my chickens are dying! help!

[Chickenfur]

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idk what to do, the reason i made this tread was to find out what to do! (not every day, more like once every 3 days)

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all of them (except for the one w/ the egg under her) have not been anywhere near any eggs.

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umm... well considering that it is less than 30 degrees out and there are 2 feet of snow there is nothing i can do about a bigger coop, and idk what we would do w/ the extra chickens.

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i have a few of those things out there at the moment i will try to get more.

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is 1 standard and 2 bantams okay for 21d standard and 3 bantam hens?

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the thing is, they die so quick, in less your out there 24/7, you wouldn't know who would be next.

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i'll try to get my hands on a cam.

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it's 50/50 really, sometimes it's at night sometimes it's in the day.

 

[Chickenfur]

now one of my LBs died! i thought it was the roos... please help me...

 

[chixrus]

ok, I'm going to try to clear this situation up a bit.

Age of birds: in between almost a year and two and a half years (but possibly older)

Size of coop: 10 by 10 (nesting boxes up off of the floor) I read that this will house over forty regular sized chickens

Size of pen: 16 by 16 (though they don't like to go outside in the snow)

temp: 30's during the day.

# of birds: (before deaths occured) 28 (2 banty roos, 3 standard roos, 3 banty hens and 20 standard hens)

breeds of birds that died: 3 EE's (all very flighty) one cukoo maran (very flighty) one BO (curious, but wouldn't let you pick her up) and one light brahma (fairly tame)

Injured: One LB, unknown if it's the same one that died at this point (honestly, I didn't want to know)

description of injuries: the cukoo maran had no visible injuries.
The first EE's vent was very open and bloody. She was near the feeder, but not under it.
The second had hardly any blood on her, only a little on her back (which was bare) saw chickens pecking at this one. She was near the roost.
the third also had a bit of blood and peck marks on her vent, but it did NOT look like enough to kill her.
The BO's vent was bloody and open, more like the first EE's. She was by the feeder.
The LB had some blood, but not a lot. She was outside, right by the pen door. There wasn't a whole lot of blood, the snow wasn't even stained.

4 of the bantams spend their time up on the rafters for the most part.

I know that we shouldn't have had that many roos, we got rid of two of them. I never really thought of those two as roosters, we hatched them ourselves and I always thought of them as little babies.

I'm going to get some cat food for them to up their protein and get some treats for them.

 

[bonniebe]

i live in northern michigan, it was 9 degrees this am. my girls could not wait to get out when i opened their door. it you can scatter food outside to encourage them to stay outside,. our girls always trek out to the lean-to where there is no snow, is there someplace they can chicken-trip out to? can you scatter part of a bale of hay out on the snow to encourage them to stay outside?. 10x10 seems really small for a bunch of bored birds. i would get them outside, being very assertive about making them go out after you've made it more appealing. remember chickens wear down coats, and the more they move around the warmer they will be.

 

[chixrus]

I know, it doesn't sound big, but it's 100 sq feet total. I don't know why they don't go outside, I know someone who lives in michigan and she has to dig hers out of the snow, so mine apparently are demented. anyway, they will sort of go out, but they will go inside after a little bit and there's never more than three out at a time. our last ones wouldn't step foot out there.

 

[chixrus]

is it a possibility that they're being overfed? I looked at what they're supposed to eat, and I'm pretty sure that we're overfeeding them. could that be a part of the issue?

 

[quiltnchik]

Let them outside ASAP!! My chickens have been out - or had access to the outside - every single day, even when the blizzard came through a couple weeks ago. Even if they decide not to come out, we open the door for them and give them the choice. That way, if someone gets "pecky," the others have somewhere to go to get out of the way. Chickens handle the cold remarkably well, and mine are still trekking through the snow in my yard.

ETA: Put some scratch in front of the coop to draw them outside; it worked great to get mine out. We also hung their waterer just outside the pop door, so they had to come outside to drink. Once they were out, they stayed and didn't mind the weather.

 

[mypicklebird]

It really is too small- the quote for 3 square feet per bird you probably read is more geared to raising birds commercially. Commercial layers are packed in, debeaked to the won't peck and hurt each other, and aren't usually allowed to live much past 1 & half years. I truly think you have too many bored birds packed in together. Cannibalism always seems to happen when 2 or 3 of the following happens- 1) too many chickens in too small a space 2) not enough to eat 3) not enough to do. You have 2 of these criteria fulfilled at least. I do not know what you feed them. Free ranging usually cures the problem- more space, more work to get food (solves #3 & #2). If you can't free range, you need to decrease your flock size dramatically- and be sure to include the cannibals.





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[mypicklebird]

You can certainly over feed them some things, but not layer ration. In confined birds- they should have balanced food at all times that they are awake. What are you feeding them?

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[mypicklebird]

1 rooster per 10 or so hens is what is recommended for good fertility in the eggs if you are hatching them. Many people do not keep roosters with their hens, or just add them in for a week or so before collecting eggs for hatching. You don't technically need any roosters in there. I doubt the bantam roosters are bothering the big hens though.

I don't think the age or breeds of the dead birds matters too much other than some are slower or more mellow- and could get targeted due to that.

I truly thing the only way you are going to be able to tell who or what is doing this, is to sit out there and watch. It is probably a bad hen, but this doesn't fit if some are dying at night (as opposed to early morning before you got out there). Chickens sleep at night, not attack each other. There are other small predators out there, that can kill chickens and might not take the bodies- rats, weasels, ect




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