Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Congrats on the eggs! Love love love all your chickies

Merry Christmas Pipd!

Merry Christmas!

Thank you both! I hope you both had a lovely Christmas day

Mine was pretty low-key, just sat around and watched some movies, played my Switch, etc. I had never seen Die Hard before, but people say it's a Christmas movie, so I put that on. I'm usually not into action movies, but actually quite enjoyed that one! And yes, I agree with what they say, it's definitely a Christmas movie

Then the 26th is my sister and nephew's birthday, so we had plans that... well, fell through in the end, but they were planned! And yesterday my brother surprised us with a visit for the day, which was nice, though I always feel fatigued after having to socialize like that. Today I have to scoop the coop and lay down feed bags in my dropping trays for the freeze we're forecast to have overnight. The feed bags just make the poos easier to deal with in freezing cold without losing all my litter frozen to them.

Looking forward to spending the rest of my break just vegging and resting up for the spring semester.

No new chicken pictures as of right now, but it does sound like Pudding is gearing up to lay her first egg today, so I might pop in later with that announcement!

 

[Crazy Maizie]

I watch Die Hard almost every year. If it's got Christmas lights and songs, it's a Christmas movie! Plus, Bruce Willis is always such a character in any of his movies.

People functions exhaust me too.

I've been dealing with a lot of issues with my flock this year. Some of the chickens might be experiencing egg drop syndrome. From what I've read, it should pass after about 2 months, but it's not. I've had shelless eggs for over 6 mo. Initially I narrowed down to 4 of my hens - the 2 barred rocks and 2 sapphire gems since it was coming from their nest box and roosting area and they all lay similar eggs. I lost Plum a few months ago and thought that might have solved it. But, then it continued. I had 1 sapphire gem molting so that left 2. The soft egg which was sometimes just a yolk continued. Between the two left, I finally narrowed it down just last week to my sapphire gem, Pearl (the other one is in full blown molt and Pearl had egg bits stuck to her butt). She acts well otherwise. I've been giving her extra calcium to see if that helps. She has since laid 1 shelless egg.

Well, the other day Ivy laid a soft shelled egg and has since laid 2 yolks only. One I witnessed come out her rear as I was tucking them in and the other was right under her roosting area this morning.


I've read that eds is passed on from ducks and wild birds. I of course have ducks, but generally they are separated in different areas of the pen. However, since it's viral, I know that their separation wouldn't be enough if that's the case. I keep a good environment for all of them. Clean up poop daily from the coops and the ground. They always have fresh food and water. It's winter so they do have straw - so not as much poop scoping going on. There are no other issues. Once in awhile I will see a runny or odd poo. I was feeding them a duck egg here and there (and I've done so for years), but I stopped this summer when I first started having issues and read up on possible causes.

I also had the issue with Zuzu a few months ago and some issues with my two older australorps (that I chalked up to age). Until these last few days, Ivy was my only egg layer. I'm just so confused and kind of sad as I don't really know what to do. I guess I could try a new feed or some supplements, but I haven't really found any articles or posts regarding anyone that thought they had eds come up with a solution of what might have worked. My chickens have oyster shell available at all times and have been on Kalmbach for at least the last 5 -6 years.

I'd rather have no eggs at all and Ivy be broody every day than to deal with this shelless egg issue. She did growl at another chicken this morning, so maybe she will go broody. But, she is a weird one and will glare at others if she perceives that they are stepping out of line. Also, even if she thinks one of them is starting a fight, she will puff up like she's about to take care of business.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Ok, so I know you don't always check in, but I was doing a deep dive and found that Northern Indiana had an outbreak of EDS just a few years back. I imagine it's still going around, but with the avian flu, it's not a prominent news story. I'm thinking of adding some herbal remedies to their daily routine just to give them a boost. At least it's something. Idk what else to do except . There is a 3 in 1 vaccine that includes EDS, but I haven't found it on any of the hatchery websites as it looks like it's basically for commercial farms, but maybe it can be allocated via a veterinarian? Just thinking about future flocks as the chickens that I currently have already are affected and it seems that once they pass the soft egg laying stage, they should be fine as long as there are no complications from it.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I watch Die Hard almost every year. If it's got Christmas lights and songs, it's a Christmas movie! Plus, Bruce Willis is always such a character in any of his movies.

Agree on both counts! My mom and I were talking about that the other day and I realized that of all the action movies I do enjoy, a lot of them are Bruce Willis films!

I've been dealing with a lot of issues with my flock this year. Some of the chickens might be experiencing egg drop syndrome. From what I've read, it should pass after about 2 months, but it's not. I've had shelless eggs for over 6 mo. Initially I narrowed down to 4 of my hens - the 2 barred rocks and 2 sapphire gems since it was coming from their nest box and roosting area and they all lay similar eggs. I lost Plum a few months ago and thought that might have solved it. But, then it continued. I had 1 sapphire gem molting so that left 2. The soft egg which was sometimes just a yolk continued. Between the two left, I finally narrowed it down just last week to my sapphire gem, Pearl (the other one is in full blown molt and Pearl had egg bits stuck to her butt). She acts well otherwise. I've been giving her extra calcium to see if that helps. She has since laid 1 shelless egg.

