INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Soon2BChixMom]

The crop of one of my young pullets doesn’t digest overnight. She is acting 100% normal-eating, drinking & socializing just fine. But every morning, fresh from the coop, her crop is full. Is this something that will turn into a problem if not addressed? Or as long as she is acting alright I should just let her be?

From what I’ve read their crop should be empty in the morning. Is she eating feed at night? I would post in the forum that deals with medical issues - your more likely to get great advice that way.

 

[JanetMarie]

The crop of one of my young pullets doesn’t digest overnight. She is acting 100% normal-eating, drinking & socializing just fine. But every morning, fresh from the coop, her crop is full. Is this something that will turn into a problem if not addressed? Or as long as she is acting alright I should just let her be?

It will be a big problem if you do nothing. She has an impacted crop, and she will continue to eat and drink normally until she can hold no more food, and starts starving from food not being able to move from the crop at all.

Her crop needs massaging a few times a day until it empties on it's own. If her crop is stretched you can wrap an elastic bandage around her to support the crop, and help the food to empty on it's own.

In my past experience I massaged my pet rooster's crop every few hours. His crop was stretched, and after a month or so of wearing the bandage his crop shrank back and worked normal.

Some chickens have a defect of a pendulous crop that will need support throughout their lifetime.

 

[JanetMarie]

egg laying & molting?

I have 2-3 birds that I believe are still lightly molting - but I think they're also occasionally laying. Is this possible?

Bird 1 = 2.5 yr old Dominique. She took about 4-5 weeks off & still has some head feathers growing in. I keep seeing her in the nest box & sometimes find eggs after she hops out. Eggs look similar to hers, but I can't be 100% sure. (I could have a sneaky new layer.)

Bird 2 = Spring pullet / orpington. She finished being broody (chicks are 10+ weeks) & laid a few eggs but she also has new head feathers coming in. Eggs look like hers.

Bird 3 = 5 yr old mix This bird had a hard molt mid Sept , all Oct, and then laid 3 eggs one week in Nov. No eggs for the past 12 days. I didn't expect anything from her until Feb. I am sure those 3 eggs were hers due to color, shape, & giant size.

I have had someone lay while molting, but it was only one time.

 

[JanetMarie]

I have a rope of Xmas LED lights in coop & run. They go on at 3am-8am. Goal was to try to give 14 hrs of light. I'm getting some eggs but not as many as I thought I would. It may be the wrong kind of light. Only 2-4 eggs per day from 20 birds. (And those 3 that I mentioned, I didn't think would even be laying!)

I'm not convinced that extended light prompts laying. I haven't been using artificial light, and still getting eggs.

Out of 16 grown birds, minus some that are molting, yesterday I collected six eggs.

I think a lot has to do with how warm they are. Most of mine are in an area where they have a short walk to the green house, where they take a dirt bath, and warm up. I think it also lifts their spirits.

 

[hbrown322]

I brought her inside this morning, gave her water but no food.
I gave her a bit of vegetable oil & massaged her crop this morning. I’ll do the same when I get home from work & again before bed. I’ll continue this until it seems better!
How do I know if the crop is stretched?

It will be a big problem if you do nothing. She has an impacted crop, and she will continue to eat and drink normally until she can hold no more food, and starts starving from food not being able to move from the crop at all.

Her crop needs massaging a few times a day until it empties on it's own. If her crop is stretched you can wrap an elastic bandage around her to support the crop, and help the food to empty on it's own.

In my past experience I massaged my pet rooster's crop every few hours. His crop was stretched, and after a month or so of wearing the bandage his crop shrank back and worked normal.

Some chickens have a defect of a pendulous crop that will need support throughout their lifetime.

 

[JanetMarie]

I brought her inside this morning, gave her water but no food.
I gave her a bit of vegetable oil & massaged her crop this morning. I’ll do the same when I get home from work & again before bed. I’ll continue this until it seems better!
How do I know if the crop is stretched?

