Sour or Impacted? Sick or not?!

[aj1785]

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. . . .

 

[leadwolf1]

I think that you are just seeing healthy chickens that have a full crop. However, just to be sure. Remove all food for the night. Check all of them in the morning. The crop should be empty. If it is, all is well. Remember, you will have to do this early so that they don't get down and start scratching around for any stray stratch.

Is there a reason they can't be outside?

Sand breaks down awfully easily and quickly. If they aren't outside to find pebbles, I would consider getting some chicken grit for them. Sand is fine for babies but, older chickens eating more than crumbles/pellets need something with a little more substance.

 

[aj1785]

No I have been pushing to get an outside yard built for them, but DH is dragging his feet. We bought his grandparents farm last year and his gma always had chickens, with no outside yard so he's seeing at something that will be a pain in the butt to build, then cut grass around, when in his opinion its not necessary.

Maybe its not strictly essential, but how would he like to but locked in the house all day and never go outside?!? That's my arguement........

He is also planning to steel the outside of the coop yet this fall so maybe I can get him to at least cut the hole in for them to get outside then. (Our coop is 12'x12' or so. His gma used to keep 75 chickens in it, so my 10 have lots of room to roam for now.)

I have seen multiple types of grit for sale. Is there one that works better than others or is it all personal preference?

 

[leadwolf1]

75 chickens in that size coop with no chance of getting outside is terrible Sorry, but it is. The rule of thumb would be a maximum of 14 hens in there since they don't have room to roam. Each chicken should have, at least, 10sf if kept strickly inside and a minimum of 4 sf inside and 10 sf outside run area. Poor chickies, they were squished.

That aside. I will come down off my soapbox now.

Any kind of grit is fine. As long as it is chicken grit. Chick grit is tiny and fine until they are 16 or so weeks old...then, you can switch to the bigger grit. My feed store sells 3 different sizes and my chickens prefer the medium size grit.

Can't you just open the door for them a little supervised free range time? You could sit outside and watch them run around for an hour or so. They could get some grass, bugs and fresh air. You could spend some down time with them. Win win situation for everyone.

 

[aj1785]

Well the 75 birds (I forgot to mention) were Cornish Rocks and butchered at 8 weeks of age. Only a few hens were allowed to escape and they stayed to lay eggs until the next batch was purchased in spring, so while it may not have been the best of situations for them for that 8 week period, it wasn't a long term thing.

The outside free range time sounds great, except I have no idea how I would manage to catch them and round their feathery little butts up again. Leaving them outside on their own is absolutely not an option, as I live in northern WI with an abundance of fox, coyote, hawk, eagle, owl, etc as well as the family of racoons that live in our barn and would undoubetedly find them a tasty treat. Hopefully I will be able to convince him to cut the dang hole in the wall for me and from there I can build the outside pen myself. I grew up on a dairy farm building fences, so a chicken yard shouldn't be that complicated if I understand it correctly and can keep it pretty basic.

I will have to see what I can find at our local feed store for grit. For tonight I went out and added a handful of pea stone size gravel from my driveway, just in case.

Thanks for your help and I don't mind the soap box as I find myself there often enough!

 

[leadwolf1]

You are welcome Good luck with your chciken run. We just fenced in a large area for 7 bachelor NNs that I refuse to get rid of. Thank goodness my DH doesn't mind helping. This is the third coop and run we have built in a little over a year.