chickens Archives - Archie's Acres

January 5, 2018January 24, 2022

Brrrr! These temps are not kind to chickens!

The weather outside certainly is frightful!

We are in the midst of a very deep freeze here at Archie’s Acres, as is most of the country. For us, that means the highest temperature for the last 2 weeks has been a whopping 13 degrees with several days of sub-zero temps for highs. Plus, out here in the country, we get the benefit of unobstructed winds whipping across the corn fields. So keeping all the farm animals safe and happy is definitely more of a challenge lately. Especially the chickens, they are a constant worry for us.

Cold Chickens!

The chickens have been a big source of stress since the cold came. Our breeds are quite cold weather tolerant, but even with that, these temps are really crazy. We have had about 3 inches of snow on the ground since mid December and the sight of snow really weirds out most of the chickens, so only 4 of our chickens have ventured out of the coop since then. We get it, they can’t see anything to pick at, their non-white bodies in contrast with the snow makes them feel like a hawk or bald eagle target, yadda yadda yadda. Totally understandable.

A few of the girls venturing out of the coop.

However, since this horrible cold front came in, not a single bird leaves the coop. Which means there are 60+ crabby birds hanging out in a 25′ x 40′ coop all day. And since they aren’t able to free-range, they are going through food as fast as we can bring it. I’ll make them oatmeal and omelettes and give them old soups or meat scraps to warm them up every day. Yep, they love meat, they are related to dinosaurs after all. We froze tomato, cucumber, squash, watermelon and cantaloupe cubes from the end of the summer just for occasions like this, so they get a variety of nutrients all winter long. And this cold snap makes us extra happy that we did all that winter prep work.

Water, water, water

One of the main ways to keep the chickens healthy is by making sure they have lots of water. Lots and lots of fresh non-frozen (obviously) water. It may seem strange but it’s the same for humans – the air is incredibly dry and just breathing causes more water loss than normal. On an average day, these chickens drink a ton of water and it’s even worse now. We have special waterers that have heated bases; however, even they are having trouble keeping up with the cold. So, several times a day, we end up trekking out to the coop to bring fresh water and do a wellness check. So far, we have only lost one chicken in all of this. Little Chipmunk. RIP.

Carbo-loading

Another issue is food. Again, this is the same for humans in this weather. We burn more calories to maintain our body temperature in extreme weather and so do chickens. Normally, we feed cracked corn very sparingly to our chickens, preferring more protein rich food. However, corn provides lots of carbohydrates with are a good source of quickly converted energy. We have been providing food several times throughout the day and make sure they get a good dose of corn before bed. We also give them popcorn and old cereal. They loooooooove popcorn and Cheerios!

The coop itself

We do not have an insulated coop, which is pretty typical. And we won’t ever because in the summer, that insulation would turn the coop into an oven. Extreme heat is more deadly than extreme cold. Also, insulation would make ventilating the coop more difficult, and coop ventilation is very important for chicken health because all the moisture from their breathing and droppings needs to leave the coop fairly quickly. In cold weather, very moist air would collect on them if there was insufficient ventilation which would lead to their feathers being inefficient insulators. It also leaves them susceptible to frostbite. The combs and toes can be particularly tricky, especially with the roosters. A couple of our roosters have fairly large combs so we have slathered some petroleum jelly on them to help protect from the cold. So with all of that in mind, our only supplement in the coop is to put a foot deep layer of leaves, pine shavings and corn husks on the floor of the coop. Over time, this layer will breakdown and release heat through decomposing, plus it gives the chickens something to scratch through and the layer provides a bit of insulation from the cold concrete below. We have also added extra pine shavings to their nesting boxes and to the shelves where the girls prefer to sleep.

All in all, everyone is doing ok. They are certainly not happy. But they are loving all the extra treats we’ve been giving them, so morale is pretty high. Rumor has it that it’s going to be 30 this Sunday! We can’t wait! I may even wear short sleeves!

