Rooster dead over night

[A Swede in France]

Gosh that is just so crazy! He looks absolutely excellent in that picture.

Aside from the condition of his crop, I am not sure what else to off. I suppose the important thing is to protect the rest of the flock, which it seems like you have a great start.

We are about as homeopathic as they come with our flock. Zero antibiotics ever, and nothing that doesn't come naturally from our beautiful Earth are ever ingested by the birds With that said, we have tried countless natural dewormers with no luck - I can say most of them being sold as such are snake oil. However, ever since once case, about 8 years ago, we have never had worm issue or any kind of gut problem in a single chicken ... and at that time we starting supplement their feed and that I 100% believe has "hardened" the chickens digestive system

These suggestions are HIGHLY contested here on BYC, on every thread I post them As is my forward prior to posting - I have zero scientific evidence this works, just experience. If youd like try it, excellent : ) If not, excellent as well. There are in fact plenty of conventional methods that work well, are easier and just as fine.

- we feed fermented food 3 times a week, approx 3 cups per chicken per week. I believe this acts a preventative. This is the same feed we give free choice throughout the week, just fermented. The love it, it is like a snack to them.
- we also give them atleast 1/2 gallon of raw cows or goats milk discard on Wednesdays, plus more throughout the week - probably totaling 1 gallon for 50 chickens. The discard being what is excreted from the utters when you are clearing them before hooking up your milking machine, or going into the bucket. I find this bit of the milk to be loaded with clostrum and all sorts of wonderful things. Because it can be a diarrhetic, I believe this "cleans" them out, including harmful bacteria.
- Lastly, we feed 10 lbs of field pea, wheat and sunflower fodder twice a week. Like you, we also have a lot of pasture for them to roam, but we find the dense nutrients in the fodder to not only be preferred by the chickens, but give a huge blast of condensed greens.

This is so helpful thank you! We've been a bit lazy with the fermenting but it's been on my mind so I'll get on it. I've been giving them live culture yoghurt every now and then for similar probiotics, but not as much.

I hear you about the antibiotics and dewormer. The former we've given twice, one when there was an outbreak of coccidiosis, likely from wild birds, and once when some of them got incredibly sick with a respiratory infection. Beyond that, it's been herbs and garlic and some raw apple cider vinegar occasionally.

I use the dewormer because all it seems to be is a concentrated version of herbs I would give them otherwise too. But yes, might be useless against actual worms.

And yes, we're keeping a close eye on the rest, especially on Goldie's girls, whom he was in close contact with yesterday.

Thanks for responding, it feels so good to be supported, and also to confirm that it really seems to have been very sudden and a bit inexplicable.

 

[BastyPutt]

This is so helpful thank you! We've been a bit lazy with the fermenting but it's been on my mind so I'll get on it. I've been giving them live culture yoghurt every now and then for similar probiotics, but not as much.

The live cultures are excellent. I have come to weirdly enjoy the whole process of fermenting and giving it to the chickens. I suppose it is a summary of how boring my life has come since kids have come into it.

I hear you about the antibiotics and dewormer. The former we've given twice, one when there was an outbreak of coccidiosis, likely from wild birds, and once when some of them got incredibly sick with a respiratory infection.

I do know that if one of my favorites was ailing, I would have a really hard time not giving them an antibiotic or something along those lines. Losing them is so stinking sad, but watching them deteriorate is even worse. Fortunately all of my favorites over the years have died from being old.

Beyond that, it's been herbs and garlic and some raw apple cider vinegar occasionally.

This is great, love to see it.

I use the dewormer because all it seems to be is a concentrated version of herbs I would give them otherwise too. But yes, might be useless against actual worms.

Exactly. It isnt that the natural dewormer is anything that is bad, we just never found one that works, and have heard the same from friends we have that have had recent worms, but no luck. I suppose I dont know what we would do if we did get worms now, but we would probably try everything we possible. We may have unknowingly had them, and whatever we have been doing works.

And yes, we're keeping a close eye on the rest, especially on Goldie's girls, whom he was in close contact with yesterday

Hoping the best for them!