From my experience, my young rooster would try to drink, and water would not go down his throat, and his crop seemed very large. I don't know of any for sure way to know other than observation. It took awhile to figure out it was stretched, and putting the elastic bandage on helped tremendously.

His crop was impacted for a while and stuffed overfull before I discovered what was wrong (it was fairly early in chicken keeping). If you found the problem early and your hen hasn't stuffed her crop it may not be stretched.

 

[Faraday40]

From my experience, my young rooster would try to drink, and water would not go down his throat, and his crop seemed very large. I don't know of any for sure way to know other than observation. It took awhile to figure out it was stretched, and putting the elastic bandage on helped tremendously.

His crop was impacted for a while and stuffed overfull before I discovered what was wrong (it was fairly early in chicken keeping). If you found the problem early and your hen hasn't stuffed her crop it may not be stretched.

Interesting.

Do you have a pic of how he looked when bandaged? Did you use vet wrap or something else?

 

[Indyshent]

Could really use some prayers. Whatever this undiagnosed condition is seems to have gotten worse again with the onset of more stress and cold weather. Physician forwarded me to yet another neurologist (last one was a dud) but this one won't see me until May. Seriously. I'm having episodes where I can't move, talk, or breathe well--if at all. Haven't stopped breathing for more than a few seconds at a time yet, but it's still scary, and I'm speaking strangely more often than not lately. Nobody has a clue why, but certain sounds, flashing lights, exercising, and weather pattern changes all make it worse. Endocrinologist appointment isn't til late January (made that one at the beginning of the school year), so hopefully we'll get some answers and maybe get my blood pressure under control.

The good news is that I've so far got pretty solid A's in all of my classes, but I've had immense difficulty in concentration while studying. I can't seem to concentrate or remember anything, but at least I've got a buffer because of earlier good scores.

Also good news, puppy hasn't killed any more birds. The game cock that visits has gotten a lot closer, but he seems a wussy game bird because Optimus Prime barely looks at him when they're on the same side of the fence, and that little guy goes running! Really funny to me. He has a tall, floppy pea comb, so I wonder if he's an EE cross. He's not a bantam, but he is little (and cute).

Wun Two is crowing all the time lately, and he, Optimus and this interloper regularly have crow offs with all the other guys in the neighborhood. I think Horns occasionally crows, but I'm not sure about Jazz (tentative name for Optimus Jr). One of the "mostly Marans" pullets is getting some serious size and fluff on her. Looks so much like her mom now.

Working on taming my pair of Silkies. They're such cute, quiet, submissive birds.

 

[Faraday40]

Oh My!!! What should have been a great day turned out terrible.

and more


We just discovered (moments after it happened) that a hawk killed DD's black silkie, Gilfie! The body was ripped apart & still warm. We're all pretty devastated. DH wasn't home yet, so I asked a neighbor to come over to help me with the burial. Out of all our chickens, why Gilfie!?!


Both kids cried a lot of course. This chicken was more like a pet dog than livestock. DD hatched & cared for this bird. It bonded to her as mama and followed DD everywhere. The chicken spent more time in the house than in the yard and was extremely fond of road trips. Gilfie went with DD to several schools, parks, special events, and was well known throughout the town. (In fact, at Easter the line to pet the famous Gilfie was longer than the Easter Bunny's line!)

I always joked about Gilfie being one of our "useless chickens" but I find myself still crying and in shock. Just an hour before she was killed, she was gently & persistently pecking on my ankle which was her way of asking to be picked up. (A bad but endearing habit of our spoiled chicken.)

RIP, sweet Gilfie.

Taken Wednesday:
(An especially sad photo because this was also the exact spot where she was killed today.)

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

@Indyshent prayers for healing and answers. Kudos for the grades!

@Faraday40 Awe. Sorry for the loss.
I saw a hawk last night fly away when I went to go lock my girls in. It must be on patrol.
How is your set up? I’m thinking of adding some aviary netting to the top of the run to keep the sky predators at bay. I haven’t let them out in the open run unless I am out there. So, they only get their secure run when I’m not; which is adequate space wise, but I would like to give them a bit more freedom.