KSL.com Article: Wintering Backyard Chickens in Utah

See the original article here on KSL’s website: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=968&sid=18292073&title=wintering-backyard-chickens-in-utah.

By Flint Stephens, ksl.com contributor

SALT LAKE CITY — Winter can present some challenges for Utah homeowners who are new to keeping backyard chickens. While most chickens are hardy and require little attention in spring, summer and fall, extra care is required to make them comfortable and keep them healthy in cold winter weather.

Providing adequate shelter is important for the health and security of chickens in cold winter weather. (Photo: Flint Stephens)

Chickens can actually suffer frostbite — particularly those breeds with large single combs on their heads like leghorns or barred rocks. These breeds are popular with commercial growers because of their excellent egg production.

Chickens that forage for much of their food during warmer months need additional supplemental food during the winter.

When chickens are housed indoors in large commercial barns, the type of comb is not an issue. It is an important consideration for free-range home flocks, however, because the points on the combs can freeze, turn black and fall off.

Winter

I haven’t provided an update for a while, mainly because there hasn’t been much to report.  The girls are chowing down like crazy now that they can all step up to the feeder since Rosie passed.  I can’t believe how much they love the new organic food from IFA.  If they hear me coming, they run to the feeder, and even jump up at the scoop with food in my hand.  The last time I ran to get food, they were out of the organic variety, and I’ve noticed they don’t seem to be eating it quite as rapidly.  I can’t blame them, I don’t think I’d like mineral oil on my grain either.

The temperature has been pretty mild so far — it doesn’t feel like winter has really arrived yet.  We decided to invest in a heated waterer so that we’re not busting ice out when winter finally does come, but we’re not going to start using it until we really need to.  The other winter preparation I need to make is to tack up the burlap curtain over the chicken door again.  Since we have 6 new hens, this means a week of training them that it’s okay to go “through” this thing that looks like it’s blocking the doorway.  I think a video of this process would be pretty amusing – I’m glad no one was filming it last year because I felt ridiculous.   But it does seem to help keep the coop a little warmer, and that’s what’s important.

More Advice from the Doc

More advice from the doc about fat chickens.

Well, just palpate the other birds, you can tell if they are “over-conditioned” by their bellies, they will be firm and poochy ( like beer bellies would be on a bird), that is the fat buildup inside.  If they are flat and soft then they may indeed be ok.  Dominant females can definitely eat the majority of the feed and get fat, so that may be the case with that bird.  She was really beautiful though! too bad.. so if the others are not really fat, then you might be fine with what you are doing  and it very well may have been a single bird issue.  The others will eat a lot more now, so watch them for signs of egg binding and yolk peritonitis (lethargic and squatting like they are going to lay an egg for a long time and nothing happens).  I will get you a final report tomorrow after I review the slides to be sure nothing else was going on.

Initial Results Already In

We just received an email from the doctor stating the cause of death for Rosie.  That was fast!  We will be emailing for a little more clarification, and will probably need to talk to an avian vet like she suggests.   The hens are definitely not confined.  Speck was closer in size to Rosie, but still not quite as big as she was.  Dora was definitely not nowhere near their size, so we’re not sure about her.  She did die on the nesting box, and a friend suggested today that it could have been that she was “egg-bound.”  I had no idea chicken health could get this complicated.  I guess we’re going to have to take a look at their diet, and see what else we can do to help prevent them from getting too heavy.

The cause of death in this bird is fatty liver-hemorrhagic syndrome.  In other words she died of internal hemorrhage from the liver which fractured ( can happen with normal activity in birds with this condition) due to  fatty liver disease.  This bird was severely overconditioned and this metabolic state leads to build up of fat in the liver cells, making them weak often leading to  hemorrhage.   SO, if all your other birds are this heavy, you need to talk to your vet about altering the diet so they will be lighter, such as mix high production or high fat diet with more grass diet and induce more exercise depending on availability of space .  That is the baseline management of this condition.  There are no other treatments per say that I am aware of, but I would consult with an avian veterinarian on that.   Often we see this in layers that are kept in cages or small spaces and they are fed high production diets, so those are two things that are usually easily  altered.  Otherwise she was in good shape.  I will have slides Friday to be sure there are no other issues, but this is a fairly common condition which will require some management changes for the others.  Now, if the other birds are lighter and not heavy like this one was , this could be an isolated animal issue ( dominant bird that ate more or one that is confined more due to behavior, etc) and altering the management of the whole flock would not be necessary.  It is usually a group condition however.  I will have a final report emailed you Friday. Let  me know if I can answer any more questions.

 

Lab Testing

Here is the response from the doc.  Jan had a meeting in Logan today, conveniently enough, so we decided to get Rosie up there for some clue as to what went wrong.

Yes, necropsy is the best option for determining cause of death for the chicken. We are here 8-5 Monday –Friday. You can drop it off anytime. If you have a loss at night, refrigeration is better and get it to us the next day.  If it will be more than 3 days, the freezing would be better.

 I asked about whether it would be useful even though we didn’t refrigerate or freeze her, and this is how she responded.

Well, it may not be ideal , but we can still see certain disease processes that would be of concern for a group.  So, we probably wont be able to culture for bacterial processes, but we will be able to tell you you HAVE a bacterial process.  So, I would say it is worth a look.

