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Brittany7 said:
I am starting to get really discouraged about this chicken keeping thing....I don't understand what I am doing wrong...Now my little chewy is sick...she has the poopy but thing...i just brought her in and she's soaking now....I am going to give her yogurt and some epson salts here later like the article Sally posted said to do!

They get clean water very day they have as much food as they want. I keep them clean! I just don't know what i am doing wrong....
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Try using some wheat germ oil in the feed and waterer, extra vitamins couldn't hurt.
http://www.tractorsupply.com/webapp...ory_rn=&top_category=&urlLangId=&cm_vc=-10005
Blarneyeggs said:
Near miss..






Hit the fence, but no harm done.



weight of the snow taking out one of the tresses in the main run



main run before pic:




Power is still out, hope we have enough Propane to last through this nonsense. In the mean time, I'm thrilled to have heat and water but no TV, dishwasher, washer, dryer, oven….ect. I can't decide we if we're more like the characters from Little House on the Prairie or those fat people in Wall-E that fall out of their chairs and discover the world around them once their not stuck in front of a screen anymore...
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Wow that's a close one. Hope you get your electric back on soon!!
 
Brittany7 said:
I am starting to get really discouraged about this chicken keeping thing....I don't understand what I am doing wrong...Now my little chewy is sick...she has the poopy but thing...i just brought her in and she's soaking now....I am going to give her yogurt and some epson salts here later like the article Sally posted said to do!

They get clean water very day they have as much food as they want. I keep them clean! I just don't know what i am doing wrong....
hit.gif
Click to expand...
This wet weather is hard on all chickens. I had a lot of that in my first 2 years. ( I am a chicken breeder ) As mean as it might seem to some, I am culling the ones that get sick. In my situation that means putting them down. I am leaning more and more toward the idea of not breeding from something that seems to get sick quite easily and needs to be treated. This last summer I treated a lot of chickens as an experiment of whether it's worth it in the long run (especially for those of us that are breeders and reproduce our own breeding stock). 95% of the ones that I treated (with medication) ended up dying anyway. I am seriously considering not using anything for breeding that has gotten sick in the past. My end goal is to produce a line/breed of fowl that has hardiness, vigor, resistance to diseases, parasites and any type or variety of sicknesses.
I am already seeing a difference percentage wise in how many of my fowl get sick, but i have only partially been practicing what I've just written. Of all the ones that I've used as breeders that I had to medicate to keep alive, their offspring are getting sick easier than the offspring of the ones that have never gotten sick, which to me is proving my point. I am still watching all these things carefully so as to prove to myself whether I am right or wrong.
My advice is this; If you had planned on reproducing your flock with the hens that you have, just make sure you don't hatch eggs from the ones that have been sick, I believe it will save you a lot of grief in the long run.

Exceptions: If it's a breed that are very few in number I would medicate to keep my breeders alive and once I have 6-8 breeding pairs I would hatch a lot of eggs and select heavily for the ones that don't get sick.
You can do what you want to, but keeping a sick chicken on the yard is almost a guarantee that you'll have your other chickens getting sick eventually.
 
Troyer, do you use medicated chick feed?
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BTW, meant to comment on how healthy your birds look around the water hole. Hard to keep nice feathers on those breeds with the long LONG tails….and yet, it seems you have.
 
Blarneyeggs said:
I think $3 per dozen sounds fair. We have ours priced at $2.50 and can not keep up with demand. I have a friend who wanted me to bring her by a dozen each week….for $2.50?!…that wouldn't cover my gas.

Wish I had a good answer for you. Hang in there, this crazy weather is rough on them and underlying illnesses crop up. Did you also put ACV in the water?
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acv?
 
Blarneyeggs said:
Troyer, do you use medicated chick feed?
pop.gif

I don't use medicated chick feed, but I do use either citric acid or acv in the water. I want every thing that I have to be hardy and vigorous without needing extra care, except for the "extra care"necessaries that come with having chicks.

BTW, meant to comment on how healthy your birds look around the water hole. Hard to keep nice feathers on those breeds with the long LONG tails….and yet, it seems you have.
Thanks Blarneyeggs, I appreciate your comments.
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Right now in this cold weather, I'm not doing my normal feeding practice. When the weather warms up to a consistent 25-35 degrees I'll start feeding fermented feed and 24 hour soaked whole grains. I have considered fermenting whole grains too, but didn't know if that would be recommended. I don't consider myself to be a feed expert, but I know what works for me.
 
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Well we got our bath...got some.yogurt into her and some Epsom salt water into her. She's standing now. TThat's a good sign.

Troyer I understand what your saying I have already put two down this winter. It seems it's always my fancy breeds that give me issues as where my orphingtons and my silkies have been fine. But they are my fancy lawn gnomes and pets that give me eggs... not really into breeding. But I.will keep that in mind about the eggs and such since my silkie is bring broody.


Here is a picture of here. ..even storm was worried.
400
 
Blarneyeggs said:
Near miss..






Hit the fence, but no harm done.



weight of the snow taking out one of the tresses in the main run



main run before pic:




Power is still out, hope we have enough Propane to last through this nonsense. In the mean time, I'm thrilled to have heat and water but no TV, dishwasher, washer, dryer, oven….ect. I can't decide we if we're more like the characters from Little House on the Prairie or those fat people in Wall-E that fall out of their chairs and discover the world around them once their not stuck in front of a screen anymore...
Click to expand...

Wow! That's a near miss!!
ep.gif
At least the chicken coop gods were on your side, since the generator gods were apparently sleeping!
 
Brittany7 said:
Well we got our bath...got some.yogurt into her and some Epsom salt water into her. She's standing now. TThat's a good sign.

Troyer I understand what your saying I have already put two down this winter. It seems it's always my fancy breeds that give me issues as where my orphingtons and my silkies have been fine. But they are my fancy lawn gnomes and pets that give me eggs... not really into breeding. But I.will keep that in mind about the eggs and such since my silkie is bring broody.


Here is a picture of here. ..even storm was worried.
Click to expand...
I completely understand losing the ones we especially want to keep. I lost my 2 best show quality cockerels that I hatched in 2013! I almost gave up raising special breeds chickens 2 years ago because it seemed so many just died for seemingly no reason, obviously I didn't completely give up because I'm still doing it.
 

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