Whole flock sick and not eating, Please Help

[About15chickens]

Try some sand for the surface. Dawg53 gets sand hauled in each year to make fresh surfaces for his chickens. You can sometimes find it free if near a creek, or buy it at Lowes or Home Depot.

If you could make a slanted roof that overhangs to the outside, that would shunt the water away from them. If you can obtain any used metal or fiberglass roofing panels from someone in the are, you could build up the back side with wood to help slant it. I tried tarps early on, and they were hard to deal with. Plus, it is good to try and make the top predator-proof.

I have really thought about the sand for awhile now but wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Then it was so muddy I got the stall pellets to soak up the water. They work great but now they're staying wet.

A tarp will have to do it for now. The run has a predator proof top on it already that's angled. Same material as the sides. Just need to catch the water run of on the porch side.

 

[Aunt Angus]

I have the same run, but I expanded it so that it's over 200 sq ft. It's been great! We have a tarp over it.

One thing that I dud that helped TREMENDOUSLY was to get some cheap shower curtain liners and attach them to the side facing the prevailing wind. I weighed mine down with 4x4s because I had some, but you could use anything. Cost me $4 for 4 of them.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Oh - and digging a ditch helped this past year when we got a crazy rainstorm. I went out in the middle of the rain and dug a little trench to steer the running water around the run. It wasn't pretty nor was it 100% effective, but it helped a lot. There was a stream of water running right down the middle of my run. Those poor chickens.

The ducks, of course, were thrilled.

 

[About15chickens]

Well we lost one one of our girls yesterday. While everyone else seemed to feel better she just sat around Sunday. Then yesterday morning I just had a feeling and told my husband to be prepared to find her gone when he got home. He did.

So everyone else seems to be feeling better. They are getting really hard to catch for meds. They are running around, scratching in the mud, cleaning themselves, and the rooster is almost completely normal. My issue is they aren't eating. I am still treating for sour crop, they have 2 days left for that.
They won't touch their feed. They won't eat scratch. They look at scrambled eggs in disgust.
All I have gotten them to eat is some clover, cucumber, and scrap parrot seed (they normally devour this hulls and all but just picked the small seeds they wanted and left the rest.)

I know they aren't 100% and we aren't out of the woods yet but what should I try to feed? They haven't eaten good since July 31st.
Their crops were almost empty at bedtime last night.

 

[SmiYa0126]

What has helped me to increase my birds appetite is sweetening their water, I use maple syrup mostly, sometimes molasses. If you have nutri drench, that will help too.

I'm so sorry for the loss of your girl

 

[Aunt Angus]

Honestly, their feed is best, if you can get them to eat it. Or starter/grower. Maybe as a mash? Scrambled egg is good, too.

I hope the rest of the flock has "turned a corner." You've been through so much.