Robinschickens

robinschickens

Hatching
Nov 18, 2016
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It's morning here in California and the second of my 7 chickens may die. I am an animal lover. And it breaks my heart. I don't know the first thing about chickens aside from protein for molting. All the 6 chickens I have now are different ages. The oldest two both Rhode Island reds don't seem to have anything wrong yet.....they were both rescued from hungry pit bulls about 6 months ago. Then I bought from the feed store two more babies that have grown up well. About 3 or four months ago I bought 3 more babies they are 1/2 grown and the ones that seem to be dieing. I got them at the swap meet. Found the first dead about two weeks ago with no warning. Now one is walking really wierd she slowly picks up her feet while walking kinda hesitantly and she don't seem to want to extend her neck out. But she's eating and drinking. A neighbor has a coop next to mine. I noticed a dead chicken in there a few days ago that is still there. They never check on rhem and I actually feed them through the fence and water them. Can take out the dead cause it's locked. Gosh I don't know what to do. Or what could be wrong. Now that I think about it the dieing actually started with two newborn chicks in the neighbors coop. They died about a week apart and there was only two. Please help me find answer. Could they have a disease should I put mine down?
 
Hello and welcome to BYC - I'm sorry that its not under better circumstances that you have joined us. A couple of ideas spring to mind about what the issue could be, but I'd strongly suggest posting in the ER forum https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/threads/add/forumId/10 and giving as much detail as possible, so that the experts can help you out.

Good luck

CT
 
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You sure do have a mess on your hands, sorry your entry into poultry-keeping has not gone better.

A couple of things that come to my mind:
1) You could have unknowingly bought/rescued ill birds from the various places you got yours from. Unless you know how to tell a sick bird from a healthy one, only get birds from a reputable breeder or hatchery. I'm speaking from personal experience on this...my first 7 chicks came from an individual and I promptly lost 4 out of 7 because they were sick.

2) When you add chickens to the flock you already have, you have to isolate (not mix) the new ones in right away. Keep them separated for 3-4 weeks so you can be sure you aren't introducing an illness or disease into your flock.

3) If your neighbor neglects their chickens to the point you describe, move your coop as far away as possible from theirs. And do not feed or water the neighbors birds, you can unknowingly pass things back to your own flock that way. Biosecurity is something to read up on. You may also consider reporting your neighbor for animal cruelty.

If you do have to put your remaining flock down, please read up on how to properly buy and raise chickens before getting more. The Learning Center has very good information and members here will gladly help answer questions. You'll be much happier knowing you are prepared to take care of them and won't have to go through all this again. I hope this doesn't come across as too harsh, I'm hoping you'll take this as a sincere effort to be helpful.
 
Greetings from Kansas, robinschickens, and
welcome-byc.gif
! Great to have you aboard! The folks who posted above me said it all very well. Hope you isolate the issue and that your flock gets back to health again soon. Best wishes!
 
Do the neighbors chickens free range, or fly over their fence? If so you need to do everything possible to keep them away from yours. I agree you could move your coop to some other spot farther from them. But also have a good fence - high enough, or covered run, so the neighbors chickens cannot get in with yours. You might want to put bamboo
or some other solid covering around your run to about 18-24" high, so visiting chickens cannot touch yours through the fence.
 
Hello there, and welcome to Backyard Chickens! I am so glad you joined us, I do hope you will make yourself at home here. Enjoy BYC!
 

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