Chicken Problems

Hope this page helps you find the information you need! I am adding more topics as I get questions, so feel free to email me (Please put "chickens" or something chicken-like in the subject).

    Organized by Topic:
  1. Predators
  2. Reduced Egg Laying
  3. Egg eating
  4. Egg-bound Hens
  5. Diseases
  6. Avian Flu

Predators

Ahh, wonderful predators. If you have ever raised a chicken you know how hard it is to keep these sly predators away. My dad and I have been fighting to keep our chickens alive for years now. It really seems to go in splurges, sometimes we don't have any deaths for a while and then out of nowhere we will have several. Its really upsetting to have raised a chicken from a chick just to have it killed in your own yard! I was suprised to find that its hard to find information about predators but here is the main ideas my dad and I use:

Reduced Egg Laying

I have a separate page that is dedicated to this problem, so click here to learn about what to do to fix it.

Egg eating

Egg eating is when a hen or rooster gets a taste of one of the eggs and begins to purposely break them open and eat them. (A form of cannibalism in chickens.) This is a bad habit that takes the eggs away from your own table! The only way to fix it? Remove the bird from the flock as soon as possible. Egg-eating can be passed along very easily to other birds, another hen can see the egg eater breaking an egg, and begin to do it herself. To catch who the egg eater is you can look at beaks for egg yolks on it or the best bet is catching them in the act. Prevention of the egg-eating is the best method, make sure your nest boxes are clean and well cared for. Then the eggs are less likely to be accidently broken and eaten. Make sure the eggs can't roll out of the nest boxes and fall.

Egg-bound Hens


What is egg-binding? Egg binding is the inability of a hen to pass a developed or partially developed egg. The cause of this problem is almost always improper nutrition. Make sure the hen is getting enough calcium, and vitamin D so she can absorb the calcium she needs. Once a hen is having problems passing an egg however, the best thing to do it put the hen in a warm safe environment so she can use all her resources to pass the egg. Once the egg is passed, then start working on nutritional changes to prevent future egg-binding.

Diseases in Chickens


I don't know much about diseases in chickens because I have never had to deal with any in my flock. However I did recently start researching Bronchitis which causes altered egg laying (shell-less eggs, misshapen, no eggs) and respiratory problems. You can find more information on this disease at: Infectious Bronchitis.

Here are some other links to help you search for help on dieases.


Avian Flu