- Feb 17, 2014
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This has lots of parts and I don't know if one thing has to do with the other, but here it is.
With a serious illness in my family, I have been stretched thin as of late, so I have no doubt some or all of this is my fault.
We're fairly new to chickens and have only been at it since about February.
We got some Silkies first and then the BO's came in April.
We've got 4 BO's, 3 hens and one HUGE rooster.
They're all just shy of 8 months old and they share the main run with what turned out to be our only Silkie pullet out of 5 straight run chicks.
Up until yesterday we've been getting 2 to 3 eggs a day.
Yesterday we got none for the first time since they started laying and today only 1.
I should mention that I typically supply oyster shell in the main run, but ran out a week ago and haven't gotten to the feed store.
I'm planning to get there Friday at the latest.
I had a nipple watering system set up until one morning about a week ago when it got to about 16° F and apparently the lines froze up.
Well, I knew it was going to warm up later in the day and was in a hurry to get to work, so I left things to thaw on their own.
When I came home and checked the system, the reservoir had drained out and when I inspected the pvc/nipple delivery system , there were 4 nipples missing, so when those came out, so did the water in the reservoir.
At first I assumed that our big BO rooster, Major had gotten aggravated at the frozen nipples and ripped 4 of them out.
I only found 3 of the 4 nipples in the run, with the 4th missing in action.
Mind you, he's huge, I mean a monster and he's pretty powerful, so I wouldn't put it past him to do damage like that.
On a side note, we've been deliberating on inviting Major to Thanksgiving dinner since the girls seem to be reluctant to leave the coop in the morning.
He's been getting pretty rough on them and honestly, since we're not hatching anything at the moment, I don't mind culling him.
When the watering system went down, I replaced it with the old hanging waterer despite the pain in the butt it is.
Ever since I did, I've noticed not only does it fowl, as they do daily, it's almost like there is feed sediment in the trough.
Not just a trace amount, but a substantial amount as if some major backwash wash going on from one or more of the birds.
Now, I know what usually fowls this waterer and especially if it's not suspended at the correct height, poop, leaves, etc,.. but this is feed and lots of it.
The last thing I might mention is that one of the girls is missing some feathers on her back which I attributed to to some juvenile feather loss since I'm not sure if she's old enough to molt, but what do I know.
I'm not complaining about missing a few eggs, but I want to make sure that nothing is wrong and the feed sediment in the waterer has me wondering about impacted crop, or some sort of other issue that needs attention.
I even wondered if super chicken, Major might have gulped down a nipple although his crowing in the last few days has been flawless.
With a serious illness in my family, I have been stretched thin as of late, so I have no doubt some or all of this is my fault.
We're fairly new to chickens and have only been at it since about February.
We got some Silkies first and then the BO's came in April.
We've got 4 BO's, 3 hens and one HUGE rooster.
They're all just shy of 8 months old and they share the main run with what turned out to be our only Silkie pullet out of 5 straight run chicks.
Up until yesterday we've been getting 2 to 3 eggs a day.
Yesterday we got none for the first time since they started laying and today only 1.
I should mention that I typically supply oyster shell in the main run, but ran out a week ago and haven't gotten to the feed store.
I'm planning to get there Friday at the latest.
I had a nipple watering system set up until one morning about a week ago when it got to about 16° F and apparently the lines froze up.
Well, I knew it was going to warm up later in the day and was in a hurry to get to work, so I left things to thaw on their own.
When I came home and checked the system, the reservoir had drained out and when I inspected the pvc/nipple delivery system , there were 4 nipples missing, so when those came out, so did the water in the reservoir.
At first I assumed that our big BO rooster, Major had gotten aggravated at the frozen nipples and ripped 4 of them out.
I only found 3 of the 4 nipples in the run, with the 4th missing in action.
Mind you, he's huge, I mean a monster and he's pretty powerful, so I wouldn't put it past him to do damage like that.
On a side note, we've been deliberating on inviting Major to Thanksgiving dinner since the girls seem to be reluctant to leave the coop in the morning.
He's been getting pretty rough on them and honestly, since we're not hatching anything at the moment, I don't mind culling him.
When the watering system went down, I replaced it with the old hanging waterer despite the pain in the butt it is.
Ever since I did, I've noticed not only does it fowl, as they do daily, it's almost like there is feed sediment in the trough.
Not just a trace amount, but a substantial amount as if some major backwash wash going on from one or more of the birds.
Now, I know what usually fowls this waterer and especially if it's not suspended at the correct height, poop, leaves, etc,.. but this is feed and lots of it.
The last thing I might mention is that one of the girls is missing some feathers on her back which I attributed to to some juvenile feather loss since I'm not sure if she's old enough to molt, but what do I know.
I'm not complaining about missing a few eggs, but I want to make sure that nothing is wrong and the feed sediment in the waterer has me wondering about impacted crop, or some sort of other issue that needs attention.
I even wondered if super chicken, Major might have gulped down a nipple although his crowing in the last few days has been flawless.
