New to BYC!

Hi there,
My name is Andrea and I live in NH with my husband, 2 sons, 2 parakeets, 1 female Jack Russell and 8 beautiful chickens. Any advice you could give me on raising happy healthy chickens would be great. My girls live in the "Poultry Palace" a neat little coop my husband and father in law built with no plans. Just a drawing and my ideas. It holds up to 12 hens, has 6 nesting boxes and a nice size out side pen for them to scratch around in. I rarely let my girls out of the pen because of the amount of coy dogs and other predators on our area. For the most part they are pretty healthy. I started out with 4 bared rocks and added a speckled sussex and americana to the flock. For Christmas my hubby bought me an araucana, a barnevelder, a welsummer and cuckoo maran. Last month I donated one of my bared rocks to a cousin who's hens stopped laying. With in a few days of her being there, all the hens were laying! So that brought my flock down to 9. Then on 2/16 I cam home from shopping and found my sweet barnevelder, Maggie, laying in the corner of our outside pen, barley moving and very bloody. After 20 min of trying to help her, she died.I believe she was egg bound. Now I'm down to 8. Currently I am nursing my araucana, Blondie, who I believe is egg bound as well. I have tried all I can to help her. Mineral oil in her vent, warm baths etc. I will be taking her to the vet this afternoon as it has been 4 days since she has laid! She is in good spirits though and I am positive the vet can help her. Wish me and Blondie luck :^)

 

Thanks everyone. I took Blondie to the vet and she said she is not egg bound. So she is on a diet of mash, yogurt, cooked pasta, fruit, nutir-drench and electrolytes. Keeping our fingers crossed that she snaps out of it and starts laying again!

 

Ok so now we are on day #5 that Blondie hasn't laid and I think she is enjoying being a house chicken. She still isn't eating or drinking much and doesn't move around much either. I have tried giving her yummy treats like apples, watermelon, yogurt and cooked pasta and she won't touch those either. UHG Not sure what else to do for her. Her sprit is good and "talks" to anyone that pays attention to her. Her eyes are clear and bright. What is wron with my girl????