Not sure what is going on.....very worried!

[gg706]

Yes I would agree with that. I may give it a shot. Araucana are a rare breed and would take some effort to attempt to get as far from close genetics as possible...but it can be done. From what I hear they are all still pretty closely related, alot of work is needed by several breeders. I did have an offer of a good rooster from a breeder here on BYC. I may need to take her up on that if I decide to give it a go.
Yes I could sell some of the culls....I think I would still have to do some of the "dirty work" as the roos especially would not be as desirable. I had thought of raising some meat birds as I am not going to stop eating chicken so we could actually eat the culls and make them useful in another way. Araucana would not make table fair as the store bought birds, but I am sure there would be a few meals and would not go to waste. Hmmmmm food for thought! I could start with a couple of smaller pens and build from there. I was considering building a large permanent coop anyway. With a few adjustment from the original plan it could work.

 

[cowcreekgeek]

Yes I would agree with that. I may give it a shot. Araucana are a rare breed and would take some effort to attempt to get as far from close genetics as possible...but it can be done. From what I hear they are all still pretty closely related, alot of work is needed by several breeders. I did have an offer of a good rooster from a breeder here on BYC. I may need to take her up on that if I decide to give it a go.
Yes I could sell some of the culls....I think I would still have to do some of the "dirty work" as the roos especially would not be as desirable. I had thought of raising some meat birds as I am not going to stop eating chicken so we could actually eat the culls and make them useful in another way. Araucana would not make table fair as the store bought birds, but I am sure there would be a few meals and would not go to waste. Hmmmmm food for thought! I could start with a couple of smaller pens and build from there. I was considering building a large permanent coop anyway. With a few adjustment from the original plan it could work.

It starts w/ the idea, 'n grows from there ...
see http://www.caes.uga.edu/research/stations.html, as you kick things around ~'-)

:: edit :: http://www.caes.uga.edu/center/caed/ :: /edit ::

 

[NovaAman]

I had thought of raising some meat birds as I am not going to stop eating chicken so we could actually eat the culls and make them useful in another way. Araucana would not make table fair as the store bought birds, but I am sure there would be a few meals and would not go to waste.

Meat birds are great Sunday dinners. Regular birds are great soup birds, shredded chicken for Mexican and Asian fare, you get my meaning.

 

[gg706]

So they really arent worth the effort? I guess I would probably just skin them to cut down on the labor.

 

[NovaAman]

NO, not saying that at all. I process all the extra cockerels that I do not give away to other people who may want them to breed, or cuz they are just so cute. I will not give a cockerel away to some one else for dinner. Some birds you will not know how they will look until they are feathered out, some you can tell right away. I am not one for killing chicks. I will feed them till they are processing age for production birds, or the right weight for meat birds. AND nearly all my egg birds are dual purpose, so I get a better dressed weight on the cockerels than you would on say a RIR at 20 weeks. I just prefer to use my production birds for soups and shredding since there is much less meat on one of those versus a meat bird.

 

[gg706]

I see...Thank You for the info. That makes complete sense.

 

[cowcreekgeek]

Meat birds are great Sunday dinners. Regular birds are great soup birds, shredded chicken for Mexican and Asian fare, you get my meaning.

I vote chicken dumplings, which you've just caused me to crave (and, there's some in the 'fridge ~'-)

 

[1dude]

I am having a problem with a Buff mix hen about 23 to 25 weeks old. She hasn't laid yet and seems kind of like egg bound. It started out about a week ago now with her walking like she hurt her leg. Then it progressed to barely walking and falling down. Then I found her upside down. Now she falls forward and rolls on her back and can't get up. She seems stiff legged, eats and drinks fine and seems happy to just sit down all day kind of puffed up a little. I put her in a box the other day and brought her in the house to watch her and try to figure out what is going on. She poops really big kind of hard poo. I would say larger than a teaspoon, much larger than her coop mates. I tried to feel her and have no idea what I am feeling for. I looked and didn't see anything out of the ordinary with her vent area. I gave her a warm bath this morning and nothing so far. She doesn't seem to be doing anything that looks like she is trying to lay.
I tired to do the oil her thing, then realized I had no idea how to do that. I don't want to cause more damage poking around.
Any suggestion or guidance would be awesome.


OK, I tired the rubber glove and oil check. There is no way my finger would fit and absolutely no way an egg will come out either. So at this point I think she my be just hurt and weak. I have been giving her laying food for over a month now and just started to put vitamins in her water.
Still if anyone has any comments please let me know.

I'm not sure to keep posting here, no replies.... Not much of any change in the last several days. She does try to clean herself and seems perfectly fine but can't stand up. I did notice her legs are on the pale side. She had very yellow legs and now very light yellow. She has a sister hen in the coop and I compared legs and its a big difference. If I stand her up and hold her she seems to want to stand mostly on the right leg. I have seen her stretch her legs too. I'm still spiking her water with vitamin B and she love corn on the cob.

This afternoon I cleaned her box and found she had laid in her own poop. So I took her out to clean her and the box. I started some warm water in the sink and went to drop her in there and she almost jumped right out of my hands. She has lots of strength! I tried to get her to stand and she almost could but still falls over. So its now seems maybe just a balance problem?
Or maybe she is getting better? aarrgg! don't know.

Its been a couple days and not much change. she tries to clean herself and seems fine. I am certain her leg color is wrong. I tried to make a sling of sorts this morning and some how she got out of it and was on the floor. I am still giving her vitamin B and some anti-bionics. I noticed she stretched and flapped only the left wing. Its been about 2 weeks since this started.

Its now the 15th This morning I noticed she hadn't pooped from the night before. I was a little worried. I stood her up and leaned her in the corner of the box. A few seconds later she pooped a huge mostly white poop. I removed it with a paper towel and fixed her bedding and put her down to eat. The poop felt hard as I dropped it in the trash. After a few minutes it smelled like rotten eggs in the kitchen. I looked at the poop and it was all white and lumpy thick and looked like maybe some kind of calcium egg shell material. AAAHH.. All I wanted was some nice chickens to lay eggs I didn't sign up for this.

Its now the 18th, no improvement. She never moves her right wing and right leg doesn't move like the left one. I propped her up in the corner some times to try and help it. I put her out near her coop mates yesterday to maybe motivate her to get up, fail! I gave her 2 baths so far and nothing. I think this is perm ante damage. she hasn't pooped today, probably because she has been laying down.

 

[1dude]

About the 20th she seemed to take a trun for the worse, now the 24th she is clearly not doing well. I'm going to guess it may be two different problems, maybe she has Meraks and maybe egg bound happened during this.
The good news is her sister laid the first egg of my flock today!

 

[Overoberyl]

About the 20th she seemed to take a trun for the worse, now the 24th she is clearly not doing well. I'm going to guess it may be two different problems, maybe she has Meraks and maybe egg bound happened during this.
The good news is her sister laid the first egg of my flock today!

You might want to start a new thread, since your question is different from the OP's, might help you get some replies...