Well, the other day Ivy laid a soft shelled egg and has since laid 2 yolks only. One I witnessed come out her rear as I was tucking them in and the other was right under her roosting area this morning.


I've read that eds is passed on from ducks and wild birds. I of course have ducks, but generally they are separated in different areas of the pen. However, since it's viral, I know that their separation wouldn't be enough if that's the case. I keep a good environment for all of them. Clean up poop daily from the coops and the ground. They always have fresh food and water. It's winter so they do have straw - so not as much poop scoping going on. There are no other issues. Once in awhile I will see a runny or odd poo. I was feeding them a duck egg here and there (and I've done so for years), but I stopped this summer when I first started having issues and read up on possible causes.

I also had the issue with Zuzu a few months ago and some issues with my two older australorps (that I chalked up to age). Until these last few days, Ivy was my only egg layer. I'm just so confused and kind of sad as I don't really know what to do. I guess I could try a new feed or some supplements, but I haven't really found any articles or posts regarding anyone that thought they had eds come up with a solution of what might have worked. My chickens have oyster shell available at all times and have been on Kalmbach for at least the last 5 -6 years.

I'd rather have no eggs at all and Ivy be broody every day than to deal with this shelless egg issue. She did growl at another chicken this morning, so maybe she will go broody. But, she is a weird one and will glare at others if she perceives that they are stepping out of line. Also, even if she thinks one of them is starting a fight, she will puff up like she's about to take care of business.

Oof, I'm so sorry to hear about all this! Egg drop syndrome is something I'd heard of, but know next to nothing about beyond the name, so I'm not sure if I could even advise you beyond what you're already doing; supplementing calcium, keeping oyster shell available, etc. Only thing left that comes to mind is maybe trying a higher calcium feed like layer so that the birds are definitely consuming more calcium versus oyster shell that they can choose to eat or not. The flaw with that plan is that then you'd be sacrificing protein content or paying a ton more for the high calcium high protein stuff Giving them doses of calcium supplement should do more or less the same thing, so I don't know that I would change the feed, personally.

If your ducks and chickens have been housed together all this time, then it would have had to have come from somewhere else. Not just from your ducks but something that infected them in the first place. They wouldn't have spontaneously gotten it out of nowhere and given it to your chickens this year, in other words; odds are that the ducks and chickens would have been infected around the same time. I wouldn't feel bad about how you've kept them all this time or anything. You take good care of your birds, I wouldn't question that at all

It must be pretty bad though to be hoping for an Ivy broody spell! It does sound like she's thinking about it based on those behaviors, so maybe she'll grant you that

Ok, so I know you don't always check in, but I was doing a deep dive and found that Northern Indiana had an outbreak of EDS just a few years back. I imagine it's still going around, but with the avian flu, it's not a prominent news story. I'm thinking of adding some herbal remedies to their daily routine just to give them a boost. At least it's something. Idk what else to do except . There is a 3 in 1 vaccine that includes EDS, but I haven't found it on any of the hatchery websites as it looks like it's basically for commercial farms, but maybe it can be allocated via a veterinarian? Just thinking about future flocks as the chickens that I currently have already are affected and it seems that once they pass the soft egg laying stage, they should be fine as long as there are no complications from it.

Dang, that's scary! I had no idea!! Maybe I should be looking into this more!

The vaccine is likely to be tough to locate, unfortunately. Vaccines for poultry are frequently only sold in large quantities for commercial setups, and EDS, as you noticed, isn't a commonly talked about disease. I wouldn't even know where to start on that, honestly. If you do have a vet that will see poultry, it certainly wouldn't hurt to reach out and ask if they can locate it!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

A couple days late, but Pudding finally laid her first egg today! It's a lovely medium brown with such a heavy bloom on it that it looks pink! Tash and Johnnycakes may also be laying now, too, but I haven't caught them in the act to actually confirm it. I'm just seeing some slightly different egg shapes and colors that I suspect are coming from different birds, and based on combs and vent checks around the time of those eggs being laid, those two are the most likely candidates.

Picture below is, left to right, Poly's egg, suspected Tash egg, Pudding's pretty pink egg, suspected Johnnycakes egg, and Chowder's egg.

That picture shows Pud's egg color well, but it's so hard to prevent those blues and greens from washing out in pictures! The suspected Tash egg is such a pretty bright blue in person, and the two on the right are less of that olive-ish green and more of a nice sage green.

