The Middle Tennessee Thread

[DMRippy]

Thanks for replying! I started her on electrolytes and corid this morning, should I add tylan or add tylan and stop the corid?

I don't think corid is going to help. Try just tylan. Corid is not an antibiotic.

 

[DMRippy]

Hey folks! I know y'all are going to think I'm off my rocker, but I've got some chickens to get rid of. 2 of them are Rhode Island Red roosters that are about 28 wks old. They are not mean yet or anything, I just don't need them. I will also be having several hens that are not laying anymore that need to go. I have 40 chickens and I'm only getting 15 eggs per day! I cannot bear to kill and eat my girls that I've raised up and I wouldn't even know how to do it anyway, so besides eating them, what do y'all do with older hens and roos?

By older what do you mean? Nobody's chickens are laying well right now. My eggs have gone from 30 something to maybe 8 a day in my breeding pens. My birds are USUALLY no older than 18 months old as pullets lay the best and the eggs seem to hatch the best too. BUT I have some that are over 2 years old and still lay well. My birds are molting or getting ready to molt or coming out of molt.... they are in ALL stages at my place LOL.

 

[Penny Hen]

This is about a dog but it is the same deal.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="

" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[RedPulletMama]

By older what do you mean?  Nobody's chickens are laying well right now.  My eggs have gone from 30 something to maybe 8 a day in my breeding pens.  My birds are USUALLY no older than 18 months old as pullets lay the best and the eggs seem to hatch the best too.  BUT I have some that are over 2 years old and still lay well.  My birds are molting or getting ready to molt or coming out of molt.... they are in ALL stages at my place LOL.

By older, I mean they are 3 or 4 yrs old and haven't laid hardly at all during the summer. Maybe an egg a week from each if I'm lucky.

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
Wow they should still be laying OK but they are older for sure. I send old hens off to the roo guy. If I don't want to sell them. I don't like to sell older hens without full disclosure.

 

[amenfarm]

Well Donna, found the hen's problem and she is been relocated to the next life. We sent a deceased hen to the KORD lab in Nashville this spring with similar issues, they found moss like material that had blocked her intestines. We did a complete look though the coop and run, several times, and could never find "moss", or anything else. That is until this last week, after another barred rock sicken, I looked over everything again( this is something I do all the time any way). Finally found the "moss", B. C.-before chickens-, my husband had a 4 inch gap at the bottom of the back barn door, this door is seldom used, and he fixed the leaves and debris blowing in by attaching a piece of indoor outdoor carpet. I found a corner turn up and sticking out under the edge of the door- about 3 or 4 inches, where the door had been recently opened, the frayed, fuzzed edge told the story. We would have relieved her suffering sooner if we had known.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[DMRippy]

Well Donna, found the hen's problem and she is been relocated to the next life. We sent a deceased hen to the KORD lab in Nashville this spring with similar issues, they found moss like material that had blocked her intestines. We did a complete look though the coop and run, several times, and could never find "moss", or anything else. That is until this last week, after another barred rock sicken, I looked over everything again( this is something I do all the time any way). Finally found the "moss", B. C.-before chickens-, my husband had a 4 inch gap at the bottom of the back barn door, this door is seldom used, and he fixed the leaves and debris blowing in by attaching a piece of indoor outdoor carpet. I found a corner turn up and sticking out under the edge of the door- about 3 or 4 inches, where the door had been recently opened, the frayed, fuzzed edge told the story. We would have relieved her suffering sooner if we had known.

Thanks for your advice.

Sorry to hear that.

 

[BlackwoodHollow]

Glad/and sad to see that we aren't the only ones whose chicks have gone on strick. ONE egg a day if we are lucky from four Rhodebars(year old) and 5 Black Australorps(also 1 year). Hopefully it's a communal molt as they seem to be. There is one trooper we call houdini, she is the smallest hen we have and gives us 6/7 eggs a week. Bless her believed heart. We treated them for mites again today, building a new fence/coop and bedding(almost done). Have treated them for worms too and put ACV in their water all the time. They are 100% A-Okay except for the laying issue.

Next step is wood ash in the coop and run after we get finished burning the branches we pruned this week. I've heard that helps with mites.

Funny thing is, the RB were laying up a storm while in quarantine, then we moved them back to the grow out pen and they continued to lay for a few days, but now, nothing. Maybe an egg a day. We watch for predators, they eat high quality, fermented feed. . . etc., I don't know what gives. We've tried cucumbers, red pepper, etc., etc. . . . Maybe a really fast rat snake is getting them? In which case, we'll . . . . relocate him. . . . nicely.

PS: Hi, thread!

 

[BlackwoodHollow]

Well Donna, found the hen's problem and she is been relocated to the next life. We sent a deceased hen to the KORD lab in Nashville this spring with similar issues, they found moss like material that had blocked her intestines. We did a complete look though the coop and run, several times, and could never find "moss", or anything else. That is until this last week, after another barred rock sicken, I looked over everything again( this is something I do all the time any way). Finally found the "moss", B. C.-before chickens-, my husband had a 4 inch gap at the bottom of the back barn door, this door is seldom used, and he fixed the leaves and debris blowing in by attaching a piece of indoor outdoor carpet. I found a corner turn up and sticking out under the edge of the door- about 3 or 4 inches, where the door had been recently opened, the frayed, fuzzed edge told the story. We would have relieved her suffering sooner if we had known.

Thanks for your advice.

Oh, my. I'm sorry to hear that. Scary story. But you did all you could do, and now you know the problem. Good luck in the future.

 

[amenfarm]

My husband went straight to the coop and took the carpet off right then, didn't even have to ask.
Gachooks, your chickens are reaching the molt, you should see or start seeing feathers around the coop. Sometimes it looks like a pillow fight. Up they're calcium, and protein and wait. If you are not light your coop with at least 40 watts for every 100 feet, 16 to 17 hours(-they have to have a min of 6 hours of darkness and they must have time to get on the roost before lights out--I start with 4 am light), they won't start laying until the light increases again. Once they start into the shut down it will not begin because you supplemented the light- you have to do that before that begins- if your still at 14 hours of light you can start lighting now to avoid the time off--astroplorps usually lay in winter anyway. I use supplementary light, some peoole do give them that rest, mine rest during molt, and my 4 year old buckeye is doing fine on that schedule.