Utah!

[the-bird-man]

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from one birdman to another i wish you the best of luck! i know it is frustrating but i am sure you will figure it out soon. i guess some chickens just do not lay much in winter. i would cut down on the treats and make sure they get lots of protein. do you let them free range at all? maybe they are laying somewhere other than the nest boxes? most my girl are molting so i am not getting as much eggs. then my two younger girls are not laying yet and they are over 20 weeks. today i went out to the coop to find my rabbit had dug out in the night

found her down in a window well so now she is in lock down

 

[darkroo]

Adding a light in not an immediate cure to the slowing down of egg laying caused but a change in natural light. My understanding is 15 hours of light a day for them to generate an egg a day as their body will allow. Fluctuations in light, protein, life cycle and such only assist in the function of there little bodies to create an egg. If the reduction in natural light is the reason of the slow down returning them to a full light cycle will only allow them to return to the their cycle as there bodies will allow.

From what I can recall we were suppose to start adding light a month ago so it may take a little bit before they get back on track. I've always had my girls with light in the fall and winter and had pretty good results.

Good luck

 

[ElkMtnCove]

Quote:
from one birdman to another i wish you the best of luck! i know it is frustrating but i am sure you will figure it out soon. i guess some chickens just do not lay much in winter. i would cut down on the treats and make sure they get lots of protein. do you let them free range at all? maybe they are laying somewhere other than the nest boxes? most my girl are molting so i am not getting as much eggs. then my two younger girls are not laying yet and they are over 20 weeks. today i went out to the coop to find my rabbit had dug out in the night

found her down in a window well so now she is in lock down

Darn that waskely wabbit! At least he was in a window well and safe.

 

[JRBIRDMAN]

We also quit feeding them crumble and went to hen scratch, My wife had me go buy a bag of crumbles and discontinue the use of teh hen scratch, I'll feed that to the wild birds. I hope we start getting eggs again

 

[MoriahQuilts]

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By chance did you get a new chicken? Or, did you let someone that has chickens walk where your chickens do? You would be surprised at the upper respiratory illness that can be brought in that way. A chicken that you've bought, that looks well, but is a carrier. Someone carrying it in on their shoes. When I have people over to buy a chicken, I have them wait at the gate while I get the chicken if I haven't already got it in a kennel for someone that really wants to take it home.
Upper respiratory meds...many out there, many that some folks swear by. But have to say, the one that I like best to have on hand for any type of infection..example, I just finished treating a girl with bumble foot...anyway.. Denagard! Expensive, but well worth the price. Can only buy it on the internet. I will see if I can find that site. You may want to treat them every other month just for preventive. I do.

As they say, chickens don't get colds, but upper respiratory problems...I say..say what? What's the difference? Oh well..

Hope this works... http://www.thepoultrysite.com/focus/novartis-animal-health/2281/denagard-premix-for-poultry-denagard-premix-the-right-choice-from-novartis-animal-health

Look up things said about it here on BYC, type in Denagard treatment, you will find a lot of different posts.. nicest thing about this medication, is that it does not have a withdrawal period to wait on before you can eat the eggs.

Cynthia - Thanks for the advice. They have been on the Denagard since it arrived last Thursday. The sicker ones are looking better, and all of them seem perkier. It must have been more widespread in my birds than I thought. I'm not exactly clear - does it treat any upper respiratory disease (CRD and Coryza)? Its easy to mix for a small flock, 1 ml per cup of water, I like easy math.

And I had brought home other birds. We bought 30 supposed Cornish Cross meat birds from CAL Ranch in Spanish Fork. 12 turned out to be white leghorns. They were healthy, but the remaining Cornish started getting sick, so I went ahead and put the leghorn hens in with my laying hens - not having any idea how contagious this could be and that I was risking my hens. I thought it would be better to introduce a bunch of young birds at once, so they wouldn't get singled out to get picked on. That part went really well.

I got into this to have a learning experience, and it has been.

Hope your surgery went well.

Ann

 

[ElkMtnCove]

Not life-threatening I hope, but yet another issue...

I thought one of my 2+ yr old white leghorns wnet missing. She was fine and pecking in the yard when we left to the store but MIA when we got back (this was 2 days ago). After much looking I finally found her sleeping in the coop (at a weird time of day). She was NOT ruffled up and sick looking, however her comb was not red. Not pure white but certainly a light pink. Her ear lobes yellowish.

So into the kitchen crate she goes with electrolytes and to watch. She eats, drinks, scratches around and behaves normal, not eggbound. Some color came back to the comb and she wasn't very happy in lockdown so I let her out to range with her family today. She's out there happy as a clam, but her comb is still noticably different than her twin.

I read up and a white comb can be indicative of worms. My girls get DE in their coop and feed, so wouldn't that take care of worms? I checked her for mites and she's clean. Not moulting.

Any ideas?

Of course if she goes back to the coop at an odd time, sneezes or anything unusual back into the kitchen quarantine she goes.

This is SOOOO not my year! My tiny chihuahua had an picky glad rupture this wkend so I took him to the vets yesterday (my birthday) and asked that since they had to sedate anyway to clean his teeth. He's only 4 and had them cleaned once, didn't really look bad but thought what the heck. I get a call that 3 needed to come out and 7 more should! WTH? I hv a great vet and I can't risk infection in a dog that weighs 3.6 lbs (his name is Rambo). So $517 later I have my little guy back and today he's acting a tad better. Scared me.

Come on Father Time, bring in 2013!!

 

[MoriahQuilts]

I would also be interested to know - Are worms often a problem here?

 

[Cynthia12]

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Worms where? DE is good for buggies crawling around their vent area, and under the wings. For internal worms, good ol vinegar in the water. Or, check for that bumble foot. That's how I noticed that my one girl had it, pale comb. MY DH noticed her swollen foot. It is much better now that I got the plug out.

 

[Cynthia12]

Hey all, my surgery is over! I can't believe how much relief I have already. I have better use of my hand, my arm isn't needing to be held up over my head, my arm isn't as numb or tingly as it was. So, as time goes on, I look forward to even better results. I had the C 5,6, and 7 done. Yes, it hurt. For a few days quite bad, but now I can't complain. I still have some pain, but it will only be a week tomorrow! I have to wear it 24/7 for a month. Well, three weeks now.

 

[Cynthia12]

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JR...

I started using the timer about a month ago. Mine are still laying. Today will be the first day that I changed the light to a heat lamp. It is going to be around 24 tonight. I really need it early this year because I have cochin bantams. They don't like the cold. Figure it won't hurt to keep my big girls a bit warm too.