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Hi guys, I'm back after quite a break on here. Personal reasons meant the garden etc left untouched for a while but things improved around here so decided to get more hens as well as get the veggies going again
We bought a new henhouse and run, ample sized, then chose 4 hybrid hens from a farm, all of the birds were 17-18 weeks old. This was only 6 weeks ago and already we've run into plenty of trouble!
After 2 weeks we came across a dead bird in her nest box in the afternoon. She had laid an egg in the morning and there were no outward signs of injury and definitely nothing getting into our run/coop. We contacted the farm that we bought the birds from and bearing in mind we were advised it could have just been a stress related heart attack.
The following week my 8 year old son went to check the birds after school as there was another dead. This time in the run. There was a certain amount of blood around her rear and intestines on the ground, but she had been checked that morning and was fine. And had also laid an egg in the nextbox at some time inbetween! The 2 remaining birds were pecking at both the dead chicken and the intestines on the floor. As you can imagine this was very distressing for the children. We emailled the farm again and this time were advised it was most likely a prolapse during egg laying and she had died from loss of blood while we were at work.
This was a bad enough start but at the weekend just gone we noticed blood around the bottom of one of the 2 remaining birds. She has so far always laid really big eggs, virtually every one a double yolk, and she is obviously struggling. And of course, being attracted by the blood, she was being pecked at by the other hen, who coincendentally (or not!!) is very definitely the dominant bird. At the moment we have got them seperated. The dominant bird (have to say quite aggressive to people and hens, a White Ranger) has been evicted to a seperated section of the run with a catbasket for a nestbox which she is using no problem.
The question is what to do next?! The giant egg laying Coral is much much better and very perky. Still laying. But we're anxious about putting the birds back together, especially if the coral carries on laying such monster eggs! Ultimately of course we wanted to have 4 birds but the whole situation has been so distressing, especially for the children that we just don't know what to do next. We've spoken to a farmer friend who has just suggested euthanising the 2 remaining birds and starting again but that seems very unfair. But then again it also isn't going to be very practical to keep one bird seperate longterm either, and the whole idea was to have 4 birds, one for each of the children.
They are still only 23 weeks old. If things settle down could we try introducing 2 more birds to the flock or is that asking for trouble? Maybe if we introduced 2 new birds just to the Coral and left the White Ranger on her own for a couple more weeks? We hoped evicting the White Ranger for a while might knock her down a peg or two but we're dreading letting her back in with the Coral, or any new birds to be honest.
I'd really really appreciate some help, advice or just general opinions on what people would do in my situation. The farm we were dealing with has now stopped replying to my emails and it is keeping us all awake at night......
Thank you in advance and sorry for the essay on my first post back
Becky in Brighton
We bought a new henhouse and run, ample sized, then chose 4 hybrid hens from a farm, all of the birds were 17-18 weeks old. This was only 6 weeks ago and already we've run into plenty of trouble!
After 2 weeks we came across a dead bird in her nest box in the afternoon. She had laid an egg in the morning and there were no outward signs of injury and definitely nothing getting into our run/coop. We contacted the farm that we bought the birds from and bearing in mind we were advised it could have just been a stress related heart attack.
The following week my 8 year old son went to check the birds after school as there was another dead. This time in the run. There was a certain amount of blood around her rear and intestines on the ground, but she had been checked that morning and was fine. And had also laid an egg in the nextbox at some time inbetween! The 2 remaining birds were pecking at both the dead chicken and the intestines on the floor. As you can imagine this was very distressing for the children. We emailled the farm again and this time were advised it was most likely a prolapse during egg laying and she had died from loss of blood while we were at work.
This was a bad enough start but at the weekend just gone we noticed blood around the bottom of one of the 2 remaining birds. She has so far always laid really big eggs, virtually every one a double yolk, and she is obviously struggling. And of course, being attracted by the blood, she was being pecked at by the other hen, who coincendentally (or not!!) is very definitely the dominant bird. At the moment we have got them seperated. The dominant bird (have to say quite aggressive to people and hens, a White Ranger) has been evicted to a seperated section of the run with a catbasket for a nestbox which she is using no problem.
The question is what to do next?! The giant egg laying Coral is much much better and very perky. Still laying. But we're anxious about putting the birds back together, especially if the coral carries on laying such monster eggs! Ultimately of course we wanted to have 4 birds but the whole situation has been so distressing, especially for the children that we just don't know what to do next. We've spoken to a farmer friend who has just suggested euthanising the 2 remaining birds and starting again but that seems very unfair. But then again it also isn't going to be very practical to keep one bird seperate longterm either, and the whole idea was to have 4 birds, one for each of the children.
They are still only 23 weeks old. If things settle down could we try introducing 2 more birds to the flock or is that asking for trouble? Maybe if we introduced 2 new birds just to the Coral and left the White Ranger on her own for a couple more weeks? We hoped evicting the White Ranger for a while might knock her down a peg or two but we're dreading letting her back in with the Coral, or any new birds to be honest.
I'd really really appreciate some help, advice or just general opinions on what people would do in my situation. The farm we were dealing with has now stopped replying to my emails and it is keeping us all awake at night......
Thank you in advance and sorry for the essay on my first post back
Becky in Brighton
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