Im overwhelmed.. is all this normal?

[allameraucana]

Hi everyone.. I have 6 backyard hens that are almost 1 year old. They have been laying for 5 months or so. They have been so loud since they started laying. Some days are better than others but sometimes they will be so loud for hours on end, especially one of them. She is going on 6 hours of nonstop noise today. Will this ever resolve? I live in a suburban area and I honestly can't deal with the noise anymore either.

Also... I think my hens had worms based on their dirty eggs. I treated that and the eggs are clean again. But now I am sure I have a mite infestation... I treated them and the coop yesterday but I am nervous it won't be effective. I also have one hen who has laid 2 soft shelled eggs. I think I figured which one it was because it looks liked her vent was started to prolapse a tiny bit... but when I looked again later it seemed normal. So, now I think she might have a calcium deficiency.

It seems like all hell is breaking loose at once. I am starting to feel overwhelmed. Starting today I am restricting food to only layer pellets and oyster shells. This spring has not been fun... is this normal at all? Any tips? I love my little chooks .. I try to take care of them as best as I can. I thought I had great husbandry but I don't know anymore. I'm feeling pretty down over it all!

-treated worms with DE in the food
-treated coop for mites with Permethrin concentrate on everything, changed bedding.
-treated birds for mites with good dusting of permethrin poultry dust
-oyster shells are store bought
-food is 16% protein layer pellets from Nutrena
-also just put some chick saver vitamins in their water today

Is there anything else I should/can be doing??

 

[Kiki]

Unfortunately you wasted your time with DE because that will do absolutely nothing for worms.


Do you feed your birds any treats whatsoever?

 

[samanthaoverton]

I wouldn't use de in their food. Get an actual wormer. Look at there poo to see if there are worms in it.

 

[allameraucana]

Unfortunately you wasted your time with DE because that will do absolutely nothing for worms.


Do you feed your birds any treats whatsoever?

Well the eggs are clean now so it must have done something. I find people feel strongly either way about DE. Anyway yeah I feed them treats daily like 5 grain scratch, food scraps like tomato ends. But starting today I have restricted them to no treats thinking there may be a dietary imbalance

 

[Kiki]

Well the eggs are clean now so it must have done something. I find people feel strongly either way about DE. Anyway yeah I feed them treats daily like 5 grain scratch, food scraps like tomato ends. But starting today I have restricted them to no treats thinking there may be a dietary imbalance

It has nothing to do about how I feel about DE. It is actually impossible for DE to kill anything in a moist environment. Just simply does not work that way.

Your birds are not getting a balanced diet if you are feeding these things daily and if you are feeding these things in the amount of more than a tablespoon daily you are harming your birds more than you understand.

The layer feed is a balanced diet. Complete balanced diet.
Anytime you offer anything besides that layer feed you are taking away from the bird getting a balanced diet.

Not getting a balanced diet leads to serious irreversible problems.

I've got to hit the road but if you give me a couple of hours I will come back and show you pictures of what happens to birds that get fed and unbalanced diet.

 

[allameraucana]

It has nothing to do about how I feel about DE. It is actually impossible for DE to kill anything in a moist environment. Just simply does not work that way.

Your birds are not getting a balanced diet if you are feeding these things daily and if you are feeding these things in the amount of more than a tablespoon daily you are harming your birds more than you understand.

The layer feed is a balanced diet. Complete balanced diet.
Anytime you offer anything besides that layer feed you are taking away from the bird getting a balanced diet.

Not getting a balanced diet leads to serious irreversible problems.

I've got to hit the road but if you give me a couple of hours I will come back and show you pictures of what happens to birds that get fed and unbalanced diet.

Seriously? I don't need you to show me pictures or come back to this post. Thanks

 

[rjmyooper]

This is whagt I found; https://avianvets.org/deworming-chickens/

 

[samanthaoverton]

Do your girls look crowded in their coop? Do they have enough run space? Sometimes if they're crowded they will get noisy. They can get bored too just like humans.

 

[allameraucana]

Do your girls look crowded in their coop? Do they have enough run space? Sometimes if they're crowded they will get noisy. They can get bored too just like humans.

They have their coop, run, and a fenced off part of the yard to free range so they definitely have a lot of space and things to climb on, areas to dig and dust bathe.. so I'm not sure but good questions

 

[kcan2]

They have been so loud since they started laying. Some days are better than others but sometimes they will be so loud for hours on end, especially one of them

Sorry about all the trouble you're having. At one point, we had a feed/mite infestation and it felt like a marathon to get it resolved. I have found in regards to my chickens, all I can do is everything

One article I did find super helpful in better understanding the the laying process was this one by Shadrach:
The Egg song, it's not about the egg, it's an escort call