December 23, 2017

Integrating New Chickens into the Flock

Let’s Get Together

Since winter has now officially arrived, we decided it is time to integrate our young chickens into the main flock. We affectionately call these chickens the “high schoolers”. They’re a mix of Favaucanas, Whiting True Blues and Easter Eggers that we hatched this summer. These birds are awesome, they all have 5 toes instead of 4 and they’ll either lay blue or sage green colored eggs! At this point, they are about five months old and are definitely big enough to defend themselves from pecky older hens.

2 of the girls out and about after being released from their baby pen.

Integrating new birds into the flock can be tough. Everyone needs to establish/re-establish their spot in the pecking order. Happily, these high schoolers have been living in a pen just outside the main coop for a few months. Which means the older birds have gotten to see them and adjust to their presence. It’s important to wait until the young birds are almost the same size as the adults since chickens can be quite aggressive about letting everyone know where they stand in the flock. And giving each set of birds plenty of time to see but not touch each other is key to a smooth integration.

The male babies (white feathers) happily coexisting with our older roosters.

It has been about a week since we let the high schoolers out of their pen to free range with the others. Happily, it has gone quite well. Of course, there are occasional minor scuffles when someone finds a tasty treat but that is normal. So far so good. They even figured out that when Karen walks outside, rushing to the porch is a good idea; it’s likely treats will be involved. When I walk out, I’m mostly ignored or greeted with hopeful yet disappointed looks.

A few of high schoolers joining the adults in chasing Karen down for treats.

We’re happy to have everyone in one coop for the rest of the winter. It will keep them warmer and safer. Plus it means we have fewer waterers and feeders to tend to.

All the chickens happily being chickens together.

November 10, 2017

Winter Preparation Chaos!!

winter is coming

Hello from Archie’s Acres. We know it’s been a while since we’ve posted but we’ve been busy preparing the garden and our critters for winter!

The first order of business was to remove all remaining produce from all plants before the first frost, which was about 3 weeks ago. We still had a surprising amount of peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos, zucchini and cucumbers which was a pleasant surprise!

A portion of our last harvest for the season

The produce that didn’t make the cut for humans were given to the chickens and the goats, so everybody on the farm won. Especially the chickens.

Then we had to remove all remnants of the tomato and pepper plants. Leaving them around would invite disease to the soil that would effect our productivity next year. It’s a tedious job, but the reward is being able to have a big bonfire with all the dried plants. So that’s fun!

In the next week or so, we will then spread compost and chicken manure onto the garden before the first snow to help rejuvenate the soil. Our current chicken coop setup is basically that of a giant litter box. We filled the entire interior of our coop with sand and ag-lime (aka crushed limestone). This allowed us to scoop out chicken droppings with a manure form (think giant cat litter scoop) to collect for fertilizer. It’s working wonderfully.

As for the critters, we moved and re-positioned the goats’ and Tilly’s

Un-helpful winter goats — The goats were not very helpful while we were trying to move their shelter

shelter to face the south east in order to protect them from the harsh winter winds from the west and the north. And we covered their favorite hangout area with pine chips to create a barrier between the cold ground and their feet and we put a fancy new coat on Tilly!

Sheep in winter coat — Tilly looks fabulous in her new coat

Winter Coop Preparations

We’ve been collecting all fallen leaves and shuttling them into the coop. We’ll also add grass clippings, pine savings and shredded paper. We’re aiming to get about 3-4 inches of material covering the entire coop floor. It’s called the “deep litter method” and worked well for us last year. Basically, the deep layer of organic material absorbs the chicken dropping and slowly composts throughout the winter. The material on the floor provides some insulation from the cold ground, and as it breaks down (composts) it releases some heat into the coop. Added bonus – in the spring, we have great fertilizer waiting for us when we clean out the coop. So far we only have about an inch deep layer throughout; a few of our large maple trees are stubbornly holding onto their leaves. We’re really hoping they drop them before the first snow or we may have some damaged trees!

