New to chickens may have worms?

[KAiken]

Hello, so I was given 2 hens about a month ago. One hen is about 2 years of age an Orphington. The other hen is about 7 months old I believe an Easter Egger. She came to me with a brownish liquid poop off and on. Occasionally I see a slight reddish color in some of the more regular poop never in the brownish poop. I have since added a young Silkie to the group she is 4 months old from someone else. I think I may have seen a small brown worm in the brownish poop that the older hen ate quickly. This all started when I first got them so they came to me this way. They are all eating well..though the large hen (only hen laying) did lay 2 soft eggs in the middle of the night that she laid on last week. Yesterday she laid a normal egg. I am new to chickens and really am not sure what to do. I do put DE around their pen(food grade) and apple cider vinegar (with mother) in their water. They are not free range but have a large penned area. I appreciate any info you can provide.

 

[Painted Calls]

If you could provide pictures of their poop that concerns you, it would help us to determine if you need to be concerned.

I don't know of any parasitic worms that would be brown. What you may be seeing is a bit of old intestinal shedding or something she ate.

As for the soft eggs.. What are you feeding? What does her diet look like?

ETA: Welcome to chickens! For future reference: DE is worthless for anything but irritating the lungs and ACV will not get rid of worms.

 

[KAiken]

Overa Mare..thank you for the information...it gets a little confusing with so much conflicting information out there. I will try and get a photo of the poop and upload it. I am feeding a layer crumble and they are getting a good quality scratch and I am providing them a good oyster shell and grit(they do us it) and I give them grubblies for a treat a few times a day as the hens are a little feral.. I do live in florida and has been hot..they do have plenty of shade. they are not free range but are in 2 large pens. I have noticed a fox has been on my property at night after the bunnies ...no way it can get in the pen then the coop but I have read that the hens can lay soft eggs if frightened(?)..I do try and feed veggies that are safe for them but they are not interested...i just thought I should be worried about the brownish liquid poop.
Thanks again

 

[Painted Calls]

Stress and heat can both cause loose stool. It could also be a cecal poop.

Their diet sounds alright. I would limit the scratch and the treats however. Think 1T of scratch per bird per day max. Sometimes chickens will wait for those treats and scratch and ignore their food.

The eggs could have been due to stress or just an anomaly.

Glad that she laid a normal egg yesterday!