Great Advice

One of our readers provided this helpful information, and in case you don’t read the comments, I want share this information.  It looks like you can take your deceased chicken to the Utah Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and have a necropsy done.  She said it only costs $30.00, and you will know the cause of death in 7 days.  Here is the link http://www.usu.edu/uvdl/.   They have labs in Logan and Nephi.

I have emailed the lab to find out the recommended procedure for handling the chicken, and will provide an update when they respond.

The Queen is Dead

I can hardly believe it.  Jan went out to round up the girls and some of the new hens wouldn’t go past one of the shrubs.   That’s when she noticed Rosie laying belly up against the back of the coop, dead.  It’s just like one of the other hens we lost – she was behaving fine, and then boom.  Dead as a doornail.  That makes 3 from our original 6 that we have lost – two with no signs of unusual behavior or visible symptoms.  With Ethel and Roo now living on our friend’s farm, Lucy is our last original hen.  She’s such a sweetheart.  I hope she lives a lot longer than the others have.

Has anyone had anything like this happen to their chickens?  No obvious signs of predators?  No odd behavior.

I guess this just happens when you have chickens, but I sure wish I knew what was causing it.

Ten’s a Crowd

We knew we would be faced with this dilemma eventually – 10 chickens and only two nesting boxes.  Our chicken bible “Story’s Guide to Raising Chickens” suggests a minimum of one nesting box per four chickens.  All of our mature hens were still laying, so we didn’t see the need to put any in the freezer yet.  We also didn’t want our hens to end up in a situation that would be cruel.  Instead, I talked with a friend from my painting class who also has chickens to see if she would be interested in adding two more to her flock.  She was more than happy to add two more to her little brood.  She lets her chickens have the run of their little suburban farm – what chicken wouldn’t want that sort of freedom?

So, we made the hand-off last week.  We couldn’t get rid of Rosie, the mother hen, and Lucy’s little crooked beak has grown on me over the years, so we decided to send the virtual twins, Ethel and Roo, with our friend.  The funny thing was, when I went in the coop to track them down, Ethel and Roo were each on a nesting box laying their last eggs for us.  One of them ended up laying the strangest egg we’ve seen up to this point.  It wasn’t really soft, it was like all of the egg-white was on the outside.  I haven’t been able to tell them apart since they were much younger, so I’m not sure which one laid the strange orb.

I hope the progress report I hear this week or next week on our girls is good.  It seems like being integrated into a new flock would be much easier with more territory to roam than a smaller, more confined situation like we have here at our office.  I have to say, we have been quite surprised by how easy the transition has gone.  I don’t know if it depends on breeds, on individual birds, or if this was just pure luck.

Oh, and since we made more room in the hen house, two of the new hens have already started laying.  We weren’t expecting this for a few more weeks, but have been surprised with several bantam-sized brown eggs appearing regularly in the nesting boxes.  I will post a photo soon – they’re so cute.

Integrated Flocks… Well, Sort of

We took the big step last night and integrated our flocks after a thorough coop cleaning.  The new ladies were a little disoriented at first, and were very wary of stepping outside the coop or getting too close to the other hens.  We were waiting for feathers to fly, and keeping out fingers crossed that the transition would go smoothly.  Happily, it turned out to be pretty anticlimactic.   Four of them eventually ventured out onto the porch, where Rosie, after finishing a snack, promptly gave them a quick peck, eliciting squawks and feather flapping, but it all over-with in one minute.

Since then, the new ladies seem to stay clustered together, and as far away as they can from the mature hens.  At least everyone is still alive at this point, with no visible wounds.  Several people told us it was impossible to introduce new chickens.  Others told us it certainly was possible.  Well, so far so good.

I checked on them at one point today – Rosie was in the nesting box laying an egg, several of the mature hens were on the roost chattering at me, and the pullets were huddled in a small feathery clump under the nesting boxes.  I’m assuming they will all get used to each other as time goes on, and they will interact more.

The funny thing is, Lucy, one of the mature hens, used to isolate herself in the coop away from the other hens, being the low bird on the totem pole.  Now, she is out with the other mature hens.  Maybe she’s more afraid of the pullets than of getting pecked by Rosie.  We’ll see how things play out with time.  As the young ones gain more size, I’m sure there are bound to be changes.

Roosters, or Hens with Attitude?!

We are fast approaching the time when we need to integrate our new hens into the existing flock, but I am a little troubled by the somewhat aggressive nature or our new chickens.  Maybe they are just tired of each other and their limited surroundings – I probably would be too.  But sometimes I’ll reach into their temporary growing house to pet one of them or try to pick one up, and they will peck at my hand.  Maybe they are just being defensive, protecting their friends, but I don’t seem to remember our other hens ever pecking at us intentionally.  These new ones can really get you good if you’re not careful. They’ll keep their eyes on your hand, craning their heads around so their beaks are positioned for attack if needed.

I’ve been observing some interesting posturing going on as well.  I saw one stretch its neck up high, puffing its wings out a little as it towered over another chicken, face to face.  I’m not sure, but it sure seems different from our other hens.

Has anyone ever had golden sex-links before?  I’m wondering if they’re more aggressive by nature, if they’re just ready to be in bigger surroundings, or if we might have some roosters in the hen house.  I can’t remember how old roosters are when they usually start to crow.  I noticed one yesterday that was making a bit of a funny noise.  But maybe it was just my imagination.