hens

[Vossy]

Just a thought Richard but have you had the soil tested? There may be something that they are picking up, I agree that the old breeds were stronger, sometimes the hybrids are just not as strong even though they are trying to breed disease out of the birds.
Good luck with it, sad to have to cull them after all the work.

[RPWC]

Originally Posted by TR75

We've had issues with our chickens in the last few weeks which resulted in us having to put one of them out of their misery. Turned out she had developed a prolapse and she was not exiting properly which made things for messy. We tried to give her a bath to soothe it but unfortunately it was too far gone.

She was one of our best layers of the six and we've definitely noticed a decrease in production, especially as our two silkies have become very broody.

The next issue we are having is that they are now trying to eat their own eggs, before we get the chance to remove them after work.... Not quite sure on how solve that problem yet so the saga continues.

Who said owning chickens was easy?

There is plenty of advice on the net about it, a popular site is backyard chickens .com
Steve,I had thought about getting a soil test,but I think if there was problem with that, they would all be ill at the same time.

[andymc]

Not that this will help your problem, but I thought it worth sharing anyway ... When my wife was growing up there was always a dozen or so hens & the occasional goat etc around the place. In a large family, the jobs of feeding and cleaning out gradually passed down from one child to the next, until it was the turn of the youngest lad. He stuck with it for a fair while, longer than any of his siblings ever had, despite not particularly enjoying it.

Then one by one, they all started to perish of a mysterious disease. Every so often he would come back in from gathering eggs to report "There's another one gone today mummy". My future mother-in-law was hugely perplexed and never managed to find out what was causing her hens to perish. Eventually they were all gone and she had to start buying eggs for the first time in her life.

Years later, when the young fella was an adult, the subject of the hens came up and he admitted that as a ten year old he had realised that with him being the youngest, there was nobody to take his place and he would be looking after the hens for years to come ... so he started walloping them on the head with a spade!!

[RPWC]

Originally Posted by andymc

Not that this will help your problem, but I thought it worth sharing anyway ... When my wife was growing up there was always a dozen or so hens & the occasional goat etc around the place. In a large family, the jobs of feeding and cleaning out gradually passed down from one child to the next, until it was the turn of the youngest lad. He stuck with it for a fair while, longer than any of his siblings ever had, despite not particularly enjoying it.

Then one by one, they all started to perish of a mysterious disease. Every so often he would come back in from gathering eggs to report "There's another one gone today mummy". My future mother-in-law was hugely perplexed and never managed to find out what was causing her hens to perish. Eventually they were all gone and she had to start buying eggs for the first time in her life.

Years later, when the young fella was an adult, the subject of the hens came up and he admitted that as a ten year old he had realised that with him being the youngest, there was nobody to take his place and he would be looking after the hens for years to come ... so he started walloping them on the head with a spade!!

The little so and so!!,if I found out that was happening,I'd be walloping him on the RS with a spade.
Actually she has improved and started eating again,anger crossed she will continue to do so.

[greendriver]

Originally Posted by andymc

Not that this will help your problem, but I thought it worth sharing anyway ... When my wife was growing up there was always a dozen or so hens & the occasional goat etc around the place. In a large family, the jobs of feeding and cleaning out gradually passed down from one child to the next, until it was the turn of the youngest lad. He stuck with it for a fair while, longer than any of his siblings ever had, despite not particularly enjoying it.

Then one by one, they all started to perish of a mysterious disease. Every so often he would come back in from gathering eggs to report "There's another one gone today mummy". My future mother-in-law was hugely perplexed and never managed to find out what was causing her hens to perish. Eventually they were all gone and she had to start buying eggs for the first time in her life.


Years later, when the young fella was an adult, the subject of the hens came up and he admitted that as a ten year old he had realised that with him being the youngest, there was nobody to take his place and he would be looking after the hens for years to come ... so he started walloping them on the head with a spade!!

An example of fowl play

[Vossy]

Hope the problem does resolve itself Richard, eggs all round soon again.

[James.uk]

When I kept pigeons they often got an illness called "going light" ..

The cure was "white sesqui" tablets from the vet, and I found they cured most things both for pigeons and chickens..

Don't feed your birds antibiotics for too long as their immune systems get damaged-disabled...
...