since they are caged and no wild birds have access to them, it is unlikely to be any kind of bird flu or bird disease. i would have to agree it was diet or bedding, but could also have been a genetic defect if all the flock came from the same place. when you introduced the new ones, did you isolate them first to make sure they weren't sick? though they should have died first if that were the case...
btw, there are several strains of the avian-bird flu [do a search on this forum], and there are sigfns of illness, they don't just drop dead suddenly, and not all birds would get sick, just the weak ones. the flu that they say will one day hit the west coast is the unusual strian where people who eat the sick then dead birds practically raw get sick and die. anyhow, having mine tested for pullorum and typhoid every year makes me feel better, and always buying from a place with strict health guidelines and good breeders. the state agent who tests my birds every year tells me to buy in Texas because we have the stricteest guidelines...
tf
23 dead chickens for no apparent reason.
tf- I think we are on the same wave length. I originally got my chicks as tiny day old bitties from McMurray and they were great. That was the bear ones. I replaced them with ones that were sold out front of the feed store. First, they were fine but in the last 6 months, there was a different vendor there and that seems to be where our problems began. I believe thay you're right- we caught something there.
As for the Avion Flu- that worries me. I also keep my chicks caged but isn't that an airborn virus for birds? Gee, I'd hate to not have fresh eggs!
I plan to get meat chickens this year from MM but I need another pen. Wire costs a fortune! Our cages must have a small enough whole to keep out snakes too so it REALLY gets pricey.
We also have turkeys that we hope will produce well. 4 hens and a young Tom.
our wire fence was costly but worth it. we have heavy guage catle panels [like concrete reinforcements], covered in chicken wire, covered in hardware cloth! and it sets down 18" in the ground!
no, look more into the bird flu so you won't worry so much. it's not airborne, it's more communicable than that. which is why it's best not to have outside birds, visiting birds, or wild birds. i try to not put out too much extra feed, since it attracts flocks of passersby...
what breed of turkeys? i would have had a flock of them this year but we had a baby instead LOL, guess we'll keep him ;-)
Merry Christmas!
tf
Congrats on the baby, tf!
We only have 1 giant white hen (turkey) left. I split an order of 50 with the neighbor last year. Some died on their own but my dogs got a bunch too. We had to dress what was left young because they had weak legs. Next time we got mostly the standard classic traditional turkey of which we ended up with 5 hens (1 white). We recently bought a young tom. We plan to breed them and see if we have better luck with them raising their own chicks. Now that cage is really our "anything goes" pen. It's about a 50' square with a medium gauge wire on it and a hotwire on the top, which doesn't work right now. The birds are too heavy to fly out. The turkeys are so dumb... my hubby built them a beautiful stainless steel feed trough. They are afraid of it! When they put their head in, they think they see a strange turkey and they freak out. We had to sprinkle their food on the ground so now we have a ka-zillion black birds there. I like your idea to not over feed them so there is no excessive feed. That and they are too fat anyway. We fattened them up for the holiday then didn't use them.
I want pigs again next. We had 2 a few years ago, took them to the butcher's for dressing. They were only about 5 mths old and fed excellent. I'll tell ya- that butcher stoled our meat and gave us back so old sow. We gave most of the meat away. We are learning so much from the "school of hard knocks".
We came from Fort Lauderdale with absolutely no farm experience 3 years ago.
I didn't read all the posts here, I did want to share, that we lost about 38 four month old chickens to a skunk, nothing was dismembered, I couldn't figure out what or how they were killed either. there was no physical damage that I could see. But we know it was a skunk, that got locked up inside the coop that night, and when the chickens came off the roost the next morning is when they were all killed.
We have a racoon problem, they'll dig under and tear holes into the wire to get into the pens. we've also seen possoms out there.
I hate it every time it happens, it takes 6 to 8 months to get chickens old enough to lay eggs again.
kathy_ann, I was laughed at before inthis thread about skunks and how they kill a chicken. They generally remove the head to get to the blood but apparently this skunk PROVED that they WILL just suck the blood out of a young bird without showing any sign of injury.
That's pretty disgusting LOL. I couldn't investigate my chickens really well, cause dh shot the skunk and it sprayed inside the coop before it keeled over. Couldn't even get in there to remove the dead chickens for 3 to 4 days, and I used a wheelbarrow full of lime on the floor.
Seems everybody has bad luck with chickens at one point or another, they seem to be pretty low on the food chain for all animals LOL
If you have a problem with skunk spray again, wash the walls down with Dawn Dishwasing Liquid as skunk oil is just that OIL. Afterwards spray the walls and floor with Apple Cider Vinegar as that gets rid of the odor better than anything. The old wives tale is to use tomato juice if you get it on your clothes or on your skin, well it's the vinegar in the tomato juice that does the trick.