So as you can see, we’ve been busy! As this season winds down, I promise to post more. I mean, what else am I going to do with all the free time we have? 😉

August 29, 2017

Meet Von Cheep Cheep!

She’s a small bearded lady!

Von Cheep Cheep a small Easter Egger hen packed with attitude. We named her Von Cheep Cheep because she had an almost cartoonish mischievous little face when she was a baby. We also knew that she was plotting to take over the world.

easter egger, baby, mischievous — Baby Von Cheep Cheep

I mean, just look at that face!! She should be wearing a tiny little lab coat while she paces back and forth brainstorming in her tiny evil lair. She looked like this for her first 2 months.

And now she’s a full-fledged bearded lady!

Clearly, she now looks far less serious. And the chickens were smart enough to assign her to be one of the top chicken-to-human reps in the coop, she’s one of the first chickens to run out with demands. She will also fly up and sit on your shoulder if you’re taking too long feeding the chickens in the morning.

easter egger, bearded lady — Von Cheep Cheep the bearded lady.

And best of all…

…she’s a blue egg layer!!

She started laying last week, just a few weeks shy of turning 6 months old. (Birthday was Feb 28) She lays the brightest blue eggs. Small eggs from a small bearded chicken.

August 28, 2017August 28, 2017

Exciting Times at Archie’s Acres

Life has been great lately at Archie’s Acres and we have some fun updates from the farm.

Weather is slightly more cooperative

We’re happy to report that the rains have finally given us some time to dry out. That said, we still get a little rain almost daily, but the 1-4 inch torrential rainstorms have slowed and the plants are finally looking and feeling healthy. Aaaaaand because of that it’s been a real tomato and pepper party over here!

We love having so many different varieties!

Which leads me to happily announce that we have begun selling produce to The Log Cabin Restaurant in Galena, IL! How exciting is that?! It’s such an honor! We’re over the moon about it!

Farmer’s markets are fun!

Farmers market life has been great. We’re enjoying our time at the Rockford City Market every 2nd and 4th Friday and we’re loving our guest vendor spots at the Glenwood Sunday Market in Chicago! The next time we’ll be at the Glenwood Sunday Market is September 24th. We meet so many amazing people at these events and we love being able to learn from the vendors and local farmers around us.

It’s great when friends stop by to see us at the market! Bernie and Nancy it was so good to see you!

Exciting development for next year

We’ve also decided to begin a CSA program starting next Spring! For anyone unfamiliar, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Members sign up to receive a box containing fresh, organic, seasonal goodies from our farm. Once or twice a month (depending on your preference), we will deliver it to a convenient pick-up location.

We’ve created a form in the “Shop” section of our website where you can add your information and we’ll email you when we finalize plans. In the meantime, we’d still like to share our chicken and quail eggs with people after the Farmers Market season is over. But that’s all a work-in-progress.

Critters everywhere

Our farm pets are doing well. Moose is growing by the literal second! He’s as big as Archie right now and he’s not even 4 months old! He’s fitting in with the goats and Tilly very well.

On that note, Tilly is a diva. She demands treats and pets and she regularly steals Moose’s dog bed. She shouts at us from the pasture every time she sees us. It’s hard to believe that she’s only 4 months old (born April 21st) because she’s such a presence on the farm already that we can’t imagine life without her!

Another hen has hatched a couple of babies in the last week. She has 2 beautiful little chicks and she’s momming like a champ! Just today I watched her teach her babies about the automatic waterer that we have setup in front of their coop. It was really sweet to watch.

Nelly teaching her baby how to be a chicken

Well that’s it for now! Keep following us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/archiesacres/

August 14, 2017August 28, 2017

Farm life: a month at Archie’s Acres

How is it August already?!! This summer has flown by and farm life has been hectic for us lately! Not surprisingly, so much has happened since the last time we blogged that I need to do a top 10 list to catch up.

