Inherited 34 chickens im property purchase - one death so far.

[Mamalana]

Hi y'all.
We bought a property that came with 34 chickens, all but 5 or 6 are laying hens. The coops are stinky and dirty. The laying boxes have been closed off and need to be cleaned. I don't know why the previous owner sealed off the boxes and has an upside down Tupperware bin with an entrance cut into is as the laying spot in both coops. There are just over 15 birds on each coop.

One of the laying hens died yesterday and I am not sure if what. She had a dirty backside. Black liquidy poop dried to her feathers and she had been separating herself from the flock. She was eating and moving around, albiet slowerbthan the rest. She was also still laying, as I found an egg in the spot she was hanging out in.

The previous owner left chunks of meat and bones in the coop and dead animals around that the chickens were eating. We also found buckets of corn, so I assume he was feeding that to them. They were all very hungry, so I bought pelleted layer feed and have been feeding it to them. All the birds not only came running up to my car when I pulled up, but the followed me every where until I fed them.

I have a very young flock all born this spring with the exeption of 4 grown hens that we brought from Minnesota to Tennessee. I am planning on keeping them separated for at least 2 weeks from the flocks on the new property. I want to make sure the flocks that came with the land are healthy before introducing the young ones in.

Aside from stabalizing them with healthy nutrition, adding electrolytes, cleaning the coops, adding diatemacious earth, and assessing the new birds, is there anything else I should do? There are 2 coops and the dead hen came from the one closest to the water source. The water source is a pipe that goes to a 55 gallon bucket that overflows onto the ground and runs down towards the creek.

I know its hard to know exactly why the hen died and I will need to gather more information. We haven't moved onsite yet and a neighbor is taking care of the chickens now (she has very little experience with them).

I am wondering what would be best to do with this situation and what info would be needed to get more clarity.

Thank you so much.

 

[FunClucks]

Hi y'all.
We bought a property that came with 34 chickens, all but 5 or 6 are laying hens. The coops are stinky and dirty. The laying boxes have been closed off and need to be cleaned. I don't know why the previous owner sealed off the boxes and has an upside down Tupperware bin with an entrance cut into is as the laying spot in both coops. There are just over 15 birds on each coop.

One of the laying hens died yesterday and I am not sure if what. She had a dirty backside. Black liquidy poop dried to her feathers and she had been separating herself from the flock. She was eating and moving around, albiet slowerbthan the rest. She was also still laying, as I found an egg in the spot she was hanging out in.

The previous owner left chunks of meat and bones in the coop and dead animals around that the chickens were eating. We also found buckets of corn, so I assume he was feeding that to them. They were all very hungry, so I bought pelleted layer feed and have been feeding it to them. All the birds not only came running up to my car when I pulled up, but the followed me every where until I fed them.

I have a very young flock all born this spring with the exeption of 4 grown hens that we brought from Minnesota to Tennessee. I am planning on keeping them separated for at least 2 weeks from the flocks on the new property. I want to make sure the flocks that came with the land are healthy before introducing the young ones in.

Aside from stabalizing them with healthy nutrition, adding electrolytes, cleaning the coops, adding diatemacious earth, and assessing the new birds, is there anything else I should do? There are 2 coops and the dead hen came from the one closest to the water source. The water source is a pipe that goes to a 55 gallon bucket that overflows onto the ground and runs down towards the creek.

I know its hard to know exactly why the hen died and I will need to gather more information. We haven't moved onsite yet and a neighbor is taking care of the chickens now (she has very little experience with them).

I am wondering what would be best to do with this situation and what info would be needed to get more clarity.

Thank you so much.

Wow! that's a lot you've taken on all at once! Wishing you all the luck with that!!!

If I were you, I'd quarantine your personal flock for at least a month, possibly longer, I think it will take that long at least to get the others healthy, and everything cleaned up.

