- Apr 29, 2012
- 27
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Hi all,
I never thought much of it until I was looking at someone else's post in this area earlier today, but I have 9 chickens that all look a little funny the last couple of days. I guess because 9 of the 10 looked the same I wasn't really noticing it...
They all have a lump if you will to the right of their breast bone. It's approximately the size of a baseball or a little smaller and really doesn't seem to be bothering any of them. They are all eating, drinking, and laying normally. I do give them about 2 cups of scratch grains a day (they don't have an outdoor yard yet so I give them something to look for in the straw) as well as their layer crumble from Fleet Farm that I mix oyster shells into. We keep a small cat litter pan of coarse sand in there for them, and they use that for dusting themselves and generally making a mess for me to clean up. We haven't been providing any other form of grit because I was told that was enough??? Questioning now if they are getting everything they need to break down the grain from the sand (biggest pieces are roughly half the size of a small pea).
I grabbed a couple of them tonight to check it out and it feels soft and squishy, so I'm thinking they are not impacted, but I've never had chickens before so I have no idea. I haven't noticed anything different or funny with their poop, and if anything they have probably increased what they are eating by 25% a day in the last week or so, but I attributed that to the start of egg laying.
Honestly, I'm not even 100% sure if its something that I need to be worried about, but I figured because I am so new to poultry it was better to play it safe and ask for help than risk it!! (My husband is already threatening to turn them into soup!!!! Help!!!)
Any advice or theories are welcome! Hopefully I am just being a worrier. . . .
I never thought much of it until I was looking at someone else's post in this area earlier today, but I have 9 chickens that all look a little funny the last couple of days. I guess because 9 of the 10 looked the same I wasn't really noticing it...
They all have a lump if you will to the right of their breast bone. It's approximately the size of a baseball or a little smaller and really doesn't seem to be bothering any of them. They are all eating, drinking, and laying normally. I do give them about 2 cups of scratch grains a day (they don't have an outdoor yard yet so I give them something to look for in the straw) as well as their layer crumble from Fleet Farm that I mix oyster shells into. We keep a small cat litter pan of coarse sand in there for them, and they use that for dusting themselves and generally making a mess for me to clean up. We haven't been providing any other form of grit because I was told that was enough??? Questioning now if they are getting everything they need to break down the grain from the sand (biggest pieces are roughly half the size of a small pea).
I grabbed a couple of them tonight to check it out and it feels soft and squishy, so I'm thinking they are not impacted, but I've never had chickens before so I have no idea. I haven't noticed anything different or funny with their poop, and if anything they have probably increased what they are eating by 25% a day in the last week or so, but I attributed that to the start of egg laying.
Honestly, I'm not even 100% sure if its something that I need to be worried about, but I figured because I am so new to poultry it was better to play it safe and ask for help than risk it!! (My husband is already threatening to turn them into soup!!!! Help!!!)
Any advice or theories are welcome! Hopefully I am just being a worrier. . . .