Hello all,
Please bear with the long post! I am a newer-ish chicken owner, have a group of 10 chickens of several breeds (rhode island red, buff Orpington, australorp, barred rock, gold star), all approx 20 months old. They were fantastic egg layers until early/mid august when their production started to slow down. Seemed like a few of them might have been starting a molt, but if it was it was a slow molt. Also thought maybe they were dealing with lice, fleas, other parasites? Wasn’t sure so just played it out bc they otherwise seemed healthy.
Then a month or so ago they started pulling all of their feed pellets out of my PVC pipe feeder when I would fill it up. Then most recently (after adjusting the feeder so they can’t pull out feed) they have basically almost stopped eating AND drinking has even slowed down too (however confounding factor is we have had snow. Are they using snow for drinking water? And are they eating food pellets on the coop floor that they pulled out of the feeder?). Have a couple with pale combs. Quite a few are now definitely molting, though again a slow molt.
In spite of all of this, their behavior seems pretty normal. Not lethargic or anything else in that vein. They quickly eat any scratch or snacks I provide. Egg laying hasn’t completely stopped. Currently giving them a layer feed still. Did buy a new bag recently to see if it was something with the feed.
Can molting cause this kind of extreme change in eating/drinking, combined with the stress of early very cold weather in MN? Or are they sick with something? Help! I’m flummoxed!
Please bear with the long post! I am a newer-ish chicken owner, have a group of 10 chickens of several breeds (rhode island red, buff Orpington, australorp, barred rock, gold star), all approx 20 months old. They were fantastic egg layers until early/mid august when their production started to slow down. Seemed like a few of them might have been starting a molt, but if it was it was a slow molt. Also thought maybe they were dealing with lice, fleas, other parasites? Wasn’t sure so just played it out bc they otherwise seemed healthy.
Then a month or so ago they started pulling all of their feed pellets out of my PVC pipe feeder when I would fill it up. Then most recently (after adjusting the feeder so they can’t pull out feed) they have basically almost stopped eating AND drinking has even slowed down too (however confounding factor is we have had snow. Are they using snow for drinking water? And are they eating food pellets on the coop floor that they pulled out of the feeder?). Have a couple with pale combs. Quite a few are now definitely molting, though again a slow molt.
In spite of all of this, their behavior seems pretty normal. Not lethargic or anything else in that vein. They quickly eat any scratch or snacks I provide. Egg laying hasn’t completely stopped. Currently giving them a layer feed still. Did buy a new bag recently to see if it was something with the feed.
Can molting cause this kind of extreme change in eating/drinking, combined with the stress of early very cold weather in MN? Or are they sick with something? Help! I’m flummoxed!