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The Welsummer Thread!!!!

Risk do you have any better pictures


here is a few pictures of miss buttery.hopefully they turn out good....
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Hi there,

Just one thing popped out when reading this - birds can get too much fat around their vent to lay easily. I would cut out the BOSS - it tends to go straight to fat. I was reading on another thread where somebody had a hen that was laying fewer and fewer eggs and finally quit. That person was of the old school thought that when a hen quits laying its time to eat them (even though the bird was not that old), so she processed the bird and found almost two cups of fat around the vent area - and an egg behind all that fat. The bird could not push the egg through the fat, so it just left it there. She had felt the hen before processing and was unable to feel the egg or the fat at that time. This bird was also a pig on her food - and would eat and eat and was huge, much larger than others of her breed.

Perhaps in the winter time your girl was using the BOSS to supplement the body fat and using the energy to keep her warm, but now that fat is going to storage - which is in the back end there. Put her on a diet - let her get more of her food free-ranging and move that fat out of storage. Hopefully that will get her back in shape and lessen the chance of internal laying or blockage.


Thanks so much for this reply .... I didn't think of anything quite like this - but it makes total sense. I will let her free range and allow her to eat only at night and in the morning ... for maybe a week ? No more special chicken mash either. It's diet time for the girls. She's a helluva big hen. Again, thank you so much.

Cheers ...... AB
 
I would also ask - have you ever wormed her?
Hi - and thanks for your interest. Yes I have wormed my chickens, but to what degree success is very difficult to judge, as I have used an 'all-wormer' which is mixed in water, and my two larger girls don't go for that - except when they absolutely have to - so I would suspect they have only had very small amounts at worming times. Today I am going to a Bird Vet to pick up some medication for worms that can be fed straight down the throat. I think they are small tablets ( I have given tabs before to chickens ) ... and as I only have 3 chickens, I don't foresee a problem. This time I will KNOW they have been wormed. I keep their coop regularly dusted with Pestcine ( Australian ) ... which is supposed to kill off red mites and other nasties that get in and around a chicken.

Again - thanks ...

Cheers ........ AB
 
Hey everyone! I've got a 30 week old welsummer who isn't laying yet....is this "normal"?? I have another one who started laying about 3 weeks ago and is doing well...
 
Mine is 25weeks and just started to develope her comb and wattles its going to be a long time before she lays lol shes getting big but still looks like young chick. Some say around 35 weeks give or take not super sure though. Check her vents.
 

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