Poultry Questions Answered - March 2011

Written by Sue Clarke. Provided by New Zealand Lifestyle Block, incorporating Growing Today, magazine March 2011.

Do pregnant women need to take precautions around poultry? Why would a bird suddenly go blind? And how do you deal with a possible egg-eating hen?

Question - Am I safe?

I have six pet hens which I keep in an ark, and I let them out for a bit of a run around every day. I have recently become pregnant and my husband is concerned about me having any contact with the chickens. What are the safety concerns I need to watch for?
Amy Mulqueeney, by email

Lifestyle Block poultry expert Sue Clarke replies:

There is really nothing to be concerned about regarding your chickens and being pregnant, other than the normal precautions everyone should take whether pregnant or not.

I can speak from experience, having been a commercial poultry farm manager through both of my pregnancies, right up to the day I went into labour. A week later I was back on the farm, the baby in a push chair asleep in the egg room!

I was very hands-on with poultry until I couldn't bend to collect eggs very well and the size 13 overalls were getting a bit tight. My biggest problem was rushing off to antenatal classes in the afternoons, straight from work, and falling asleep in the relaxation exercises!

I was relegated to sitting cleaning eggs on the dry buffing machine. Now I look back in horror, we were enveloped in formalin gas four times a day while eggs were being fumigated after collection, and I remember stirring up antibiotic medication in a bucket of water with bare hands!

My children seem none the worse for this: both are now in their mid-30s, they both have University degrees, one is a dentist and the other an assistant hotel manager in Queenstown!

Normal precautions for everyone should include:

• don't inhale dust when cleaning out a hen house as it can transmit diseases (commonly called 'farmers lung').
• clean your hands after touching birds and/or equipment as you can pick up E. coli and other bacterial contaminations.
• clean out water and feed dishes regularly using something like Janola, then rinse thoroughly and leave to dry.
• collect eggs and refrigerate as soon as possible after they are laid, especially on hot days as bacteria can multiply quickly.
• if you're ever unsure about an egg, even if it passes the "float" test for freshness, don't use it.

Pregnant women should avoid eating egg that has not been cooked thoroughly, for example runny yolks or white, or sauces like hollandaise.

Enjoy your chickens, and your pregnancy, good luck!

Question - Why did my hen go blind?

I am hoping someone at your wonderful magazine might be able to help me. Our three year old Brown Shaver hen called Lee Marvin (she used to escape a lot) has suddenly gone blind. The first hint of this was when she ran into a wall. I have separated her from the rest of the flock as they were attacking her. She is still eating and drinking (when I physically show her where the food is) and after a week she is still with us. I have been reading your poultry book but I am none the wiser as to what she has or if she will get better. She is a bit fluffed up, seems depressed, and seems to have trouble lifting her neck. After doing a pooh check for a week it appears to be normal. Do we need to send Lee Marvin to the great happy coop in the sky, or will she get better?
Tracey McKersey, by email

Sue replies:

At her age it is probably too late for the blindness to be caused by Marek's disease, however I'm not certain as to what the problem could be. You say she is looking fluffed up and depressed which means there is something else going on apart from her being blind.

One possibility could bepoisoning by something in her environment. There are a couple of garden plants that can cause blindness and depression (Oleander and Lily of the Valley). Is there any chance of her having had access to either of these?

Most of the diseases that involve the eyes also have other symptoms, like watery eyes, swollen sinus between eyes and nose, frothy eyes etc. The only one (in NZ) that includes blindness - colibacilliosis - is caused by E.coli, but is usually a secondary infection to something like Infectious Bronchitis (IB) or Coryza.

If she is otherwise eating and drinking normally and has no discharges then it depends whether you want to keep her confined and keep food and water in front of her, or make the decision that she is not going to improve or live a very happy life if the others continually peck at her, which unfortunately they will. I would give her a week and see if there is any improvement.

What do her eyes look like: clear, cloudy, misshapen iris?

Tracey replied with more details:

Lee's pupils were so enlarged that her iris had completely disappeared. Her pupil is still enlarged now and the iris is now a thin line around her eye.

