Alechia
In the Brooder
- Mar 20, 2026
- 2
- 10
- 22
Full disclosure: Long story
We have 10 hens of 8 breeds and they live in a Carolina Coop (not important, but LOVE that coop).
We started out with 3 chickens. They all started laying and were doing fine. The Silver Laced Polish was always a weird chicken, not food motivated at all and stands around like she has not a brain cell in her head. The kids started to tell me that she stinks and that her eggs smelled/tasted like sulfur. So I gave her a bath, cut her feathers around her eyes and she still smelled bad.
The "Goggle" found me an article that had information that some chickens do not process soybean meal very well and can end up with sulfur smelling eggs and bad smelling skin. (For the life of me I can not find that article again, so sorry I did not reference it). So we switched to Scratch Peck and Feed grower mash. I fermented it and gave them oyster shells to supplement for the calcium. Chickens loved it, Polish chicken smelled great and eggs tasted great. Life was good. Polish chicken still weird.
Then I wanted some colored laying hens. So we got 3 more chickens. Life was good. Now with 6 chickens.
Still wanted more colored eggs, so I mail ordered 4 chicks. 3 died in the transition and I was left with just 1 chick. So I went to Wilco and bought 3 more chicks.... so the mail order chick would not be lonely.
So that brings us up to 10 chickens. I fed them fermented Scratch and Peck mash everyday and they love it.
Everyone was laying eggs at first. Then my Polish hen (only 2 years old) stopped laying eggs. No big deal. She is weird, had small eggs and had started walking backwards after the addition of the last 4 chickens.
When the Polish hen would come out of the coop, she would walk forward for a bit, stop, put her head down and then walk backwards. She would then stop, stand up and go about her weird Polish chicken ways. No big deal. (Sorry no photos)
Then when the youngest chickens were about 9 months old, one of them stopped laying and started walking backwards too. I thought it was a behavior of the bottom of the pecking order (both were the bottom of the pecking order) and so I looked at the "Google" for pecking order behavior (assuming that is what all bottom dwellers did). NOPE. All the information I could find said it was a deficiency in Selenium/Vitamin E.
I tried to feed the backwards walkers scrambled eggs and tuna. Nope. They were not food motivated and would not touch them. So then I started giving them Selenium/Vitamin E pills 3 times a week for 4 weeks.
In the next four weeks, I ended up with 5 chickens walking backwards! They were all the bottom of the pecking order. By this time I was pretty sick of feeding chickens pills (since I had to do it in the dark before work) and came up with this working theory:
Maybe the lower pecking order chickens are getting the leftovers that higher pecking order chickens did not want. Although I love fermenting chicken feed (and it does save me money), the chickens can be just like a 5 year old.....picking out the marshmallows from Lucky Charms.
So...... I switched to Scratch and Peck Layer Pellets. Chickens were pissed. They could not pick and choose what they wanted to eat........pellets or nothing.
They have been eating the layer pellets exclusively for a month now. Only one chicken is walking backwards(but getting better) and my weird Polish chicken has started laying her tiny eggs again.
Moral of my story:
Make your chickens eat pellets (so they can not pick and choose) if they start walking backwards. That way they are forced to get a complete nutrition. Unless you really love feeding them pills.
We have 10 hens of 8 breeds and they live in a Carolina Coop (not important, but LOVE that coop).
We started out with 3 chickens. They all started laying and were doing fine. The Silver Laced Polish was always a weird chicken, not food motivated at all and stands around like she has not a brain cell in her head. The kids started to tell me that she stinks and that her eggs smelled/tasted like sulfur. So I gave her a bath, cut her feathers around her eyes and she still smelled bad.
The "Goggle" found me an article that had information that some chickens do not process soybean meal very well and can end up with sulfur smelling eggs and bad smelling skin. (For the life of me I can not find that article again, so sorry I did not reference it). So we switched to Scratch Peck and Feed grower mash. I fermented it and gave them oyster shells to supplement for the calcium. Chickens loved it, Polish chicken smelled great and eggs tasted great. Life was good. Polish chicken still weird.
Then I wanted some colored laying hens. So we got 3 more chickens. Life was good. Now with 6 chickens.
Still wanted more colored eggs, so I mail ordered 4 chicks. 3 died in the transition and I was left with just 1 chick. So I went to Wilco and bought 3 more chicks.... so the mail order chick would not be lonely.
So that brings us up to 10 chickens. I fed them fermented Scratch and Peck mash everyday and they love it.
Everyone was laying eggs at first. Then my Polish hen (only 2 years old) stopped laying eggs. No big deal. She is weird, had small eggs and had started walking backwards after the addition of the last 4 chickens.
When the Polish hen would come out of the coop, she would walk forward for a bit, stop, put her head down and then walk backwards. She would then stop, stand up and go about her weird Polish chicken ways. No big deal. (Sorry no photos)
Then when the youngest chickens were about 9 months old, one of them stopped laying and started walking backwards too. I thought it was a behavior of the bottom of the pecking order (both were the bottom of the pecking order) and so I looked at the "Google" for pecking order behavior (assuming that is what all bottom dwellers did). NOPE. All the information I could find said it was a deficiency in Selenium/Vitamin E.
I tried to feed the backwards walkers scrambled eggs and tuna. Nope. They were not food motivated and would not touch them. So then I started giving them Selenium/Vitamin E pills 3 times a week for 4 weeks.
In the next four weeks, I ended up with 5 chickens walking backwards! They were all the bottom of the pecking order. By this time I was pretty sick of feeding chickens pills (since I had to do it in the dark before work) and came up with this working theory:
Maybe the lower pecking order chickens are getting the leftovers that higher pecking order chickens did not want. Although I love fermenting chicken feed (and it does save me money), the chickens can be just like a 5 year old.....picking out the marshmallows from Lucky Charms.
So...... I switched to Scratch and Peck Layer Pellets. Chickens were pissed. They could not pick and choose what they wanted to eat........pellets or nothing.
They have been eating the layer pellets exclusively for a month now. Only one chicken is walking backwards(but getting better) and my weird Polish chicken has started laying her tiny eggs again.
Moral of my story:
Make your chickens eat pellets (so they can not pick and choose) if they start walking backwards. That way they are forced to get a complete nutrition. Unless you really love feeding them pills.