Sounds like the 34 chickens have some significant issues - first thing I'd do is fecal floats, probably a couple because there's so many chickens. Any abnormal droppings I would get them tested. That way you'll know if you're dealing with worms, and if so what type, or protozoa, or giardia (waterbourne), coccidiosis, or who knows what. I would severely disinfect the watersupply, including all components, and supply clean fresh water you can change out often, as the chickens may reinfect the watersupply as they drink from it. I assume you plan to remove all animal carcases and bones and residue the best you can. Virkon S or Oxine are great cleaners to use when cleaning out the coops, I also like Elector PSP for mites and other pests - you can spray /soak the entire coop and the chickens I think with that stuff. NuStock if you have scaly leg mites. Permethrin dust on the actual chickens is preferred over DE on chickens or in a dust bath - DE won't do anything but irritate their airways - permethrin will actually kill lice, mites, etc. on contact, and is safe for humans to be around. But please, still wear a dust mask when applying and take a shower after!

I would seriously consider sending the hen that died off to get autopsied by a state lab (have to keep body refrigerated, and then on ice during shipment (not frozen)). If you disposed of her and have another one die, I'd send it off. They should be able to test for more than you will discover using a fecal float and let you know if there are any systemic or hidden flockwide diseases (Mareks, Lymphoid Leucosis, Mycoplasma galiseptum, mycoplasma synoviae (sp?), etc.). Some of those can be eliminated by eliminating the chickens, but others may persist in the environment indefinitely - IMO always best to know what you're dealing with.

All the luck!!!

 

[azygous]

 

[Mamalana]

Thank you so much for your advice @FunClucks.

I am curious about natural remidies. I am hesitant to use insecticides because I have bees.

 

[FunClucks]

Thank you so much for your advice @FunClucks.

I am curious about natural remidies. I am hesitant to use insecticides because I have bees.

Ah, that will make things more challenging. Unfortunately, many natural remedies folks tout for chickens don't actually work. Fortunately, most of the products I've recommended come in a spray or wet form (there's a permethrin spray also instead of a dust), so you'd mix them with water and apply with a hand sprayer, so the risk of drift is low if you pick a calm day, and you have targeted application area - coop and chickens, and possibly the run, which is a small amount of area when compared to the acres you have for the bees to range about it. Also, I think once they dry, most of those chemicals may no longer be present/active. They kill on contact while wet. I'd suggest looking up the active ingredients in the products I've recommended and how they work and on what insects to determine if bees may be negatively affected long term, and the extent of the impact.

After that, you can search on this site for natural remedies, I've been interested in those too, but you really have to dig to get first hand experience from folks that have had them actually work. What I've found is that most sound like great ideas, but have minimal if any impact on the issues they purport to treat. If I could find natural remedies that I knew would work I would totally use them, but I haven't found much.

I had hermit crabs for a number of years, and they are much like insects and birds in their response to pesticides and fumes. Because they have an exoskeleton, and anything that would interfere with a bug growing their exoskeleton would also interfere with and kill my hermit crabs, and any fuming vapor (Teflon, etc.) that might create an issue for birds would also hurt my crabs, so I had to be really careful when treating my house for bugs and cooking and such.

 

[Mamalana]

Thank you for your advice. I understand, it is a a waste of time and moeny to buy and apply something that doesn't work.

I will look into the ingredients and their effect on bees. I get protective of the bees because they have been hit hard with the veroma mites and colony calapse. I am grateful to be able to support these new chickens better then they were cared for before.

 

[FunClucks]

Thank you for your advice. I understand, it is a a waste of time and moeny to buy and apply something that doesn't work.

I will look into the ingredients and their effect on bees. I get protective of the bees because they have been hit hard with the veroma mites and colony calapse. I am grateful to be able to support these new chickens better then they were cared for before.

I totally get it about the bees. I worry about them myself.

Based on what you've shared, I think almost anything you do for the chickens would be an improvement. So glad you're able to help these chickens! Wishing you the best of luck figuring things out!!!