Michigan

[chickflick]

 

[babigyrl22]

Haha Olive...you have the birds all confused.... poor babies.

 

[Olive Hill]

Quote:
Sorry she didn't make it. Have you had any of your birds tested/autopsied? Seems like you've had more than your fair share of death, maybe there is something underlying.

Yes. Well, last month we did. ALL of the chicks we purchased at TSC died, but all of the ones from FFH survived.

The 3rd BO had peritonitis. I called TSC after the 2nd BO died for mysterious reasons and they were rude and didn't take me seriously. The manager just said "We only take in healthy birds so yours must have received something from the birds you already had" When I explained they never made it to the general population, she told me I must have purchased them from someone else!

The Polish definitely didn't survive the heatwave we had where it reached 104. Aric, my daughter and I took turns going outside to mist birds and freshen waterers, but we still lost 3 birds that day. I think the millie died for the same reason.

We have totally and completely cleaned out the coops (including the duck coop even though none (thankfully) of them have died) once every week or more to help keep disease down if that's the problem. But, if it was disease, I would have lost some smaller, weaker birds and I haven't so far. I have call ducks, many bantams, etc.

I honestly think it's been the heat. Definitely with the ones a few weeks ago and the one today. Oh and the serama hen might have been older, it was Vicki's for a while before I got her. She was sitting on the edge of the laying box and it looked like she fell off. I was standing right there when she fell off so I went to her and her head was floppy. She died seconds later. I had her almost a year.

SO, I don't know. I've been in the hospital a lot in the last couple of months so I haven't watched things as tightly as I usually do. I have very good records on all of our animals - purchase, eating, behavior, activity, etc. Aric doesn't understand how I keep my records so they have fallen behind since I've been sick.

Hmmm, well, maybe we could help you do some troubleshooting? See if maybe we can come up with an action plan to try to improve the situation...

I can tell you one thing for sure, even if it's well above 100 degrees and 100% humidity it is not normal to lose a bunch of birds -- not even a couple birds -- to the weather. If there is no evidence of infectious disease and you're losing birds then you have to start looking at environment and management. And please know I am not attacking your set-up or keeping in any way. These things do happen and then we just have to troubleshoot what isn't working. I once lost many, MANY birds in one night due to a simple environment problem. When I built the outdoor brooder they were housed in I didn't take into consideration the possibility of torrential downpours. The rushing water from the flooding during a really heavy spring storm washed into the brooder, and we had about 200 very wet chicks on our hands. I saved about 75% with a hair dryer and patience, but it was still a terrible loss. Now, this environmental issue was more obvious than yours -- my brooder design obviously couldn't be trusted to withstand 6 inches of rain per hour

-- but it's the same premise really. You live, you learn.

Maybe we could start with the obvious and if we don't find anything dig a little deeper until we do?

Did they test the lesions to determine which bacteria was infecting the hen with peritonitis?

How many birds do you have? What size pen(s) are they in? What are the dimensions of their indoor area?

I know you had quite a few at one time, are you buying your feed in bulk? If so do you have a feed tag with the ingredients and nutrition profile you could share? Also, how do you store it?

 

[Olive Hill]

Quote:
I know, I know. Poor things. They all at once stopped and said "Wait a MINUTE!"

The true test is tonight though, we'll see if they all make it back to the coop...

 

[dianaross77]

Keyt,
I'm sorry you lost another bird. The BR hen I got from you was in a lot worse shape than we thought. She had mites and her skin was infected and blistered (over-breeding). It required Tylan 50 injections. Also, when she finally did start laying again, her shells were extremely thin and almost void of pigment. She got 3 doses of Safeguard, 3 Tylan injections, and a lot of oyster shell. She is laying like a champ and very feisty now. She darn near takes my hand off when I feed her!

I have never seen a chicken so anxious for her breakfast and dinner. Oh and we named her Frankie (short for FrankenHen). I don't know if this will help with your current problems but it's something to consider. The skin problems obviously won't be a problem now that you got rid of a few roosters. Dusting the birds would be a good idea, though. My silkies had mites just before I lost one to a predator. They didn't have them when I got them from Theron so I'm guessing wild birds were the culprit there. Hope you can figure it out, I know it's weighing on you.

 

[babigyrl22]

Freckles my BR is still not feeling well. I've posted her in the Emergencies section with pictures if anyone wants to weigh in on what to do:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=7334994#p7334994

 

[ChicwannaB]

Quote:
heeheehee thats funny. Ive never touched the heat in my van. don't know if it even works. It probably does, it's a 2005. Ive been known to run with vents wide open in winter.
But the ol' bod is changing now, last winter I was actually affected by the cold for the first time in my life. I wore a sweatshirt a couple times.

 

[Mom 2em All]

babigirl- that sounds so fun..but tell me, how do you get the movie onto the garage door?
I betcha all the kids around here would love movie night outside..lol.

I put chicken soup in the crock pot, and just peeled a dozen apples- have them simmering in another crock pot with cinnamon..

my house smells NUMMI...

 

[Stacykins]

It was very cold here last night, apparently 39 degrees. I almost fired up the wood stove D:

I am giggling to myself since all my neighbors are clamoring for fresh eggs! You see, I am the only one for miles and miles around that has chickens! This is a horse and cow area with the occasional hog, there are many more cows n horses then people! I guess fowl keeping isn't big. So they know once my girls start laying eggs, I'll have awesome fresh eggs. At least I know the rooster's won't be a bother to the neighbors, since the closest one is 1/2 mile away, and they say it is a welcome sound. Guess a far off rooster crow isn't any louder than a donkey bray, cow moo, or horse whiny (all of which I love hearing from their farms, I love country noises!).

 

[babigyrl22]

Quote:
we used a projector, laptop, and speakers to pull it off. It was awesome.