The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[stonykill]

It looks like even his eyes changed

that is the 1st thing I notice on a chicken that isn't well.

 

[hotrodflash]

Okay let's say I get a rooster when all I want are eggs for eating and I have big dogs for protection. Why should I get my husband a rooster?

My roosters do a great job of watching for aerial predators while my dogs help prevent anything from coming in the yard. If you are worried about eating fertile eggs, don't. I eat fertile eggs almost every day and they taste no different. If you don't want a population boom, continue to remove the eggs from the hens daily and you won't have babies. If a hen goes broody, break her broody.

I love to hear my roosters crow, even my little bantam who is a pain in the rear. He thinks he is ten foot tall and bullet proof.

 

[smccuen]

Quote: crickets lurk in my garage all Summer and Fall - if they would just jump in a predictable direction (not toward me preferably) I think I'd be alright......hate yellow jackets, been stung too many times while mowing or doing yard work.....I make a point of finding their holes in the ground and pouring gasoline in them - but when they are irritated they are horribly persistent in stinging, clinging to socks, shoes, jeans until removed and the stings are very painful for days

 

[Bulldogma]

It looks like even his eyes changed

It was like they had shrunk into his head a bit and no longer filled out the eye sockets. He was also drinking huge amounts... this makes me wonder if he got a hold of a mouse or something that had ingested rat poison. I also learned today that the exterminator came to our neighbor's house. Gunnar was always an escape artist and would go over there. He learned not to crow at their house or I would come and get him when I could hear his crow coming from the wrong place. Hopefully the results from the vet will shed some light on all this.

 

[OohLaLa]

All my families farms had roosters and I loved them. Shoot my Aunt had a pet rooster that came in and out of the open doors to sit by her side where ever she went. I am more interested in eggs, I can have a diverse flock for looking at. Oh and my coop is right by the house, when that puppy crows there will be no sleeping in lol

 

[Quailsong]

It was like they had shrunk into his head a bit and no longer filled out the eye sockets. He was also drinking huge amounts... this makes me wonder if he got a hold of a mouse or something that had ingested rat poison. I also learned today that the exterminator came to our neighbor's house. Gunnar was always an escape artist and would go over there. He learned not to crow at their house or I would come and get him when I could hear his crow coming from the wrong place. Hopefully the results from the vet will shed some light on all this.

Ack, now that's a new twist in the story. I couldn't imagine what rat poison would do to a healthy roo (as in breakdown, not just death). Pure speculation here: he may not have snuck over even, but the mouse may have paid a visit to the coop.

Did the neighbour warn you at all? or is this after the fact? :S

Edit: I should have read that better. Might be a good idea to let the neighbour warn you next time when they have an exterminator. Whether or not Gunnar got into the feed/mice.

 

[Bulldogma]

Quote:

Ack, now that's a new twist in the story. I couldn't imagine what rat poison would do to a healthy roo (as in breakdown, not just death). Pure speculation here: he may not have snuck over even, but the mouse may have paid a visit to the coop.

Did the neighbour warn you at all? or is this after the fact? :S

Edit: I should have read that better. Might be a good idea to let the neighbour warn you next time when they have an exterminator. Whether or not Gunnar got into the feed/mice.

Irony... we had 2 roos. The neighbor who just had the exterminator out has complained multiple times about the crowing...

...of the rooster that is still alive!

The one we still have crows at 4 in the morning. Gunnar had a quieter crow and he only crowed after the sun was up. They didn't mind him.

 

[loanwizard]

Until I read about the poison, I would have bet on a Stroke, just like in a human. Disoriented, off, blockage of bloodflow causing the comb issue, and rather quick death.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[OohLaLa]

My roosters do a great job of watching for aerial predators while my dogs help prevent anything from coming in the yard. If you are worried about eating fertile eggs, don't. I eat fertile eggs almost every day and they taste no different. If you don't want a population boom, continue to remove the eggs from the hens daily and you won't have babies. If a hen goes broody, break her broody.

I love to hear my roosters crow, even my little bantam who is a pain in the rear. He thinks he is ten foot tall and bullet proof.

Have to admit as I am new to having my own flock cracking open a fertile egg was a concern. I have my coop completely caged with hardware wire, its in the ground by a foot all around the perimeter, it's all buttoned down over the entire thing as a roof to. I built in an an automatic solar powered light sensor door that opens at dawn and closes at dusk with an extra delay open and close for stragglers. It's a little Fort Knox. Then there is my to German Shepherds and English 100 pound black lab that lets us know when anything comes to close to the house. My Flock is diversified, if I got a rooster I would not know which breed to get. I have silkies, EE, Astralorp, Golden and Silver Laced Wyandottes etc. Any babies would be a mix unless he only bread with his own like breed and then which do you settle on? A rooster would be fun but I'm not sure it's going to happen.

 

[Melabella]

I brought him home the day he hatched. My friend ki4got hatched him for me. She has super-healthy birds.

Gunnar went from this:




To this (taken this morning):

It was less than 24 hours from the time he first appeared just a tiny bit "off" to the time of death. I would never have noticed he was moving a little slower if I didn't spend so much time with these birds.

I lost a girl a few weeks ago, was out most of the day with a school trip and when I got home I went to the coop to start chores, and open the run to let them free range, and collect eggs. She was in a nest box, and I thought she was laying a late egg. I left her be a few minutes, and opened the box again and pet her, and she was stiff. When I lifted her out, her head slumped down, she hadn't been dead too long. I noticed her comb was dark just like his. I inspected her as much as my inexperienced self could see was her vent was prolapsed a bit, but I wasn't sure if that caused her death. I felt along her keel bone, and the feathers seemed to just fall out with me doing this, and the thing I noticed was a lot of blood under the skin. I guessed it was either some sort of heart failure, and hemmoraging, or the prolapsed vent. I wondered if the vent pushed out as she died? i have no idea.. but guess how old she was .... 10 months old...

Here are the few picks i snapped.
Her comb was far darker than you can see in this photo


The blood along her breast bone, under her skin


Her vent...





here she was before she died, and how I will remember her..