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valleychicks said:
I have another question I hope someone can help me with the answer or where I need to look for the answer. We had the 6 - 16 week old chickens out semi-free ranging in the yard late yesterday and just before sundown I noticed that one of our two rooster's comb (not the alpha male) had purple tips. Now I know it's not frost bite living in GA at this time of the year so I looked it up and found a lot of other chicken owners say it could stress or illness. Could the fact that the alpha rooster trying to mate with the 4 hens be stressing out our other rooster or could he be sick? He is eating, drinking and foraging normally so I don't see any outward signs of illness. What do y'all think?
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It could also just be a light case of sun tan.
 
valleychicks said:
I didn't know they could do that... This morning his comb is back to red. I am totally confused over why his comb tips turned purple yesterday.
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I know my girls combs will change some times. Too hot, unhappy about something, etc. think about humans. Our eyes get puffy if we cry or don't get enough sleep. Same type of thing with chickens.
 
Flowerbh said:
I know my girls combs will change some times. Too hot, unhappy about something, etc. think about humans. Our eyes get puffy if we cry or don't get enough sleep. Same type of thing with chickens.
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Oh,ok. I was thinking lack of oxygen when I first saw the tips purple like a person turning blue when not getting oxygen. So he could be stressing over something. I will keep an eye on him. Maybe he is just a big sensitive guy :)
 
I had a broody Rhodebar sitting on 9 eggs. Saturday I noticed that 1 had hatched. I assumed several more would follow. Today she's on the ground with 1 chick, 8 eggs still in the nest. I checked the remaining eggs and 1 had been cracked(STEPPED ON) and was leaking, so I discarded it. I realized that she was done, so I removed the rest. I threw the unhatched eggs into the woods and three of them exploded on impact, thank heaven they didn't explode in the nest or on me.
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I am pretty disappointed in my young hens hatch rate. This just goes to show that even mother nature can have a bad hatch sometimes.
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valleychicks said:
Oh,ok. I was thinking lack of oxygen when I first saw the tips purple like a person turning blue when not getting oxygen. So he could be stressing over something. I will keep an eye on him. Maybe he is just a big sensitive guy
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The first thing that would happen with a lack of oxygen would be a pale comb, followed by pale blue tips. I have a broody hen right now who has been faithfully sitting on eggs for about a week, who's comb is very light at the moment. Her body is channeling most of the blood flow to her chest and stomach to incubate the eggs, leaving her comb fairly pale. It's a very light pink right now, and almost actually white down near the bottom of the comb.

A deep reddish purple is more like too much blood being in an area. There is one thing I can think of off the top of my head where a male would get a big rush of blood that turns something a dark reddish-purple, but I'm trying to keep this G-rated here.
 
Rocky Rhodes said:
I had a broody Rhodebar sitting on 9 eggs. Saturday I noticed that 1 had hatched. I assumed several more would follow. Today she's on the ground with 1 chick, 8 eggs still in the nest. I checked the remaining eggs and 1 had been cracked(STEPPED ON) and was leaking, so I discarded it. I realized that she was done, so I removed the rest. I threw the unhatched eggs into the woods and three of them exploded on impact, thank heaven they didn't explode in the nest or on me.
sickbyc.gif
I am pretty disappointed in my young hens hatch rate. This just goes to show that even mother nature can have a bad hatch sometimes.
idunno.gif
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And this year is apparently bad for everything and everyone!

When I got the call from a breeder way back in January about goose eggs I had purchased the year prior (after which her geese stopped laying) she kept me updated, but mostly with bad news. The geese were ready to start laying, but it was still freezing over so most of their eggs froze and then cracked from the ice. Then another breeder I was in touch with for "colored" sebastopol geese had such a bad hatch, she didn't sell a single egg OR gosling this year. My own flock had issues with two 8-month-old silkies who still hadn't started to lay, and four other bantams over 6 months old, who weren't laying. My EE's actually just flat out quit during the winter this year - which they didn't do last year. And prior to losing my leghorns, they went almost a week without laying as well. LEGHORNS!

Now that everything is laying, my hatch rates are still up there, but not for the broody hens. I was also hoping for some peacock eggs this year that I couldn't get because that guy's birds weren't laying normally. And McMurray Hatchery had to delay my bantam order originally because their own hens weren't producing well, and their hatch rates were REALLY, REALLY low. Something about the weather this year has killed off a lot of reproductive attempts in all sorts of fowl!

And that's not including the sick chicks that I began to get after bringing home some babies from Tractor Supply. And the more and more I think about it, the more I'm thinking it was the Tractor Supply chicks that brought me trouble, and not the McMurray chicks. Especially after finding out Tractor Supply's source of chicks is the cause of yet ANOTHER serious salmonella outbreak, and a very LARGE percentage of people who got chicks from them, have lost them.
 
ChickDancer said:
The first thing that would happen with a lack of oxygen would be a pale comb, followed by pale blue tips. I have a broody hen right now who has been faithfully sitting on eggs for about a week, who's comb is very light at the moment. Her body is channeling most of the blood flow to her chest and stomach to incubate the eggs, leaving her comb fairly pale. It's a very light pink right now, and almost actually white down near the bottom of the comb.


A deep reddish purple is more like too much blood being in an area. There is one thing I can think of off the top of my head where a male would get a big rush of blood that turns something a dark reddish-purple, but I'm trying to keep this G-rated here.
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Umm...OK actually that may be exactly what the problem is then. When his tips turned purple the other rooster had just been let's say trying to dance with one of the hens and he was standing near by. Lol!
 

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