[karlooben]

i went into the hen house this afternoon and i found one of my girls had died . i dont know what of and there were no injuries on her      . a farmer friend of mine said they can just drop dead of a heartattack  :?: . they all seemed very fine this morning and everyone had been eating well over the past few days .

all other girls seem happy an perky tonite when i put them away .

but now i am worried  :cry:  :cry:

[Jo-n-Neil]

Aww Sorry to hear that , hope you are ok. Cant offer much advice or give any suggestions as im only a newbie chook owner,but il send you a big hug instead. :cry:

Jo xx

[karlooben]

thankyou  big hug recieved .. i need to find out why it can be bad for hens to eat the eggs ? i have at least one a day that gets eaten i am going to try an build a nest area where they cant get to the eggs . am wandering if thats whats casued her to die .

[Vember]

Real Sorry to hear that Karlooben
It's real sad but yes they can just drop like that, I had one go last week

At least she had a few weeks of freedom & love

Sending Hugs


Sarah

[woodburner]

thankyou  big hug recieved .. i need to find out why it can be bad for hens to eat the eggs ? i have at least one a day that gets eaten i am going to try an build a nest area where they cant get to the eggs . am wandering if thats whats casued her to die .

I've never heard of it being bad for the chooks, but it's very bad for the eggs!  
Some people object to feeding chickens cooked egg on the grounds that it's 'cannibalistic', but others use eggs that are unsuitable for human consumption, or simply surplus to requirements as protein supplementary feed.

[nnbreeder]

Whenever I have a surplus of eggs I will boil them up and put them in a food blender shell and all to chop them fairly fine and if there are too many to feed all at once I will freeze them for later.

[Kate and her Ducks]

Sorry to hear about your girl.

Don't lose sight of how much you ahve done for them. She got to live as a real chicken, at least for a while.

Sending big hugs.

[Oliveview]

I found one of my girls dead this morning- not a nice thing to find.  At least they had a good life while they were with us, which is a something I guess.  I hate ´pets´dying, they get to be part of the family don´t they?  The neighbours here would think I was daft if they heared me say a hen is part of the family!
Pamela

[karlooben]

thanks guys , yes every animal know matter how big or small is always part of your family and its hurtfull when they die.

i am going  to keep a close eye on my others for a while now just in case she was sick and passed it on to the others but they all do seem very well and so many ppl on the allotment site are very sad about it and are all saying sorry for my lose .

today they b====y well ate 5 eggs { 1 short of selling half a dozen }  :evil: so tomorw they will be having a nesting box area built { my neighbour is wicked at building anything   , but i really thought it was bad for them to eat the eggs :? .

[ceri green]

i dont think its actually bad for the hens to eat the eggs.......more like bad for you! not to mention annoying and wasteful!
im sure i saw a thread on here recently about ways to discourage this habit...............anyone?.......

[Foxy]

I think it was agapanthus who suggested emptying an egg of its contents and then carefully refilling with I think mustard and chilli powder or something like that and replacing in the nest to discourage them from eating them. yuck!
You could also build a "roll away" nest, with a sloping base so the eggs gently roll to the back of the nest out of egg pecking range. Now Bodger has done this one somewhere will try and dig it out unless he beats me too it!  

[Foxy]

Here we go, some useful stuff on how to deal with egg eating hens...

http://www.chat.allotment-garden.org/viewtopic.php?t=16490&highlight=roll+away+nest

[karlooben]

i have seen the post about what bodger had done and i think thats the same idea my neighbour has, i brought home a pallet top an the gaps between each plank were just rite for the egg to full though length ways but not width ways, i told him what i wanted etc but  the next thing i know hes totally pulled the  pallet apart so i will leave him to it     i will post pics once its finished and i hope  it helps give other ppl ideas to build thier own.

[Foxy]

Thats sounds like a really good idea! Lots of people are having probs with naughty hens at the moment!

By the way, so sorry about your hen I am sure she had a lovely life with you!

[karlooben]

Thats sounds like a really good idea! Lots of people are having probs with naughty hens at the moment!

     must be the weather