Her symptoms started with her producing a wrinkly egg and then she stopped laying, then her behaviour started changing, followed by the blindness. She is now separated from the flock in her own hutch. She is eating and drinking, and we have given her jellymeat as well. She is shutting her eyes a lot and does have a slight wheeze.

We have other poultry, ducks, a kunekune, a dog and cats on the property and the only different plant she may have had access to is a Christmas lily. Our hens free range and roost in a coop at night and we do a have a few sparrows helping themselves to the chicken food.

I will leave Lee Marvin in her own hutch and hope that within the week we see some improvements. The children are getting used to the idea that our very first chicken might have to go.

Sue replies:

With the wrinkled egg as a clue, I'm thinking Infectious Bronchitis, but this should now be over although I have a feeling the blindness can be permanent with IB. I had some little White Leghorn roosters which had impaired vision after recovering from IB. If she recovers from the wheeze and begins eating and drinking normally and finding her way around safely she should be fine. Recovery from diseases provides natural vaccination.

Update: sadly, Lee Marvin didn't recover and she was put to sleep.

Question - Will they become friends?

We started keeping hens in October last year, and got three Hyline Browns from the Kapiti Poultry Farm. We liked having them so much (our 2 year old also likes them), we decided to get two younger ones in early November (also Hyline Browns). The young ones were 6-7 weeks old when we got them. We kept the birds separate, and they each had their own houses, though they ranged in the same area around the garden. Unfortunately, tragedy struck. A dog took away one of the older girls, and then two days later it came back to help itself to one of the younger ones. We don't have fences around our property and we haven't resolved the issue with the dog's owner yet, but my concern now is the remaining young one. She has been looking so sad, and has just stayed put under the house. She used to go scratching around with her mate but she doesn't want to join in with the two older hens, and they may not take her in. Is there a way to get them to be 'friends' with each other?
Laila Faisal, Wellington

Sue replies:

Firstly, I would try and keep your hens confined to a shed or small pen until you can resolve the dog issue or you will lose the others. I would shut the three remaining birds in a pen together with plenty of food and water for all of them, and some higher perches or branches for the younger one to get away from the older two ifshe needs to. They should accept her eventually as the young one will learn her place in the flock.

Make sure the reason she is moping is not because she was bitten by the dog and has an infected wound which is bothering her. Catch her and carefully look through her feathers for blood or a wound or bruising.

Your hens don't have to run around outside all the time if you're concerned about their security. A garden shed or packing case with a netting run will do to start with.

The other suggestion is to get another couple of young pullets for company, but until you can protect your birds from the dog, this is probably not a good idea.

Question - What to do with an egg-eater?

I have recently been given three hens by my daughter. She told me that one of them seems to be breaking her eggs regularly, and indeed she does. I have now separated this hen along with another one that is not laying. Is there anything I can do? And any reasons why she would be doing it?
Fran Cook, by email

Sue replies:

Firstly, do you think this hen's shells are of normal thickness or a bit thin so they break easily? If they are a bit thin or brittle, make sure she has plenty of oyster shell grit so she can help herself.

There are a couple of diseases that cause thin shells and then no eggs which can take a while for a bird to recover from, and while they are sick, they lay eggs with thin or peculiar shells.

Is the litter in the nest deep enough so the eggs don't get cracked by mistake? A good depth of shavings in the nests helps to cushion the eggs from each other and prevents cracking (which encourages egg-eating).

If all those things can be discounted then probably you have got an habitual egg-eater which has probably tasted an accidentally-broken egg and is now breaking her own. I have heard of people 'blowing' out the contents of an egg and filling it with hot pepper or mustard but as hens do not have very good tastebuds - and probably not enough intelligence to associate the taste - it does not have a good record as a cure.

All I can suggest is to build a nest where the eggs can roll away out onto a shelf once they are laid so she can't reach them to break them. Cover the floor of the nest boxes with carpet or astroturf and slope it to the back so the egg can roll away out of reach once it is laid.