What is killing my chickens?

[BDutch]

The only chickens that rarely have crop issues are free range chickens.They can afford to be picky

I never heard this before. Do you have a link to a research to confirm this? Are you talking about laying hybrids?

I never had crop issues with my flock (6-9 bantam chickens for 10 years). They free range sometimes but are confined to a net covered run most of the time. I just don’t feed them long grass in the run and they have always access to grit in the run and small stones in my yard.

 

[McChooky]

I never heard this before. Do you have a link to a research to confirm this? Are you talking about laying hybrids?

I never had crop issues with my flock (6-9 bantam chickens for 10 years). They free range sometimes but are confined to a net covered run most of the time. I just don’t feed them long grass in the run and they have always access to grit in the run and small stones in my yard.

Chickens will not only eat tall grass if not given a choice they'll also eat toxic plants if there's little else to eat. I learned this when I researched free ranging chickens in chicken tractors(confined to a small space)

 

[BDutch]

Chickens will not only eat tall grass if not given a choice they'll also eat toxic plants if there's little else to eat.

Okay.
My chickens have ivy in the run. It never caused s any problems The chickens never eat it. But there is always chicken feed if they are hungry.

 

[sandburRanch]

The only answers I can find online are for predators and things people feed their chickens, but my question is specifically related to FREE- RANGING chickens and what they will naturally graze on.

Our chickens were all very healthy and thriving. I started free-ranging them daily. After some time, one of them became very lethargic, eventually stopped eating, developed some slight puffiness in her face, and died.

So far, we have lost a total of 5 hens to unidentified sickness. The first was the only one who had puffiness, but they all became suddenly lethargic, stopped eating, had watery poops, and died, some more suddenly than others. I did my best to diagnose and care for them but I am still new at this. I'm not sure if I am accurately checking the crop for emptying. There were no other symptoms. No discharge or anything. Just lethargy and watery poops.

I finally stopped free-ranging them. We lost one more very shortly after, so I also took the precaution of telling my kids to stop feeding them grass (in case it was clogging the crop). It has been several months since we stopped free-ranging and we have not had any losses since then. They are all very happy now, although they really miss being on grass.

My best guess now is that they were eating something poisonous while free-ranging. What kinds of things would a chicken eat in the wild that would kill them? My husband suspects hemlock.

We live in WV.

For confined chickens not able to eat grass , good green leafy alfalfa hay is a excellent substitution .

It's also a good feed for all classes of livestock .

 

[LouiseG]

The only answers I can find online are for predators and things people feed their chickens, but my question is specifically related to FREE- RANGING chickens and what they will naturally graze on.

Our chickens were all very healthy and thriving. I started free-ranging them daily. After some time, one of them became very lethargic, eventually stopped eating, developed some slight puffiness in her face, and died.

So far, we have lost a total of 5 hens to unidentified sickness. The first was the only one who had puffiness, but they all became suddenly lethargic, stopped eating, had watery poops, and died, some more suddenly than others. I did my best to diagnose and care for them but I am still new at this. I'm not sure if I am accurately checking the crop for emptying. There were no other symptoms. No discharge or anything. Just lethargy and watery poops.

I finally stopped free-ranging them. We lost one more very shortly after, so I also took the precaution of telling my kids to stop feeding them grass (in case it was clogging the crop). It has been several months since we stopped free-ranging and we have not had any losses since then. They are all very happy now, although they really miss being on grass.

My best guess now is that they were eating something poisonous while free-ranging. What kinds of things would a chicken eat in the wild that would kill them? My husband suspects hemlock.

We live in WV.

My chickens ate my waterline insulation, and one died from that, so I buried the waterline. Another one ate the flowers off of my hydrangea, so I dug up all of the hydrangeas and azaleas and burned them. Another ate the leaves off of my Peace Lily that I had set outside on my front porch to get some sun (she had to do quite the acrobatics to get to it, I don't know what the draw was). This spring a ton of daffodils popped up on my property that I didn't know were there (I just moved to my little farmstead) so I locked my chickens up until the daffodils stopped blooming. Still, a whole new batch of different colored daffodils came up right after, so I poured kerosene on all of them and lit them up. Now my ladies are free-ranging again (I lost 6 of them to daffodils) and I am diligently walking the property and digging up more flower bulbs daily. They have learned that when I dig in the ground I pull up yummy bugs, so I have to lock them up when I'm digging bulbs up now. It's a lot of work, so I am putting in "chicken gardens" with chicken wire covers that my girls can eat through. I'm going to plant wheatgrass, alfalfa, and barleygrass for them.

