Equus
Chirping
- May 9, 2022
- 21
- 109
- 89
I've got a young easter egger. She began laying in January, she will be a year old end of June. She's laying every other day. Acts and looks normal. Shortly after she began laying we had a heavy wet snow, and the girls went bananas scratching in it. That afternoon I found a poo on the patio (heated water source is on our patio right now). It had dark solids and a massive amount of liquid urates. I pondered maybe excess water from the foraging in the snow, and I wasn't sure which bird it was. Opted to keep and eye out. We've randomly found poos like that since, but I've never caught the culprit. I'm now finding about 1 a day. Until this morning. I let everyone out, she came out, pooed and went back into the coop to a nesting box. It was hers.
The birds free range our large fenced yard mostly. Not sure if this is important, but someone might know something I dont with this extra info. She occasionally jumps the fence (by far our best flyer and jumper) and heads into the pasture. A few others might join her. When they do this they don't go far. The pasture is empty in winters and in late spring cow/calf pairs come from the main farm to graze and grow. They are exposed to cow flop when they go out there. We are okay with them free ranging out there it is wide open space and relatively safe as far as predators go. We do plan this spring/summer to enclose around their coop more so they have a more secured out door run, and to make chicken sitting easier if we have to travel or something.
I recently changed over from layer feed to an all flock feed. Free choice oyster shells and grit always available. I change their water every other day. (Well water.) We give a bit of a homemade scratch on cold days (about 2 handfuls for 10 birds). The scratch I make has cracked corn, cracked sunflower seed, raisins, a store bought herb mix (drawing a blank on the brand, but at the farm supply store in the chicken section), and oats with hulls on that we grew.
Coop is cleaned out once a week.
The girls were treated with topical ivermectin for NFM in January as well. When I clean the coop I dust it with an organic sulphur and DE mix and then put down fresh shavings. I also hung sulphur dusting bags in their doorway.
Since I saw her poo this morning, I will include a picture of her egg. She has always had a bit of a warp in the tip of her eggs. Otherwise they are lovely, strong shelled, and good sized eggs. I'm wondering if it is tied into the liquid urates? And where do I start to try to help her? Or for you experienced chicken raisers what would your next step be?
Hers in the group photo is between 2 black star eggs for size comparison. If you've made it this far, thank you!
The birds free range our large fenced yard mostly. Not sure if this is important, but someone might know something I dont with this extra info. She occasionally jumps the fence (by far our best flyer and jumper) and heads into the pasture. A few others might join her. When they do this they don't go far. The pasture is empty in winters and in late spring cow/calf pairs come from the main farm to graze and grow. They are exposed to cow flop when they go out there. We are okay with them free ranging out there it is wide open space and relatively safe as far as predators go. We do plan this spring/summer to enclose around their coop more so they have a more secured out door run, and to make chicken sitting easier if we have to travel or something.
I recently changed over from layer feed to an all flock feed. Free choice oyster shells and grit always available. I change their water every other day. (Well water.) We give a bit of a homemade scratch on cold days (about 2 handfuls for 10 birds). The scratch I make has cracked corn, cracked sunflower seed, raisins, a store bought herb mix (drawing a blank on the brand, but at the farm supply store in the chicken section), and oats with hulls on that we grew.
Coop is cleaned out once a week.
The girls were treated with topical ivermectin for NFM in January as well. When I clean the coop I dust it with an organic sulphur and DE mix and then put down fresh shavings. I also hung sulphur dusting bags in their doorway.
Since I saw her poo this morning, I will include a picture of her egg. She has always had a bit of a warp in the tip of her eggs. Otherwise they are lovely, strong shelled, and good sized eggs. I'm wondering if it is tied into the liquid urates? And where do I start to try to help her? Or for you experienced chicken raisers what would your next step be?
Hers in the group photo is between 2 black star eggs for size comparison. If you've made it this far, thank you!
