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chicksunderwing

chicksunderwing

Chirping
9 Years
Joined
Mar 27, 2014
Messages
23
Reaction score
7
Points
85
Location
Washington
Very first time writing & couldn't figure out where to introduce myself. We have 4 almost 5-year-old hens: 3 Aeracanas & 1 buff. Also 3 almost 3-year-old hens: 1 Golden Sexlink, 1 Silver Aeracana [maybe someday I'll learn how to spell this!], & 1 Silver-laced Wyandotte. And 2 almost 3-year-old White Silkie Roosters! Altogether since we started in 2009, we've lost 13, one at a time. :( Can't wait to be able to ask questions! Thank you all for the warm welcome!
 
Hi and :welcome

Well you found the right place!
I'm not entirely sure how to spell that breed either, lol. I think it might be Araucana. But there are so many variations of the spelling here that I'm sure everyone will understand anyway. :lol:

Hopefully it'll be smooth sailing with your chickens in the future. Sorry to hear you lost so many!

Enjoy the site. :D
 
welcome-byc.gif
feel free to fire away on any questions, that's what we are here for. If we don't know the answer - we'll link you to threads that would.

Did you lose the 13 to predators, health issues or ????? The Learning center is a great beginning or refresher course. The predator, coops & run sections should help you beef up security.

If you go to" where am I, where are you," you can locate and post on your state thread. People there will give you the best heads up on what is happening in your area.
 



Thanks everybody!! So far none of our eagles, hawks, coyotes, raccoons or neighbor dogs have eaten our chickens [although two of our ducks were eaten by raccoons]! We give them only organic, soy-free feed, organic veggies, and filtered water. Plus oyster shells, their shells, and grit. And free-range grazing (and running) from mid-afternoon till bedtime. Actually one of the 13 we no longer have was a 4-month old Araucana rooster we gave away the first year -- we couldn't decide if we should have one.

Still, every few months, one of them starts slowing down and we know they'll be the next to go. Sometimes it takes several weeks, sometimes a few days. Later when they get really slow, we bring them to a little heated room & bring them anything we can get them to consume, including home-made electrolytes and seed - hard-boiled-egg mash, etc. We're afraid if we separated them earlier they would be too depressed. Once this happened to a hen who had had a prolapsed vent 4 months earlier. Once it was a hen who had been egg-bound several weeks earlier. Another was a hen whose crop stuck out way too far -- she lasted 2 or 3 months. Most we never knew the cause, but wanted to keep them as comfortable as possible.

In February it was Lottie, 2 1/2, a Silver-laced Wyandotte [picture on top]. Now it seems that our Golden Sexlink, Chrissie, almost 3, [picture above when she was young] is slowly beginning to -- not feel so good.
 
Sorry if this is dumb, but has anybody had a chicken get well again, after they've been sick? How in the world did you do it?
 
Sometimes chickens get sick for no apparent reason, and then they randomly improve all of a sudden - we had one who ate very little and complained in an annoying high-pitched whine while standing immobile underneath some tree. This went on for a couple of months. And then it molted and it was fine. Feathers grew back shinier than the young chickens'. :P Now it eats as normal, although no longer lays eggs and moves around slower than the others. (However that's to be expected, as it's almost 4 years old.)

One of our first pair of chickens was sick, and recovered after we force-fed it garlic. (Seems chickens are like people and won't eat that stuff raw, lol.) I'm not quite sure if that's a good method or even a valid method, because it's only worked half the time and that could be how many of the illnesses clear up by themselves.

I hope your chicken will recover too - even if she doesn't, it's nice that you'll make her as comfortable as possible in her final days. We have only ever kept red sex-links and they don't seem to have it in them to live very long... It's probably a breeding for high production thing. Our first one died when it was 2 and a half, the second one at 4 and a half (it pretty much ate grass for the last year of its life though, so it was very healthy :P) and our current oldest pair are just under 4.
 

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