One of my hens died .... (1 Viewer)

[Judge Mental]

you hit the nail on the head Jim , poultry and animals are a real tie , ive had horses , goats , chickens,ducks, dogs and cats , we are now down to three dogs .

Aye? You've eaten the lot!?!?!

 

[Simon]

Chickens are buggers for keeling over unexpectedly. In my experience it's usually to do with some egg production malfunction or other.

 

[ABZSteve]

Might be an eggsample of Sudhen Death Syndrome methinks. You may never know eggsactly how she died but once you have cracked it, lay it out for us to eggsamine the evidence which hopefully will eggsplain the reason. If she was bunged up you are lucky she didn't eggsplode, no yolking, it can happen. A chicken eggspert pal told me so.

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[ABZSteve]

BTW I have a duck called Stephanie. She is a good producer and has survived dog attacks, fox attacks and severe weather. Hardy wee thing. Couldn't resist the other post, shame about the chook really.

 

[vin0114]

Used to run a hen run many moons ago and regularly added crunched up baked egg shelves to their feed. this helped to ensure good strong shells on the newly laid. Brooding chickens were treated with emptied eggs filled with mustard paste which always worked
p.s. I do seem to remember that the same mustard paste eventually found its way to the refectory top table

 

[laird of Dunstan]

Aye? You've eaten the lot!?!?!

we deep fried the lot with mars bars for desert , except the dogs , we still have the dogs

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[Pikeman]

We had six before we down-sized. Really miss them and their lovely eggs. Best treat is a bucket of well rotted compost. They will scratch through it for insects in a frenzy - fun to watch.

Keith

 

[Judge Mental]

we deep fried the lot with mars bars for desert , except the dogs , we still have the dogs

Boy! You are a proper country boy!lol

 

[Cat53]

Used to run a hen run many moons ago and regularly added crunched up baked egg shelves to their feed. this helped to ensure good strong shells on the newly laid. Brooding chickens were treated with emptied eggs filled with mustard paste which always worked
p.s. I do seem to remember that the same mustard paste eventually found its way to the refectory top table

Please explain the broody chicken and mustard thing....how does it work. We have just had a broody chicken and nothing we did would make her stop. She wasn't nasty, just made funny little clunky sounds. We left her to it in the end. Took three weeks. She is laying again now though.

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[Reallyretired]

When we kept chickens, back in the 50s we used to use solid china eggs for broody hens. Don't know where they came from though, been in the family for generations I expect.

 

[tonyidle]

Mystery deaths can be down to Red Mite - especially if other hens are a bit pale. check hut crevices for what looks like a red jelly-like mass. Horrible things & hard to get rid of.

 

[Tootles]

Mystery deaths can be down to Red Mite - especially if other hens are a bit pale. check hut crevices for what looks like a red jelly-like mass. Horrible things & hard to get rid of.

I did here of a chap who bred giant pullets, and one morning, when approaching his hen house, heard a very loud knocking noise. Well, he opened the door, to find that one of his big hens had gone..............

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[movan]

Mystery deaths can be down to Red Mite - especially if other hens are a bit pale. check hut crevices for what looks like a red jelly-like mass. Horrible things & hard to get rid of.

Is it contagious and will Scotjimland need to protect the others?

Sorry about the hen ... I get too attached to all my pets.

 

[scotjimland]

Is it contagious and will Scotjimland need to protect the others?

Sorry about the hen ... I get too attached to all my pets.

rest easy Joy .. not red mite

 

[jollyrodger]

So sad when your big hens gone

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[Puddleduck]

now we are planning a lot more trips away it will be better if we didn't need a hen watcher.. so when they go.. they go.

We got some one who buy`s our egg`s.... going to take them off our hands..

Wont bother to get any more till we pack up M,homing..

Same here, although our neighbours always offer to do the hens or we can board them out at our friend's farm along with her clucks. Their cockerel is terrified of ours and takes himself off to the turkey house for the duration. I don't know what the turkeys think of the interloper. We haven't bought new stock this year and didn't have hatchlings last year.

When we kept chickens, back in the 50s we used to use solid china eggs for broody hens. Don't know where they came from though, been in the family for generations I expect.

You can get the "pot eggs" from most agricultural merchants. When I was a little girl I remember being sent to help collect the eggs (my Grandparents had around 3,000 hens!) and coming back with the pot eggs as well as the real eggs. Then I was sent back to put the pot eggs back in the nest boxes

 

[vin0114]

Please explain the broody chicken and mustard thing....how does it work. We have just had a broody chicken and nothing we did would make her stop. She wasn't nasty, just made funny little clunky sounds. We left her to it in the end. Took three weeks. She is laying again now though.

Hi Cat, it was difficult to fill two halves of a shell then stick them together but really did work when the brooding chicken chomped on them the china eggs that reallyretired mentioned would be a lot easier

 

[Cat53]

Do you think an ostrich egg would work!

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[Puddleduck]

The china eggs were used to show the pullets where to lay. Hens like to do what the rest of the flock are doing and you will see them all queue for a single nest box even though the others are all empty. They see an egg in a nest and think "Oh, that's a good place to lay the egg" and that's what they do.... explains why all the eggs are in one place as a rule.

 

[pappajohn]

Don't chuck it!

Very droll Andy.

 

[Techno]

I thought that flew over everyones head John unlike the deceased

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