4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[princess]

Hi everyone

 

One of my chickens has layed two soft eggs in two days. However she is really lethargic, looks pale and her comb looks saggy and dry. She is not moving much and her tail is droopy. She is spending most of her time in the eglu. Any advice on what I should do. She isn't really eating. I am Very worried. I would appreciate any egg-spert help on this.

 

Thanks x

[Egluntyne]

If her comb is "saggy" it is a sign that she might be dehydrated. I would bring her in and encourage her to drink.

 

If she is reluctant, pop to the chemist and buy one of those childs medicine dosing syringes and dribble water into her beak with it. Sweeten the water with a drop of honey to encourage her.

 

Have you wormed her recently?

[princess]

That is good advice. She is only 4 months old from omlet and I didn't think we had to worm them until a year. Is this right? Why the soft eggs? Does that make them feel ill?

 

Thanks so much for advice.

[Egluntyne]

I didn't think we had to worm them until a year. [b]If she is free ranging, she may have picked up worms already as the worm eggs live in the grouns or are carried by earthworms, slugs etc. She is not too young for a course of Flubenvet.[/b] Why the soft eggs? Does that make them feel ill? It does make them feel ill. The muscular contractions which shove the egg along the laying gear work more efficiently when there is a hard shell to push against, and so they are more painful and presumably tiring when the shell is soft. Often it is just a blip when they are new to laying. Make sure she has an adequate supply of mixed poultry grit, which contains calcium, which will strengthen the muscular contractions, and firm up the shells.

 

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Good advice from Egluntine . I hope your poorly girl picks up soon.

[princess]

Thanks guys.

 

Have managed to get 4mls of water with honey into her. She didn't resist at all. she just lies on the floor. I am very worried. I have added some chicken grit and a bowl of grapes to the run but she just isn't interested. I really don't think it looks good. The guys at the local chicken feed suppliers said not to worm her as probably not worms. How often shall I give her water?

[Egluntyne]

Every half hour or so.

 

TBH it sounds to me as though she needs to see a vet.

[richandemm]

Hi everyone

 

One of my chickens has layed two soft eggs in two days. However she is really lethargic, looks pale and her comb looks saggy and dry. She is not moving much and her tail is droopy. She is spending most of her time in the eglu. Any advice on what I should do. She isn't really eating. I am Very worried. I would appreciate any egg-spert help on this.

 

Thanks x

 

Hi,

 

We are also relatively new chicken owners, and one of ours had similar symptoms to those you describe last week. We found that it was a blockage in her crop. A trip to the vet got it emptied, and she has had to be on medication afterwards, but it appears to have worked so far (fingers crossed). Might be worth checking out?

[princess]

Hi thanks so much for advice guys. Took chicken to the vet yest morning and unfortunately she was too poorley to save. Vet not sure why she died as nothing was obviously wrong and her feathers and comb in good condition, but she had been lethargic and not herself for 24 hours and this is dangerous for a chicken apparently, probably a cold that affected her lungs as her breathing sounded quite raspy towards the end. also she had layed two soft eggs which could indicate calcium deficiency even though we had grit etc available.

 

We are off to collect two new chickens today so little lilly has some company as she is very lonely on her own and apparently chickens can die of a broken heart. She seems so lost on her own. I was up at 6 walking round the garden with her, if she is left she just sits. We couldn't face anything happening to her after what has just happened. We are very upset that we couldn't save flo but we tried our hardest.

 

Thanks again guys

[Ain't Nobody Here]

How sad . I'm so sorry .

 

I'm glad you're getting some new friends for Lilly (I was welling up thinking of your poorly girl and then poor little Lilly .)

[Olly]

so sorry to hear that - it sounds as if you did all you could, but unfortunately chickens do just die sometimes without any very obvious cause or even obvious symptoms.

 

You're doing the right thing in getting your new girls, Lilly will soon enjoy bossing them around.

[Egluntyne]

Sorry to hear the news.

[princess]

Hi all just thought i would post. Wanted battery chickens as thought it would be nice to give good life however not available today and I needed chickens today! I went to domestic foul trust and picked up two chickens mixed breed for 35 pounds. Very young birds one white and one grey. On letting them loose in the run noticed that their beaks have been cut! I feel that this is really sad. They struggled picking up sweetcorn and just look odd ( in a cute way!) We phoned the trust and she said it is done by their supplier who breed in bulk. Is this ok for chickens? will they suffer as they can't eat as quick? should we separate them for feeding?

 

Also as regards to lovely lilly I have never seen such a quick change in stance. She went from depressed chuck to bossy, back to normal chick in the flap of a wing. She did a lot of pecking particularly to the white chicken who she didn't leave alone. Put them to bed in different areas and am about to place them together during the cover of dark so they wake up together. I will be up at 4.30am ish to ensure no bullying!!!

 

Wish me luck

[Steph101]

Really sorry to hear about your little chicken that passed away. That's really sad. Good luck with your new girls.

[mrsf]

Hi there - just wondering how you are getting on with the new girls, is Lilly still pecking? I recently got a new hen after one was killed by a fox, and the pecking went on for a week. I actually seperated them in the run during the day, but put them together at night, for some reason they dont mind each other in the dark. Had to black out all the gaps etc and was getting up early to seperate them again!

One lunchtime, I put them together and one got pecked full on for 20 mins (dont worry no blood was drawn!) It then calmed down and couple of days later they were friends. It's sometimes better to be cruel to be kind, they soon get used to each other.

 

Dizzy

[princess]

Hi

 

Well all seems to be going ok at the moment. We are placing the girls together at tnight and like you say they settle just fine. We get up early and put them in seperate areas of the run with their own water food etc. They seem to be getting more used to eachother. Lilly seems to have forgotten flo completely as she is the bird she was but more boistrus.

 

We have let the girls free range outside, (we are with them) today and it has gone great. They pretty much stay in two groups lilly verses the newbies but when we scatter corn they all run for it and munch together. lilly I think is so busy eating she forgets to chase them! They (angel and rocky) have started to follow lilly round at a distance. It is lovely to see because they were in cages until we got them and rocky just sat initially. She has to be the most clumsy bird I have ever seen.

 

I think we will carry on as we are for the moment and maybe in a couple of weeks put them together in the run! The newbies are only 15 weeks so according to guys on here that is young for them to be caged in with an older bird as they don't stand up for themselves.

 

I just hope oneday they will be mates!

 

Px

[princess]

Mrs f

 

How old were your new birds? Like you say sometime it is better to get things over with!

[mrsf]

Hi Princess

 

My new bird (Olive) was about 16 weeks they didn't tell me exactly. I suppose you're in a different situation as you have 2 new birds. Marg is about 4 months older than Olive and was bigger. I had only had them 5 days when I put them together for the 20 mins. It is horrible to watch but 3 days later was able to put them together.

 

Mine were also fine when free-ranging as there's loads of space for the both of them, it was just when you put them into the pen, Marg wanted all the room for herself (she'd been alone for about 3 weeks). She is still a bit bossy and when I scatter food she turns her back on Olive so she can't get to the food!! But they now go around in pairs which they didn't do for a couple of weeks so I'm really happy with them.

 

It's up to you how long you are prepared to wait for them to become friends. I was actually in a rush as we had arranged to go away for 3 days and couldn't expect anybody else to deal with seperating them each morning! Luckily it worked out for the best.

 

Good luck !

 

Mrsf x