ChickenNewbieGA
Hatching
- Jan 4, 2025
- 5
- 6
- 6
Quick background info for anyone wondering the reasons for flock #'s and their background.
These babies are right at 1 year as of February 2025. We live in what I call the Redneck Riviera... For the past 3-4 years there is always a mama hen with chicks that come through the neighborhood from the back and this past February/March one set came in our yard. Our dog at the time killed the mom and we felt responsible and took on the chickens. There were 7 chicks in total no issues until 2 hens have just disappeared. We got them a coop and the works. Turns out that 4 roos & 3 hens do not do well in one coop together and they have been free roaming for 5-6 months now.
•We are down to 1 hen and 4 roos now.
•They roam our yard and my in-laws and then come back at night to sleep.
•We are located in SE Georgia.
2 nights ago around 1am our smallest rooster (who has been in charge for the last 4 months) got into it with our largest rooster and I only know this happened as my father in-law woke up them fighting in his front yard and he said he hasn't seen roosters fight like that since he was a child and his grandmother had chickens. He said the larger one was out for blood.
The day it happened around 9:30a is when I was informed of this and I found my small roo (Wednesday is his name) laid up under one of our chairs against our house with one of his brothers on the chair looking out for him and the other 2 males (biggest roo included) and the 1 female were in my in-laws yard grazing like normal.
When I got to Wednesday he was borderline wheezing to breathe, eyes are shut, his feather on his back are every which way, tail feathers are wrecked and his comb was bloody and almost rotten looking.
Since this we have tried water, food (chicken feed, strawberries and some sausage patties we had on hand) and we do not believe he has eaten at all. His eyes are still closed and he is wheezing to breathe still. He also has a brown/green liquid in his mouth that I saw tonight.
He is in the coop with fresh bedding and tonight, I locked him up top as it is below freezing. He did not move or anything any time he has been picked up.
We are not sure if he is sore and healing or slowly dying. We will cull him if best, but also need help with making that easy for him and my husband. My fil said a 22 would work but I think it is overkill and don't want to hurt him any worse than needed if he has to be culled.
I will be contacting a local farm who takes local chickens and get all the roos sent over there unless we need to keep one for our hen for any reason.
We are very inexperienced and everyone local gives different answers and no vets here see chickens.
If you made it this far, thank you. I just want to do what's best for them.
These babies are right at 1 year as of February 2025. We live in what I call the Redneck Riviera... For the past 3-4 years there is always a mama hen with chicks that come through the neighborhood from the back and this past February/March one set came in our yard. Our dog at the time killed the mom and we felt responsible and took on the chickens. There were 7 chicks in total no issues until 2 hens have just disappeared. We got them a coop and the works. Turns out that 4 roos & 3 hens do not do well in one coop together and they have been free roaming for 5-6 months now.
•We are down to 1 hen and 4 roos now.
•They roam our yard and my in-laws and then come back at night to sleep.
•We are located in SE Georgia.
2 nights ago around 1am our smallest rooster (who has been in charge for the last 4 months) got into it with our largest rooster and I only know this happened as my father in-law woke up them fighting in his front yard and he said he hasn't seen roosters fight like that since he was a child and his grandmother had chickens. He said the larger one was out for blood.
The day it happened around 9:30a is when I was informed of this and I found my small roo (Wednesday is his name) laid up under one of our chairs against our house with one of his brothers on the chair looking out for him and the other 2 males (biggest roo included) and the 1 female were in my in-laws yard grazing like normal.
When I got to Wednesday he was borderline wheezing to breathe, eyes are shut, his feather on his back are every which way, tail feathers are wrecked and his comb was bloody and almost rotten looking.
Since this we have tried water, food (chicken feed, strawberries and some sausage patties we had on hand) and we do not believe he has eaten at all. His eyes are still closed and he is wheezing to breathe still. He also has a brown/green liquid in his mouth that I saw tonight.
He is in the coop with fresh bedding and tonight, I locked him up top as it is below freezing. He did not move or anything any time he has been picked up.
We are not sure if he is sore and healing or slowly dying. We will cull him if best, but also need help with making that easy for him and my husband. My fil said a 22 would work but I think it is overkill and don't want to hurt him any worse than needed if he has to be culled.
I will be contacting a local farm who takes local chickens and get all the roos sent over there unless we need to keep one for our hen for any reason.
We are very inexperienced and everyone local gives different answers and no vets here see chickens.
If you made it this far, thank you. I just want to do what's best for them.
