laugh at me, then answer question

[cmitcham]

spring finally came and i wanted to replace the few girls i had lost in my first chicken year. i found a craig's list seller who advertised rir and br close to the same age as mine. when i got there, the daughter showed me the birds. although it was raining just a little, all i could do was stare at them speechless. when words finally came from my mouth, they were " why are they so torn up?" i mean these birds looked terrible. if my chickens have molted in their first year, they didn't look near this bad. but anyway, the daughter answered "they have been in the henhouse." after another speechless staring minute in the rain, she realized i still didn't understand, so she added "in the henhouse, there are three roosters for every hen to make sure they give fertile eggs." then it hit me why these girls were so torn up. i started to cry (on the inside), and wanted to buy all the hens i saw, just to rescue them. i only had room for 5, so took 3 rir and 2 br.

my 13 girls were laying great. the ee shut down completely for the winter, but the isas and rir kept up with what me and my wife needed, plus enough to sell to cover their food. this was with no artificial light. and as this spring sprang, production was up and we even got 1 egg per girl on maybe 1 out of four days. we always got at least 10-11 per day.

i knew from my learning here at byc that the move would cause stress and that i should expect some time before these new torn up birds started laying again. also i didn't know if they would be relieved with their move to the plush free-ranging life here, or if they would miss life in the henhouse (no roosters here). anyway, what i did not expect was that not only would they be stressed, but they would stress all the others too, and how long it would last. it's been over three weeks, and we are lucky to get 6 or 7 eggs a day from all 18. at first there was some integration pecking, but the pecking order seemed to be worked out within a few days. now they roost together just fine, they don't fight when cooped up together, or when the door to the run opens. mid-afternoon, the run opens and they free-range on over two acres until dark, and they all run together as one group when they see a person who might have a treat. but egg production is dismal.

what do you folks think? is three weeks not enough and things will get better? when???

thanks for any help.

 

[Fritatta]

never ceases to amaze me how ignorant people are. and they are teaching their children the same habits.

the new ones and existing flock are not picking on each other?

If they are integrating well, thats a huge plus. I think they would need more than 3 weeks. I had a wonderful layer who got attacked by a racoon and it took her 5 weeks to act normal. And i would think that being cramped with too many roos is worse than a single coon attack.

Im still amazed that you are not saying they are all pecking each other. They MUST be in chicken heaven!

 

[Ema]

Don't sweat it, it will return to normal soon enough, to the hens there must be an imbalance yet to be worked out, I got 21 girls and mine decided to punish me when I fell behind in shopping for their feed, and when I realized they were practically out I had no choice but to buy what ever layer food they had left which was some sort of eggmaker not their regular stuff, then a big snow storm hit and no shipments could get in, so they were on eggmaker for 3 weeks, so for a couple months after that I got about 10 or 11 out of 21 eggs and half of those were so small it was crazy. They finally came around and now its all back to normal you wouldn't know it by looking at them as they eat up everything they see, but boy oh boy can chickens be fussy sometimes!!!

Ema

 

[justtoni44]

HI,
How lucky for those hens to find someone with such a kind heart...........

I wonder where you are located...Could heat be a problem??????
Hope I misunderstood the one post.we are kind to each other here..
Otherwise I don't have a clue........
Good Luck,
Toni

 

[Fritatta]

hope you didnt mean my post. the ignorant people I mentioned where the ones who sold the chicks to cmitcham. she said the owners daughter said they keep 3 roos per hen. of course they were beat up.

and yes, cmitcham, what a wonderful thing you are doing to take those girls in.

 

[SunnyCalifornia]

No laughter... what a sad situation those hens were in! And honestly, the roosters too! How totally azz-backwards is that place? 3 roos to one hen? The roos can't be happy either! Hats off to you for rescuing those girls!

 

[mrs918]

Poor babies....glad you found them and not someone who would keep the"cycle" going!

 

[Tala]

Just wow. I have had 7-8 hens with a roo and the "favorites" are still beat up! Sheesh!

 

[DayKay]

I had the same thing here - introduced new hens, and EVERYONE stopped laying. It's been over a month, and I get one egg out of 15 hens, with one or two soft-shells discovered broken on the hen house floor.

Hopefully, it'll get better soon. I"m (gasp!) buying eggs at the store!

 

[sonew123]

While Im so happy you rescued the girls. I only wished you had qurantined those new girls off before introducing them to your flock If those birds looked as bad as you say that right there would have triggred a long quarantine process for them...I hope they didnt carry in any major diseases to your flocks...Next please...keep new chickens seperate (completely seperate) for 30+ days to mke sure it isnt just over breeeding -treat for lice/mites-watch for respiratory infections running noses- bubbly eyes-sneezing etc...treat symptoms when they appear. When and if they stopped any infections and such then introduce to your other healthy birds. I'm sure the addition of those new birds feaked your flock out-those girls had been caged and thats the life they knew-it will be a while before they adjust as well as your original girls 4-6 weeks or longer...I don't mean to sound so "doom and gloom" over this...I will just be very sad for you if you start you have illnesses and deaths popping up...good luck~