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One of our hens, Custard, died a couple of days ago. She'd been fading for a couple of weeks, though still getting up and scratching about outside. We have - had - just two hens latterly, and neither of them had seemed quite right for the last fortnight or so, just not their usual selves, though Custard was more obviously finding things a struggle.
Custard died tucked into a corner of the hen house, rather than in the nest box, but afterwards we saw in the nest box (a cardboard box filled with sawdust, which Rhubarb & Custard slept in together) a strange green stuff. Essentially it's poo, but not the usual chicken blobs, and there's a really unnatural shade of green coming off it onto the sawdust. I won't post a photo as it's not delightful, but I wonder if it sounded familiar to anyone?
We live in a very rural area, and though our hens tend to confine themselves to our garden and the field over the hedge, they're free to go anywhere and, in theory, pick up anything that anyone might have left out. I'm wondering if they both were exposed to something two or three weeks ago which has subdued them both, but Custard took it harder and couldn't survive it? There's just been this one instance of bright green poo though, at least there's none other in the hen house and I've seen none anywhere in the garden.
I doubt it's relevant but house martins are nesting in the rafters of the hen house (it's a big old outhouse once used for sheepdogs, in which all our various hens have been perfectly happy for a few years) and are now raising a second brood.
Custard died tucked into a corner of the hen house, rather than in the nest box, but afterwards we saw in the nest box (a cardboard box filled with sawdust, which Rhubarb & Custard slept in together) a strange green stuff. Essentially it's poo, but not the usual chicken blobs, and there's a really unnatural shade of green coming off it onto the sawdust. I won't post a photo as it's not delightful, but I wonder if it sounded familiar to anyone?
We live in a very rural area, and though our hens tend to confine themselves to our garden and the field over the hedge, they're free to go anywhere and, in theory, pick up anything that anyone might have left out. I'm wondering if they both were exposed to something two or three weeks ago which has subdued them both, but Custard took it harder and couldn't survive it? There's just been this one instance of bright green poo though, at least there's none other in the hen house and I've seen none anywhere in the garden.
I doubt it's relevant but house martins are nesting in the rafters of the hen house (it's a big old outhouse once used for sheepdogs, in which all our various hens have been perfectly happy for a few years) and are now raising a second brood.
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