I now have 3 hens presently with grossly extended engorged crops. I posted about the first one on Tuesday here. This post is now more focused on finding the cause, which has to be external, than treating the affected hens.
What is the most likely culprit?? Here are some recent changes that I suspect could be possibilities (In 5 years, I’ve never had multiple hens with crop issues, so I’m looking at external factors, in particular what’s new or changed).
1- straw? I put down straw several weeks ago over the snow in the run. There’s not a lot left because I don’t really like straw so every time I clean I get to get a lot of it out. I’ve never seen anyone eat the straw, and it’s been on the ground for a month at least. I’m currently in the process of attempting to clean the remainder out tonight to the best of my ability just in case.
2- dirty waterer? Hubs pointed out that one of the heated waterers is slimy. I’m not good at cleaning them in the winter once the outside water is turned off, I admit. But I’ve been bad about winter-time waterer cleaning for all the years I’ve had chickens and never had this happen. The waterer is getting cleaned tonight regardless.
3- nest box material? Over the last 2 months we’ve been switching their nest boxes from straw to Eaton Pet & Pasture pads from Amazon. The little string shaped pieces are all over the place, and I worried about them initially but I’ve never seen a hen eat one. the hens really like this new liner and it keeps the eggs cleaner than the straw did, so I hope it’s not the liner!
4-feathers? I saw a couple hens eating feathers that a rooster pulled off one of the ladies. I have a bunch of youngsters still growing in their adult feathers, so there are feathers all over the place. Could they be eating them and getting impacted?
5- feed? I’ve fed Purina Flock Raiser for the last 3 or 4 years. One of my feeders was creating a lot of waste so I decided to try pellets. I bought a bag of Dumor all flock pellets and about 2 weeks ago I mixed it in with their crumbles in 1 of the feeders.
Is there any other common causes of crop impactions/sour crops that I’m missing?
Of interesting note, all the affected hens seem to be my young ones. Two of them are 9 months and 1 is 6 months. The night that several of them had really full/hard crops, it was only my younger girls (less than a year). They are all different breeds or mixes. None of the same breed and none are related. All the older girls had normal crops.
What is the most likely culprit?? Here are some recent changes that I suspect could be possibilities (In 5 years, I’ve never had multiple hens with crop issues, so I’m looking at external factors, in particular what’s new or changed).
1- straw? I put down straw several weeks ago over the snow in the run. There’s not a lot left because I don’t really like straw so every time I clean I get to get a lot of it out. I’ve never seen anyone eat the straw, and it’s been on the ground for a month at least. I’m currently in the process of attempting to clean the remainder out tonight to the best of my ability just in case.
2- dirty waterer? Hubs pointed out that one of the heated waterers is slimy. I’m not good at cleaning them in the winter once the outside water is turned off, I admit. But I’ve been bad about winter-time waterer cleaning for all the years I’ve had chickens and never had this happen. The waterer is getting cleaned tonight regardless.
3- nest box material? Over the last 2 months we’ve been switching their nest boxes from straw to Eaton Pet & Pasture pads from Amazon. The little string shaped pieces are all over the place, and I worried about them initially but I’ve never seen a hen eat one. the hens really like this new liner and it keeps the eggs cleaner than the straw did, so I hope it’s not the liner!
4-feathers? I saw a couple hens eating feathers that a rooster pulled off one of the ladies. I have a bunch of youngsters still growing in their adult feathers, so there are feathers all over the place. Could they be eating them and getting impacted?
5- feed? I’ve fed Purina Flock Raiser for the last 3 or 4 years. One of my feeders was creating a lot of waste so I decided to try pellets. I bought a bag of Dumor all flock pellets and about 2 weeks ago I mixed it in with their crumbles in 1 of the feeders.
Is there any other common causes of crop impactions/sour crops that I’m missing?
Of interesting note, all the affected hens seem to be my young ones. Two of them are 9 months and 1 is 6 months. The night that several of them had really full/hard crops, it was only my younger girls (less than a year). They are all different breeds or mixes. None of the same breed and none are related. All the older girls had normal crops.
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