in color though. Is that normal (the color)?

 

[SpottedCrow]

They can be...some birds, like my Slifer, would seem to do more Splort, the wet stuff than the regular Ploop, but that was just her...the more that you hang out with your birds, the more you'll see what their normal droppings are like.