Yeah, chickens are pretty expendable unfortunately for them! LOL!
Yes, we also had to wait 8 months several times over to get eggs from chicken accidents. I think an otter or bear dismembered our chicks when that happened. Last time I believe it was bad wood chips or disease (lost I think 26) and out of 20+/- hens left, we are now only getting about 3 or 4 eggs a day. I talked to the person we got our hens from and they totally blew us off so I assume they knew there was a problem. We now grow meat rabbits and are afraid of the chicken meat. Not that we have chicken meat- we can't even get extra eggs to grow meat chickens. Now, we seem to have better luck with banties.
We kept having a skunk problem, but we finally got it about a week ago. The smell outside is almost gone, and I feel better knwoing the chickens are a little safer. A goo dneighbor told me there is a bigger one out there though...
I hadn't realized skunks were a preditor of chickens. I caught
one in my have-a-heart trap (when I was getting raided every few
nights by racoons... or so I thought). I just released that skunk
about 100yd from the place I caught him. I just wasn't up for the
risk of having the truck sprayed while taking him for a relocation
ride.
thank goodness my DH was a good shot, or it could have been a lot worse...
My mom gave me my grandfather's shotgun & deer rifle but
I don't know how to use either. And DH isn't really interested in
using them, though he does know how. We used the relocation
program for a few years. Now, we have the barn reinforced well
enough that we haven't had anything get at the chickens in there
for a couple of years.
I am so glad my hubby taught me to shoot. I am an animal lover but sometimes you need to protect and keep safe your own animals at the cost of a dead irritating critter. Also, you can shoot in the air and chase off just about anything. I can't tell you how many times I have run out the front door in the middle of the night, shooting. I have shot the porch overhang a few times, trying to shoot high before I was far enough towards the end of the porch. My hubby thinks it's funny. BTW, I am out here all week alone. My hubby stays on the other coast (FL) on week days. I couldn't stay here without a pack of pitbulls and guns. Also, when tere are poachers out back, I fire off a few rounds to move them along and off my land. Everyone gets nervous when they are in the woods and hear shotgun blasts. I live in a game preserve. WE (residents) are allowed to hunt for food on our own and but that's it. They will run down a deer or boar with their swamp buggy. A whole lotta sport there, huh? Of course they kill the animals that wouldn't harm us.
Oops, off the subject! Sorry!!
How interesting!
Just to put my two cents in, we live in a state forest and of course have owls, hawks, and eagles for neighbors. I haven't much trouble with losing my chickens to predators because I discovered a trick that I think would work for most people. Owls, hawks and eagles can't count. I put scarecrows (just a wire hanger with an old shirt and pants attached to it) out on the fence around our enclosure and then put an old baseball cap on top of the post I had attached the hangers to. I move them around every few days to make the critters think there are people out there all day. Since I started doing this, I have not had any problem with predator birds attacking my chicks. We also make sure the chicks are locked up inside their henhouse at night and check the house regularly for other predators.
Ha! That's a neat idea. I might try that one. Thanks
You're welcome. I think it also may scare some of the other critters off as we haven't seen possums, skunks, raccoons or coyotes for the past few years whereas my next door neighbor (who doesn't have chickens) seems to be overrun with them. So, who knows.
I ought to hang my hubby's undies out there on the fence, they're HUGE. That would scare off most anything! It looks like the jolly green giant lives here!
Now, I have something pooing in my goat pen. It looks like a dog did it but it's an 8' high fence there. And that fence is in our fenced in compound. I know what racoon excrement looks like. Maybe a possum? I have a teacup mini goat in there plus regular sized but young goats. I worry about that mini-goat tho.
I was told to watch for owls with that mini-goat. I saw an owl one day, eyeing a litter of pups I had on the porch. It looked like a volkswagon with feathers.
my dh says i shouldn't fire into the air, only the ground...
cyber, could it be that one of your goats is getting the runs? happened to us recently. i cut back on her grain, but mixed in some mustard seed, Apple Cider Vinegar, and pure molasses, and kelp. took a few days but it cleared up after turning to near scours...
goose poop looks funny, almost like coyote...
Good idea about the aim, TF! I hadn't thought of that but it makes very good sense!
Nope on the goats. The strange poo is well formed. I will keep that recipe tho!
I was gone for the weekend to visit my grand-baby. I came back, went to feed the chickens and realized all the small chicks were missing. My brother and hubby were here all weekend so it isn't that they weren't fed. They said they were "just dead". Man, it doesn't stop!
oh, i am so sorry. were thes out of the others that died, or a new flock? is there any place they could be getting into some bad water or other liquid?
bless your heart, when it pours on you it pours hard!
thinking of you today...
tf
Hi TF- At least the hens are laying again. Not as much tho. The goats are doing fine and there is no more strange poo in their pen. I am trying to make sure we have no disease going around- we are about to get some Giant Flemish rabbit babies. That will be our new line of food.