Anyway, unfortunately Pudding's pretty egg froze and split, so it's a goner. I also didn't get any pictures of the birds, themselves, today, but I will see if they're in a photogenic mood tomorrow.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Agree on both counts! My mom and I were talking about that the other day and I realized that of all the action movies I do enjoy, a lot of them are Bruce Willis films!




Oof, I'm so sorry to hear about all this! Egg drop syndrome is something I'd heard of, but know next to nothing about beyond the name, so I'm not sure if I could even advise you beyond what you're already doing; supplementing calcium, keeping oyster shell available, etc. Only thing left that comes to mind is maybe trying a higher calcium feed like layer so that the birds are definitely consuming more calcium versus oyster shell that they can choose to eat or not. The flaw with that plan is that then you'd be sacrificing protein content or paying a ton more for the high calcium high protein stuff Giving them doses of calcium supplement should do more or less the same thing, so I don't know that I would change the feed, personally.

If your ducks and chickens have been housed together all this time, then it would have had to have come from somewhere else. Not just from your ducks but something that infected them in the first place. They wouldn't have spontaneously gotten it out of nowhere and given it to your chickens this year, in other words; odds are that the ducks and chickens would have been infected around the same time. I wouldn't feel bad about how you've kept them all this time or anything. You take good care of your birds, I wouldn't question that at all

It must be pretty bad though to be hoping for an Ivy broody spell! It does sound like she's thinking about it based on those behaviors, so maybe she'll grant you that




Dang, that's scary! I had no idea!! Maybe I should be looking into this more!

The vaccine is likely to be tough to locate, unfortunately. Vaccines for poultry are frequently only sold in large quantities for commercial setups, and EDS, as you noticed, isn't a commonly talked about disease. I wouldn't even know where to start on that, honestly. If you do have a vet that will see poultry, it certainly wouldn't hurt to reach out and ask if they can locate it!

Thanks. I just needed to have a place to talk about it. I forgot to mention that I have given them layer feed, but they are billing it and I was cleaning it up until I decided to close off feed at 3:30 so that they will clean it up.
Ivy and Pearl act pretty normal other than laying yolks. The weather makes them puff up and stand in one place, but that's normal. I also check them everyday to make sure that I don't feel an egg or smell anything off.

Last night after I posted, I found a dialogue between extension people. I imagine it was a podcast or something like that. It was obvious that the vaccine isn't for backyard flocks just for commercial businesses and poultry farms. It also is only available in states that have issues. The good news, it sounds like EDS is being recognized as affecting flocks so they can test in Indiana via Purdue Extension. From what they stated was that originally it somehow just showed up in Indiana and they aren't sure how. They also said they basically watched it roll down the road and then it vanished before it made a return a few years later. They are working on manufacturing the vaccine for the specific states (MI, IN, and OH were mentioned).
The other thing I thought about (yep I'm an over thinker ) is that twice a year the farmer that farms the land right next to us uses duck manure from outsourced duck farms. I've always worried about issues from that, but what can I do? I know that it might not even have come from that either, but you never know. I can get the chickens tested to be 100% sure, but what will that get me? I don't think they will depopulate my flock because they stated in the dialogue that it didn't help once they brought the farm back up to full operation again, so they don't recommend it. Apparently the virus can survive disinfectants. They had a whole part about disinfecting and how the boot washes weren't as effective due to the time it had to be on to work and that changing out from everything was the best option.
Only the brown egg layers are affected. With that said, Ivy's eggs are more of a cream color not anywhere near brown in my standards. But, I guess cream could have a brown gene, but I don't know anything about egg colors.
Thanks for listening! I considered creating a thread, but a lot of the ones I've read that thought they might have EDS were shot down as just having an egg laying issue and they were recommended to supplement with a calcium supplement. I've done that and I did it when I first figured out which ones were the potential soft egg layers it didn't change anything - it's also not a recommendation from the sources that I read. I'm just going to enjoy my chickens while I can and not worry too much (I mean I can try not to worry).

 

[Crazy Maizie]

A couple days late, but Pudding finally laid her first egg today! It's a lovely medium brown with such a heavy bloom on it that it looks pink! Tash and Johnnycakes may also be laying now, too, but I haven't caught them in the act to actually confirm it. I'm just seeing some slightly different egg shapes and colors that I suspect are coming from different birds, and based on combs and vent checks around the time of those eggs being laid, those two are the most likely candidates.

Picture below is, left to right, Poly's egg, suspected Tash egg, Pudding's pretty pink egg, suspected Johnnycakes egg, and Chowder's egg.

View attachment 4274438

That picture shows Pud's egg color well, but it's so hard to prevent those blues and greens from washing out in pictures! The suspected Tash egg is such a pretty bright blue in person, and the two on the right are less of that olive-ish green and more of a nice sage green.

Anyway, unfortunately Pudding's pretty egg froze and split, so it's a goner. I also didn't get any pictures of the birds, themselves, today, but I will see if they're in a photogenic mood tomorrow.

Such pretty eggs.