new chicken rancher in TX

[TXSHERIE]

Hi,

We are new to raising chickens. We stared out with 6 hens in a mobil chicken coop 8x4 with 6 nesting boxes. The girls are dieing and I can't figure out why? They eat layers feed and I add scratch in case they want it. We also give them our left over veggies. i also give them leaves from our garden. They have plenty of food and water. We never let them out of the coop. Could that be our problem? I keep their coop clean and collect their eggs nightly. I'm down to 2 chickens....I want to do a good job. Not sure whereI'm going wrong.

 

[patyrdz]

from North Carolina!

I'm sorry to hear about yor hens! Have you dewormed them? Do they have any coughing, sneezing, eye discharge? If you have never dewormed them and they don not have any "cold like" symptoms then I would try deworming the last ones. Good luck!

 

[Lady Lavendar]

We are new to raising chickens. We stared out with 6 hens in a mobil chicken coop 8x4 with 6 nesting boxes. The girls are dieing and I can't figure out why? They eat layers feed and I add scratch in case they want it. We also give them our left over veggies. i also give them leaves from our garden. They have plenty of food and water. We never let them out of the coop. Could that be our problem? I keep their coop clean and collect their eggs nightly. I'm down to 2 chickens....I want to do a good job. Not sure whereI'm going wrong.

from Houston Tx.

Congrats on your new chickens. Sorry to hear it isn't working out so well right now.

Let me start by asking you some questions.

How long have you had your hens? Where did you acquire them? How old are your hens? What kind are they? Where in Texas do you live ? What is the weather/temperature currently in your area? What kind of leaves and veggies are you feeding them?

The answers may reveal the underlying problem The only thing I can see from your message is that they may not have enough room (depending on size) in the mobile coop's run. How large is the area they run around in? Or is there one? According to you you never let them out of the coop. And if you mean coop only and not run/coop then they could be having heat stroke if they are indeed confined to only a coop. Do they have shade during the day? I live in Houston and its been in the 90's here. Perhaps not super hot for chickens but I'm paranoid about loosing even one chicken to the heat.

The people on this list are wonderful and will help you if they can. I'm still pretty new to keeping chickens myself but I'm learning more about them every day.

Good luck to you.

With kind regards,
Katrina
Lady Lavendar