Skinny hens?

[ZaneyMama]

My hens are a little over 14 months old. Recently 2 of them just died (a couple weeks apart) after acting normally the day before. They didn't stop laying and didn't seem to have any problems - we just found them dead on the floor of the coop. I have 8 now and they all seem thin. Their chest bones are really prominent. They are all still laying, eating and drinking normally. I do see a few tiny blackish bugs on some of them near their vents.

Why would they be dying? Help please!

How can I get more weight on them?

Thanks,
Sarah

 

[spiritdance]

Sounds like you have chicken lice or mites. They are blood suckers and will draw a chicken down even if it's eating plenty. Get some Sevin dust and dust it on the chickens. Thoroughly clean their coop and dust it with the Sevin before adding new bedding (be sure you get all the cracks and crevices ... use a squirt top bottle like an old mustard bottle to poof it in there ... be sure you wear a face mask). You will need to repeat this in 7 - 10 days to get the newly hatched pests. You might even want to do a third cycle after that, since it sounds as though the infestation is heavy. Once you get the infestation under control, you can switch to DE for maintenance. I put a layer down every time I change bedding and I add it to their dust bath. Meanwhile, to build your birds back up add some crumbled egg and/or tuna fish, yogurt/kefir, and mixed veggies to their diet to encourage quick weight gain, and if it were me I'd put them on Polyvisol w/out iron for a week or so until they begin to recover. I hope the rest of your birds recover quickly.

 

[cluckin tractor]

te problems coluld be above, ticks and worms or coocai. if its cocoai the poop is normally blood ridden. worms symptons include worms in the poop, diareah and look it up more thougholy and their are many mores pages on this problem. Gallo del Cielo has a page on theese two. the others you will neeed to search the forum. if it is ticks get linseed oil and spray with ether a had squirter or pour onto the cracks of the roosts. this wil kill em and is natueral

hope this helped