I do have a hen now with a dirty butt tho. Is that a bad thing?
goodness, that is strange. maybe they could use some more fiber. barley is great, but don't biuy a whole bag at the feed store, just mix some from your kitchen into something they would like.
i give my fowl Apple Cider Vinegar with garlic regularly, & other herbs, usually in a tea, though some they will eat. this helps keep their immune system up.
The goats on occasion get molasses & kelp, ACVw/garlic, & mustard seed mixed in their grain. for overall health & parasite control
Red raspberry leaf is good for hens & dairy goats, for their repro system.
My granny drilled into me that ounce of prevention saying, & we prefer to live without ty[ical chemicals used in livestock medicine, esp since we use their poo in the garden...
too much info,i am sure.
keep an eye on her butt, or post a picture & question, could be something more serious, i dunno, we're new to chickens...
tf
I appreciate all the info you can give me, tf. I am taking care of my terminally ill brother. He is very thin and will eat like a horse if there is garlic in his food. Helping me care for the critters is the brightest part of his day. We have 3 litters of rabbits due next weekend. We also are waiting for some Flemish Giants to be born & weaned from a breeder.
Oh- we are letting the bantams hatch out their eggs for future layers. I love those little eggs for pickling!
how sweet! just Saturday i had someone needing fresh eggs badly [company coming], and i parted with two bantam egg. then yesterday it occurred to me i could have slipped them into the incubator easily with the others ;-(
i tried to let them go broody in the fall, but they were in a new place, and not interested
what are Flemish? Rabbits?
Yes, I'm sorry that I didn't say the whole name. I Giant Flemish Rabbit is what you use to increase the size of your rabbit stock. They aren't the best of the meat rabbits so a mix with the meat rabbit breeds gives you big and tastee.
I bought an incubator last year and didn't have good luck--I cooked the eggs. ThaT, AND AFTER YOU MANUALLY HATCH, YOU HAVE TO RAISE THEM ON YOUR OWN. Oops, sorry about the caps. I am a terrible typist. Also, there is no mom to protect them and keep them warm when they are in the hen yard.
Next year, I plan to have a "nursery room" done to hatch other eggs myself. Nothing special, just other chick breeds. Good layers and some meat chickens.
i would prefer to homestead and have natural hatches, but that isn't possible yet. i would have ordered from a hatchery, the one i trust as a breeder doesn't have Buckeye's this year. And I wanted to carry on some of my show chickens bloodlines. So i borrowed an incubator. I think the duck did better, she hatched the only chicken egg that was fertile. I only hatched one out of thrity eight total, i don't remember how many were actually good. this time i had ninety, down to eighty-nine. my grip isn't as great as it used to be LOL
i was turning five times a day, but the eggs never seemed to get warm enough in between, even when i had the total time down to only ten minutes. so i'm doing three times a day, and the eggs seem to be staying warmer. so if they hatcha c ouple of days late, i will know they weren't warm enough with five turnings...
then i will set some more eggs in March. they will hatch around my son's first birthday!
i';m a bad typer too. no prob. yeah, i will sell just enough eggs between daving for hatches to buy a few bags of chick starter, it is over 10 bucks a bag now! we have some brooders set up. the first year i did chickens, i started with 75 chicks, no kidding, that was work! had i not been so overwhelmed and unable [physically] to finsh building their pen, i may not have met and married my best friend. so i welcome extra work, never know what it might bring into your life.
hey, didn't you have some terrible neighbor trouble about two year ago, was that you?
how is your chicken's rear-end?
Yep- that was me with the awful neighbor. He had a camper-trailer on the neighbor's property. When the neighbor moved his girlfriend in, Don the jerk, started harassing her so the owner threw him out. Cool, huh?
Man, you had a lot of chicks!!! Ours must stay in the pen so we are limited. We plan to build a bantie pen (covered of course) with a coup but that is low on the list of projects. It's a $ thing plus my hubby is only here on weekends. The goat yard is next. My brother isn't strong enough to use it tho. My hubby is a big guy and it beats him up. Wire ain't cheap either AND the posts!
So you're a new mom. Congratulations! I'm a new grandma.and it's probably good for the kids that I live an hour and a half away or I would be there all the time. I have a wonderful daughter-in-law too. Her mother is a real nitwit tho so they do really welcome my advise. I just worry that I over do it.
Boy oh boy! I forgot to send this!
(fixed type-o)
This message was edited Feb 5, 2008 2:50 AM
of course you over do it, or you wouldn't be you LOL
ttys
tf