 

[DGary337]

The only answers I can find online are for predators and things people feed their chickens, but my question is specifically related to FREE- RANGING chickens and what they will naturally graze on.

Our chickens were all very healthy and thriving. I started free-ranging them daily. After some time, one of them became very lethargic, eventually stopped eating, developed some slight puffiness in her face, and died.

So far, we have lost a total of 5 hens to unidentified sickness. The first was the only one who had puffiness, but they all became suddenly lethargic, stopped eating, had watery poops, and died, some more suddenly than others. I did my best to diagnose and care for them but I am still new at this. I'm not sure if I am accurately checking the crop for emptying. There were no other symptoms. No discharge or anything. Just lethargy and watery poops.

I finally stopped free-ranging them. We lost one more very shortly after, so I also took the precaution of telling my kids to stop feeding them grass (in case it was clogging the crop). It has been several months since we stopped free-ranging and we have not had any losses since then. They are all very happy now, although they really miss being on grass.

My best guess now is that they were eating something poisonous while free-ranging. What kinds of things would a chicken eat in the wild that would kill them? My husband suspects hemlock.

We live in WV.

So sorry to hear
I wish I could give you advice. My free range everyday and I haven’t had that issue.

 

[BankFam]

My chickens ate my waterline insulation, and one died from that, so I buried the waterline. Another one ate the flowers off of my hydrangea, so I dug up all of the hydrangeas and azaleas and burned them. Another ate the leaves off of my Peace Lily that I had set outside on my front porch to get some sun (she had to do quite the acrobatics to get to it, I don't know what the draw was). This spring a ton of daffodils popped up on my property that I didn't know were there (I just moved to my little farmstead) so I locked my chickens up until the daffodils stopped blooming. Still, a whole new batch of different colored daffodils came up right after, so I poured kerosene on all of them and lit them up. Now my ladies are free-ranging again (I lost 6 of them to daffodils) and I am diligently walking the property and digging up more flower bulbs daily. They have learned that when I dig in the ground I pull up yummy bugs, so I have to lock them up when I'm digging bulbs up now. It's a lot of work, so I am putting in "chicken gardens" with chicken wire covers that my girls can eat through. I'm going to plant wheatgrass, alfalfa, and barleygrass for them.

I want to do a chicken garden too! And grazing boxes for the winter.

 

[BankFam]

So sorry to hear
I wish I could give you advice. My free range everyday and I haven’t had that issue.

I've come to the conclusion they were most likely suffering from impacted crop due to being fed long blades of grass. It's good to know though and we will do better going forward.

 

[Scooter1A]

The only answers I can find online are for predators and things people feed their chickens, but my question is specifically related to FREE- RANGING chickens and what they will naturally graze on.

Our chickens were all very healthy and thriving. I started free-ranging them daily. After some time, one of them became very lethargic, eventually stopped eating, developed some slight puffiness in her face, and died.

So far, we have lost a total of 5 hens to unidentified sickness. The first was the only one who had puffiness, but they all became suddenly lethargic, stopped eating, had watery poops, and died, some more suddenly than others. I did my best to diagnose and care for them but I am still new at this. I'm not sure if I am accurately checking the crop for emptying. There were no other symptoms. No discharge or anything. Just lethargy and watery poops.

I finally stopped free-ranging them. We lost one more very shortly after, so I also took the precaution of telling my kids to stop feeding them grass (in case it was clogging the crop). It has been several months since we stopped free-ranging and we have not had any losses since then. They are all very happy now, although they really miss being on grass.

My best guess now is that they were eating something poisonous while free-ranging. What kinds of things would a chicken eat in the wild that would kill them? My husband suspects hemlock.

We live in WV.

Is there hemlock growing where they range? Unfortunately we ALL have to consider the poisons they are spraying on us daily. So far I have not lost any to toxins and my chickens are out from dawn to dusk. I live in the woods in Illinois. I can't say what your chickens are getting but I would follow them around and see what they are eating and test my soil. Good luck. Chickens need to free range.

 

[Scooter1A]

I want to do a chicken garden too! And grazing boxes for the winter.

I fence off my flower beds or there will be nothing left. I want flowers, gardens and chickens. Also have rabbits that I let run occasionally but I follow them around.