THIS ISN'T AN EMERGENCY. Do all chickens sneeze?

[chickenlover09]

I'm sorry if this is a bad question, but i'm not very good with chicken health.... (Good think I joined the forum!!)


Sometimes when i'm letting the chicks/chickens run around, they sneeze. Not a lot, but you can tell that they do. They're beaks are nice and dry no snot, but they do sneeze maybe once a day or every other day (at least that's when i've seen them do it).

Mainly the silkies. Is sneezing something to worry about, or do they just have a tickle in their nose?




Thanks.

 

[HumbleHen207]

For the most part, sneezing should not be of a concern unless it is happening frequently with large amounts of discharge. Unless your birds are exhibiting other signs of illness its not a problem. All of my birds sneeze on occasion, its usually just to dislodge some dirt or water they may have gotten stuck in there.

 

[chickenlover09]

Okay thanks. They're not sick in any other way, and there's barely any discharge coming out of their nose.

Also, I don't really want to start a new thread, so if you can answer this I would really appreciate it! I have 5 chicks in all, 2 normal laying hens (that's what the guy at the feed bin called them, but i'm not sure the breed. I think one of them may be a silver laced wyndadotte mix though), and 3 silkies.

The 2 laying hens and 1 of the silkies are both a little over 11 weeks, and the other 2 silkies are a month older then the others. When should they start laying?

 

[HumbleHen207]

Hens start laying at the earliest 18 weeks (earliest I have ever seen was 16 weeks in production breeds). The silkies will probably be a couple weeks (21-24 weeks old possibly) older before they start to lay as they aren't a major production breed, the layers will probably start pretty close to the 18 week mark, give or take a a week or two.

 

[chickenlover09]

Okay thanks.