- Thread starter
- #9
Rcornerranch
Songster
Scratch mixes are mixed together and added separately. Oyster shell...we are going to mount a container for them to eat it out of because at the moment they always tip the container of oyster shells and spill it. They usually don’t tip the grit over. As for chia seeds, they contain a lot of omega-3 and omega-6 and other good stuff. I think it’s made their feathers very silky and soft. I offer chia seed gel once a week for our laying pullets, and every day to the adult birds we bought that need some TLC.
We have an adult hen we bought that needs to gain weight. She loves chia seeds, and they seem to spark her appetite after she eats them. She eats the chia gel, then shows interest in the layer pellets. Before she just barely ate anything. We’re trying. She’s getting more active. Just treated for mites and lice (believe they had both). She also lost her sister, so maybe she’s missing her? She has two other hens and a rooster in with her. I think we bought her sister with an infection. I noticed the new hens stunk (very barnyard with a fishy smell). She was having diarrhea since we got her (first I thought it was stress), laid a cracked up egg, prolapsed, laid another cracked egg and the yolk dropped out of her...It was so sad. She wasn’t with us long. We decided to end her suffering, and realized all the stink we’d been smelling was just from her.
Poor bird. Since then, fecals for the birds in with her came back negative for parasites. The vet said they might have mg after we took the rooster in for a cough.
The pullets we raised are in a different coop, but free range in our orchard and around the goat pens. So far, they are very healthy and each lay an egg a day. 4/6 of them lay in a camping chair after one of our more eccentric chickens started laying there. Lol. Easy for us to check for eggs, I guess?
We have an adult hen we bought that needs to gain weight. She loves chia seeds, and they seem to spark her appetite after she eats them. She eats the chia gel, then shows interest in the layer pellets. Before she just barely ate anything. We’re trying. She’s getting more active. Just treated for mites and lice (believe they had both). She also lost her sister, so maybe she’s missing her? She has two other hens and a rooster in with her. I think we bought her sister with an infection. I noticed the new hens stunk (very barnyard with a fishy smell). She was having diarrhea since we got her (first I thought it was stress), laid a cracked up egg, prolapsed, laid another cracked egg and the yolk dropped out of her...It was so sad. She wasn’t with us long. We decided to end her suffering, and realized all the stink we’d been smelling was just from her.
Poor bird. Since then, fecals for the birds in with her came back negative for parasites. The vet said they might have mg after we took the rooster in for a cough. The pullets we raised are in a different coop, but free range in our orchard and around the goat pens. So far, they are very healthy and each lay an egg a day. 4/6 of them lay in a camping chair after one of our more eccentric chickens started laying there. Lol. Easy for us to check for eggs, I guess?
