Chickens 2023/2024/2025

Andy in NH said:
I wonder if that condition is indicative of something else?

I got two more this morning.

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My new Americauna has laid a couple with wrinkles. She's also popped out some soft shelled eggs that break. They have access to oyster shell and I also have a bin with rinsed and dried crumbled egg shell but sometimes they don't eat it. I've started giving her calcium citrate with vitamin D. I pry her beak open and shove it in.

I had another I had to do that for, usually once a week. She had a shell gland problem so her eggs looked like someone stuck the shell together with a seam around the center. When she was older the extra calcium didn't help and she eventually got a reproductive infection.
 
i have a roughly 3.5 month old gold wyandotte pullet that is suddenly "lame" in her left leg. she is resting and trying to walk on her hocks. no obvious signs of injury or wounds. nothing that looks like a bumblefoot infection. i can flex both her legs and all her toes without her squawking. i currently have her in the dog crate with b12 supplement in her water plus got half a b complex vitamin down her throat a little while ago. i just spent a few hours going thru byc forums and thumbing thru my chicken health book with no obvious solutions. wondering if the hive mind here can offer anything?
@Cowgirlup ?
thanks
 
I've had that before. Never found a cause. I usually attribute.it to they get a leg stuck somewhere and get a soft tissue injury. I had a rooster hop around on one leg for 3 months. He eventually got better. If she is mobile on her own seeking food she'll be OK.

My wife has been known to place an injured chicken on a dog bed by the woodstove and feed it cheese for a day or two because she can't help herself.
 
lancecolonel said:
i have a roughly 3.5 month old gold wyandotte pullet that is suddenly "lame" in her left leg. she is resting and trying to walk on her hocks. no obvious signs of injury or wounds. nothing that looks like a bumblefoot infection. i can flex both her legs and all her toes without her squawking. i currently have her in the dog crate with b12 supplement in her water plus got half a b complex vitamin down her throat a little while ago. i just spent a few hours going thru byc forums and thumbing thru my chicken health book with no obvious solutions. wondering if the hive mind here can offer anything?
@Cowgirlup ?
thanks
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It's possible she jumped down off something and has a sprain. If so a little rest and she should be fine. They can get a slipped tendon. BYC has instructions on how to tell if that is the problem and how to fix it. I usually start checking at the hip joint and compare the legs at the same time to look for swelling or a reaction from the chicken. I had a hen that messed up her hip and limped for the rest of her life.

If you put your finger under her toes does she try to grip your finger? They normally will if the foot is OK.

Is she eating and drinking? Any sign she is in pain?
 
Cowgirlup said:
It's possible she jumped down off something and has a sprain. If so a little rest and she should be fine. They can get a slipped tendon. BYC has instructions on how to tell if that is the problem and how to fix it. I usually start checking at the hip joint and compare the legs at the same time to look for swelling or a reaction from the chicken. I had a hen that messed up her hip and limped for the rest of her life.

If you put your finger under her toes does she try to grip your finger? They normally will if the foot is OK.

Is she eating and drinking? Any sign she is in pain?
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she's eating while laying next to the feeder, hard to tell if she is drinking. no signs of pain other than not being able to walk while "standing". she seems incredibly calm while being handled, this from a chicken i could never catch to pick up before this morning. i put her down outside the dog crate earlier and she immediately tried to hop into it. she left a couple droppings inside the crate that look normal, not runny, squishy or bloody. should i search for 'slipped tendon' on byc?
xtry51 said:
I've had that before. Never found a cause. I usually attribute.it to they get a leg stuck somewhere and get a soft tissue injury. I had a rooster hop around on one leg for 3 months. He eventually got better. If she is mobile on her own seeking food she'll be OK.

My wife has been known to place an injured chicken on a dog bed by the woodstove and feed it cheese for a day or two because she can't help herself.
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she wasn't seeking food when she was out in the run. i think the others may have sensed her weakness?
 
@lancecolonel

She's probably uncomfortable if she's letting you handle her when she's usually skittish. Especially if she wants to be in the crate. When they are out with the others they have to act like nothing is wrong so they don't get picked on.

Give her some good treats or some scrambled egg. They love that. If you think she is uncomfortable you can give her1/2 of a low dose aspirin. Just stick it in her beak. Or my favorite trick is to wrap it in a little piece of bread. They usually just eat it.

Maybe she'll be better after a day of rest.
 
Cowgirlup said:
@lancecolonel

She's probably uncomfortable if she's letting you handle her when she's usually skittish. Especially if she wants to be in the crate. When they are out with the others they have to act like nothing is wrong so they don't get picked on.

Give her some good treats or some scrambled egg. They love that. If you think she is uncomfortable you can give her1/2 of a low dose aspirin. Just stick it in her beak. Or my favorite trick is to wrap it in a little piece of bread. They usually just eat it.

Maybe she'll be better after a day of rest.
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I’ll try the egg and aspirin in the morning. Thanks.
 
Cowgirlup said:
I just double checked. The slipped tendon is usually in chicks. So probably not what's going on with your girl.
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I watched a couple videos and took a good look at her legs. I think you’re correct that the tendons aren’t the issue. I gave her scrambled eggs this morning plus a 1/2 baby aspirin and 1/4 b-complex. See my video above to get a look at how she flops and hobbles.
 
