Hens- blood on eggs

[poiuytrewq]

Hi, can anyone advise please?
Its a bit late for this particular hen as she died yesterday sadly but in case of it happening again in the future.
Is it normal for there to be a bit of blood smeared on eggs? It happened a few times, nothing major but definitely blood and we did ask someone who told us it was okay and not to worry. However yesterday we found the chicken dead in the coop- She seemed fine that morning when I let them out and had laid that day- again slightly blood smeared.
She wasn't on the nest just lying in the door way. Its totally surrounded by chicken wire and electric behind that so nothing got in and hurt her.
Any ideas?

 

[jrp204]

http://www.alltech.com/sites/default/files/alltech-egg-shell-quality-poster.pdf
You do get them occasionally. May be worth checking a few things, have they been wormed? Is there any red mite in the house (rub you finger along the underside of perches etc, if you have red on your finger that'll be red mite) are the hens sneezing at night, is your house too light, too much light will cause vent pecking.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

all of the above-might your hens be a bit overweight? good layers are always lean as well. Some hens also prolapse (although blood smears don't mean this is happening per se)-tbh the kindest thing to do with them is to cull as they nearly always do it again and is very painful for them plus a huge risk of infection.
sometimes they randomly die-sorru about your hen.

 

[jrp204]

Sometimes they will lay a very big egg which can make them bleed, rarely kills them though. I would rule out the other things I mentioned then put it down to SCD (sudden chicken death)

 

[MotherOfChickens]

all of the above-might your hens be a bit overweight? good layers are always lean as well. Some hens also prolapse (although blood smears don't mean this is happening per se)-tbh the kindest thing to do with them is to cull as they nearly always do it again and is very painful for them plus a huge risk of infection.
sometimes they randomly die-sorru about your hen.

sorry-just for clarification, the kindest thing to do with a prolapser is cull. blood smears can come from pullets coming into lay that are a bit fat, also from very large eggs.

SCD-will have to remember that one!

 

[poiuytrewq]

Thanks both. Id not say it was a fat hen by any means and she did lay most days (I could tell as she laid blue eggs, the rest are brown bar one who lays tiny blue eggs!)
Her eggs maybe got a bit bigger in the time we had them but not much. Maybe a case of SCD sadly!
The house was too light but we had problems with them pecking each other so have made it much darker and that's no longer a problem.

Now im a bit worried I may make them fat! How on earth do you keep hens a good weight?
They have a big space to run in. Im never really sure how much I should feed tbh. They get layers pellets and mixed corn then I give them veg and salad left overs etc

 

[poiuytrewq]

Sorry that was a rubbish reply to your q's JRP244!

No they haven't been wormed complete ignorance I didn't know you wormed hens and I will sort that out tomorrow. I assume they will sell wormer at my local Countrywide?

Red Mite I was told to check for by running a finger across the floor which I did and got no blood but I will do the perches tonight.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

most good laying hens wont run to fat-but before they come into lay, when they aren't expending energy on making eggs they might be a little overweight. You'd not necessarily see podgy hens lol, they lay fat down around the oviduct. Off the top of my head barnvelders and orps might be more prone to putting on weight. Corn can make susceptible breeds a little fat-I only feed it in the winter tbh when they don't get to free range as much. Rest of the time they have adlib layers and grit.

its a very bad year for red mite and often its a case of keeping it under control rather than eradication-if its a low level infestation you might not notice it so worth checking perches as suggested.

Worming-don't bother with Verm X, get Flubenvet and don't give them any extra treats/free range for a few days so that they get the full dose. Might be worth getting something like Stalosan F to disinfect the house and run to help with any worm burden if you've not wormed before.

 

[poiuytrewq]

Thankyou for your help!
We haven't had them long, maybe 6 weeks or so and they came from reputable keepers so they might be wormed, I should have asked! but its not like ive had them years and never done them. I have some very good disinfectant at the yard so will give it a scrub over the weekend.

We found when we only had layers pellets they didn't eat them? Is that just a case of persevering? We bought a sack of both corn and pellets and mixed them together and in this way they do eat. Is that bad?

Still new to all this!

 

[MotherOfChickens]

do they eat everything or just the corn though? Mine would only eat corn if I mixed them-they are like me, like stuff thats not the best for them!its quite high calorie-useful to give the in the afternoons in winter to help keep them warm overnight. this time of year they are getting more protein from insects so I only use corn to get them in at nights.

I would stick them back on layers and only layers for a bit-its a balanced diet with the right amount of calcium for good eggs. don't give any treats until they are eating up and absolutely no scraps. If you feed a high amount of brassicas with the layers, you might need to offer even more calcium (by way of oyster grit).

an effective disinfectant for chooks needs to be effective against oocytes if its used for worm burden issues, there are others you can get eg for mite control. stalosan is a powder and completely safe for chickens and effective-great at keeping smells down too.