AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

My hen Lucky was very quiet late this afternoon, standing still and closing her eyes, not interested in the worms and seed I was feeding them. I've put her in my large plastic cat cage with straw and water and a mushy weetbix. She's in the laundry for the night and I'm worried about her.

Over the last few days one of the birds has left only a few spots of poop below the roost, where the other three have had heaps. I ignored this as all seemed healthy, but now I wonder if it was Lucky. And yesterday when I was closing them in for the night, instead of eating the seed I threw, Lucky went to the spilt water on the ground and ate the mud which I thought strange, but she seemed okay then.

The four hens have been laying four dark brown eggs a day as usual, but in the last two days one egg was a very light beige colour which is strange and today one egg had dark brown chunky bits on the tip of the egg. I don't know if they were Lucky's eggs. Also over those two days, one chook is laying eggs with a thicker ridge of shell round the middle.

All four birds have what I'd call normal looking poop. Any thoughts please? She is 26-30 weeks old.

Hi, Brownie,

Poor Lucky seems to be the unlucky one. Chooks love drinking from muddy puddles, nothing too unusual about that.

Is she lowest in the pecking order and doesn't eat as much as the others that her poop is smaller than the rest? How is her crop? Does she seem crop bound and constipated. Smell her breath? Does it smell rank and sour, maybe sour crop?

The Rickett's Diet also used for sick chooks as a pick me up.

Here is one variation:

1 x cooked egg yolk mashed
Drizzle of honey or molasses
2 tablespoons natural yoghurt
2 to 4 tablespoons rolled oats
A few granules of poultry multi vitamin powder
2 tablespoons of grated apple or carrot

Have you wormed them at all and or dusted them for mites/lice etc?

If you don't have poultry multi vitamins, a few drops of infant Pentavite in their water also works wonders.

Thanks Hens & Hobbits. Yes, Lucky isn't so lucky again after that injured foot earlier.

I've had her for 8 weeks and she was wormed when I got her, and she has a very clean behind. I move the tractor to fresh ground every two days and clean out the nesting/roosting box then too, and I'd hoped that would reduce risk of worms, mites and lice. They always get a good dust bath going in the new spots. Does that help with lice and things? I haven't dusted them for mites or lice yet.

Lucky would be equal bottom of the pecking order with Earlybird. They get a bit less of the treats but seem to do okay and always have access to feed and grass. The 4 overnight poop piles have always been a fairly similar size and the big reduction in one pile is very recent. Her crop looks okay but I'll have to get closer to have a smell.

I'm hoping now that she's just a bit rundown and will come good. Lucky has been the biggest daily eater of my garden silverbeet and milkthistle and they finished it all off about a week ago. That mightn't be just a coincidence.

Tonight she's making her little whining hello noise whenever I tiptoe past in the dark, so fingers crossed she'll be okay. I'll get some chook multi-vitamin powder tomorrow morning and try out that tonic recipe.

Thanks heaps for the help Hens & Hobbits.

That's OK, hope that Lucky is feeling better this morning.

Many people also use Poly Aid Plus if their are in desperate need, you can buy it at your stockfeed, larger pet shops or on line.

You wouldn't believe it. This morning she is alert and had eaten all the wet weetbix, pellets and mixed grains except for the corn.

She had a soft shelled egg in the cage which will be from the shock of being inside overnight no doubt. I've taken her back to the tractor and she ran straight into the nesting box to make laying noises. No egg, but she seemed to need to do it. She's pecking about like the others.

Her mystery illness can only be helped by that pick-me-up food, so that's what I'll do. I'm off to the stock place to get one of those tonic products you've mentioned, with a roadside scrounge for milk thistle on the way home.

Great news, Brownie

Hi Brownie,

I have a chook that used to lay soft shelled eggs every now and then. She would always be 'off' for a day or two before the softie arrived. Not eating much and sitting around all fluffed up. She would stay like that for a day maybe two and then she would lay the softie and off she would go again right as rain! I have heard others talk about their chooks being off when a softie was on the way (harder to get out apparently). Perhaps it was just the soft egg that caused her apparent illness.

Lady Jane, you may be right. I've heard that too. I've only had two soft eggs once before on the same day, the day after I used power tools on their tractor while they were in it. So I assumed the soft egg was shock again this time. I've worked out it was Lucky who had the last 2-3 days of laying eggs with a thick bit of shell around the middle, so that might have been a clue to the soft egg coming too. Thanks for that.

Hens & Hobbits, the stock place had no poultry vitamin supplements and I didn't get to the chemist for Pentavite. So I made your recipe with a cup of natural yoghurt, a cup of rolled oats, some golden syrup and a grated carrot. I've given them carrot and yoghurt separately before and they've hated both, so to fool them I put this thick mix into the tub I bring them worms in. They all gutsed into it for a few big gulps each then started spitting it out and wiping their beaks on the ground.

With a lot of encouragement and praise to the ones that ventured over to it over the afternoon and a few extra rolled oats sprinkled on the top to tempt them, I think some of them may even have acquired a new taste for carrot, oats and yoghurt. Amazing. I'll use this recipe again, especially when the eggs look a bit different or any of the girls look off-colour.

You can get a liquid calcium supplement to add to the chookie's water. Just crush up all the egg shells from your boiled eggs Brownie also as a calcium supplement, yoghurt and grated cheese are great too!

Isa Brown's are prone to soft shells as they were bred as egg laying machines so to speak. They lay alot of eggs in their first year, a great demand for a tiny chookie body.