We had a couple that had similar symptoms. My wife made a sling for the bird to kind of hang so there would be no weight on her legs. Basically she used a large storage tote like from homedepot (like a 27 gallon size ) and stretched an old t-shirt across the top and then cut a few leg holes and one for the poop. Basically had to feed and water her by hand. Sad to say that neither of the birds we had ever recovered. And they were both less than a year old. She actually consulted with a local “chicken nurse” from Facebook and the nurse is the one who said to make the sling. She also told us that until they are over a year old they can still get something and just die. We have had a few that had a slight limp that we gave extra poultrycell vitamins to by syringe and they bounced back. From only doing chickens for 4+ years or so I will say that some seem to have an ailment and don’t recover and others do, go figure. They all eat the same food and drink the same water so I can’t figure them out. Good luck with you girl
 
@lancecolonel

You can try the chicken chair. It's odd she can move her legs but can't support her weight. I had a rooster that had a bad fall off the roost. He landed on his butt and eventually went paralyzed.


I hate to use the M word. But the can get a form of Mareks disease that can cause paralysis. But it usually comes on very gradually and has other symptoms.

I'm wondering if she could have a fracture? Or if the problem is in her spine...

Do you happen to have meloxicam or meloxidil? Vets give it to dogs and cats. I order it from a Canadian pet pharmacy.

It's an anti inflammatory and pain med you can give to chickens. Im just thinking if something is swollen and pressing on a nerve it might cause that.
 
I grew up on a hobby farm but that means I knew how to milk goats, manually till gardens, tote hay bales and so on. I was the manual labor. I was privy to things like "go get the eggs!", but not this:

We go through two to three 26lbs turkeys a week or their equivalent in whatever meat is on sale atm. You can imagine the joy of waste management in the summer heat... We also use a ton of eggs. Couple dozen a week. I'd like to primarily feed some chickens with a maggot barrel in warm months and feed in colder months. I expect to build a somewhat high fence and a coop and generally let the little velociraptors keep the yard clear of ticks, chasing them inside at night.

The question. Do I have to have a rooster, or can I just yell cock-a-doodle-doo out the window every morning? A neighbor has a rooster that crows throughout the day and Mrs. Pipes keeps pinning chicken soup recipes on the board in the kitchen. Also, is the barrel enough to feed them or is feed a given all seasons?
 
You only need a rooster if you want fertilized eggs and a self-sustaining flock. I do not have a roo because I’d end up killing it for waking me up at the ass crack of dawn, lol. As for feeding I think chicken feed would be required every day. The maggots make a great treat but I’m not sure you could sustain the chicken’s health with just that. It’s a good idea to have a roof over their fenced area for added protection from swooping predators and the elements.
 
For feed, find a local farm that sells corn/soy feed. We feed our chickens the same food we feed the pigs from a local farm. It's way cheaper. $400 per ton. You can get it in 250lb drums, 1000lb bags, or 2000lb bags.

You don't need a rooster, but you get used to the crowing and you'll block it out eventually. If you can't block common sounds out, you probably shouldn't have animals because they all make noise
 
I like having a rooster, my old rooster saved my hens from attacks a few times, twice he alerted me in time to kill the attacker. I miss that rooster, he was 1 in a million. He would come perch next to me while I drank beer in my front yard. My current rooster is a dickhead who likes to do his wing dance right on my line of killing him.

ETA, I free range my birds, I probably wouldn't have a rooster if I kept them on a run.
 
xtry51 said:
Roosters are 100% a dice roll. When we hatch eggs we let them all grow up 6-9 months and sort out the a**h***s. You get 1 good rooster for about every 5 you hatch and 1 great one out of every roughly 10.
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I miss mine man, he was a huge three color cock that was just awesome. I watched him fight a massive male turkey one day for getting too close to the coop. I opened a can of corn and fed him good after that.
 
xtry51 said:
For feed, find a local farm that sells corn/soy feed. We feed our chickens the same food we feed the pigs from a local farm. It's way cheaper. $400 per ton. You can get it in 250lb drums, 1000lb bags, or 2000lb bags.

You don't need a rooster, but you get used to the crowing and you'll block it out eventually. If you can't block common sounds out, you probably shouldn't have animals because they all make noise
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Contact info please.
 
namedpipes said:
I grew up on a hobby farm but that means I knew how to milk goats, manually till gardens, tote hay bales and so on. I was the manual labor. I was privy to things like "go get the eggs!", but not this:

We go through two to three 26lbs turkeys a week or their equivalent in whatever meat is on sale atm. You can imagine the joy of waste management in the summer heat... We also use a ton of eggs. Couple dozen a week. I'd like to primarily feed some chickens with a maggot barrel in warm months and feed in colder months. I expect to build a somewhat high fence and a coop and generally let the little velociraptors keep the yard clear of ticks, chasing them inside at night.

The question. Do I have to have a rooster, or can I just yell cock-a-doodle-doo out the window every morning? A neighbor has a rooster that crows throughout the day and Mrs. Pipes keeps pinning chicken soup recipes on the board in the kitchen. Also, is the barrel enough to feed them or is feed a given all seasons?
Click to expand...
I saw a cool set up online for a mealworm trough. At some point the meal worms crawl out a tube and into the coop to be a chicken snack. I don't think that would be enough to feed them. I definitely use less feed in the summer when they are out eating bugs and plants.

You don't need a rooster unless you want to hatch your own replacements. We had 3 at one point and we got used to the crowing.
 
Cowgirlup said:
Is that your place? If so how did it get in to get a chicken at night?
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Sometimes the chickens will get out of the fence during the day. Usually they’ll make it back in by night, but clearly not always. I haven’t seen evidence of coyote going over the fence but I’m going to have to move the camera closer to check.
 

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