1. Chickens

Two of our hens successfully hatched 8 chicks of their own. They were both 1st time moms so for the first week they actually hung out together and co-parented the babies together. We weren’t sure how the new moms were going to keep the other chickens from pecking the babies to death, but after seeing what they did to Archie when he accidentally walked to close to the babies, it became very clear that these are hardcore, protective mammas. It. Was. Awesome!! The babies are over a month old now, they are traveling in their little pack of 8 and are free ranging and roosting together. It’s very cute and we’re proud of their moms.

5 of the babies venturing to the garden for treats (aka split/damaged tomatoes)

2. Quail

Our quail have finally started laying! These little birds are laying machines! We have 14 girls and although it took longer than the usual 2 months for them to get going, they are now finally getting around to providing us some sell-able farmers market eggs.

3. Swimming pool

The giant black walnut tree fell on our pool. We spent hours and hours digging up a spot for the pool, had our neighbor bring his skid loader over to help move earth and sand around, and set up the pool (it was NOT an hour long process as advertised). We used it every hot day for about 3 weeks, and then the first of many nasty storms came through and blew the tree onto our pool and our upper garden. Fun times.

Well it was fun while it lasted – at least the tiki torches survived

4. Stormy weather

On that note… the storms throughout the month of July really hurt our town, our garden and our driveway. Our town declared a state of emergency after half of it was under 3+ feet of water; many homes were damaged and destroyed. Many farmers around us had to claim total losses of their corn and soybean crops because of it. It wouldn’t stop raining. We got 11 inches of rain in one weekend! Our gravel driveway was badly damaged; we would cart rocks and gravel to fill in the deep ditches channeled out by the constant running water from the top of the hill, but then it would rain again and the rocks and gravel would wash away and we would have to start over. Our tomato and pepper plants are strained from the all the rain as well.

Pearl City, IL – yes, that’s the main street

5. New goats

We have 3 new goats to the herd! Their names are Lefty, Willie and Bobby. They are siblings of Pancho. We invited Pancho’s parents to our pig roast back in June and they saw Pancho’s new home and asked if we’d take the other 3. How great is that?! The 4 goats and Tilly are now one solid, happy herd.

6. Another new addition

And since we now have a little herd, we had to get a little herd protector! Meet Moose, our new livestock guard pup!

He’s a Karakachan; we got him at 11 weeks and he’s the biggest sweetheart. Neither of us had ever heard of this breed before, but after doing a little research, it turns out this breed is amazing. They are massive, Bulgarian shepherds. Bred to stay up all night, they are loyal and protective. Moose will be well over 100lbs.

7. Kittens are the cutest

The kittens are now 5 months old. They are the sweetest, nicest, cuddliest little fur balls and they run this place. They hang out and mouse in the chicken coop, a couple of them sleep on the front porch at night, sometimes they sleep in the garage. I’ve never felt better about the mouse population around here than I do right now. We’re so happy to have such a productive little crew!

8. Scourge of the garden and orchard

Ugh, the Japanese beetles are here! We lucked out last summer, clearly. This summer they are here in swarms. They’ve eaten all of our sweet corn and have devastated our cherry and plum trees in the orchard. I hate them!! We were not anticipating they would be this bad, so next year we’ll be better prepared and ready to pounce. Just another farm life lesson for us.

9. Rooster separation

We had to build a bachelor pad for the surplus of roosters we had running around the farm. At one point we had 10 roosters and 40 hens, and it was horrible. As soon as the young ones hit chicken puberty it was a stressful free for all. The hens were looking beat up and they weren’t laying as much; we were down to getting 6 eggs a day! It was a mess. So we built the boys their own little coop and run, because without females around, boys will actually happily coexist with each other. Otherwise a few of them would fight to the death and we love them too much to have that happen. Eventually we’ll set up a separate breeding coop so we can pair one rooster with a few hens to get all sorts of fun egg colors.

10. Farmer’s markets

And finally, to wrap up this last month+, our farmer’s market game is pretty solid. We are figuring things out slowly but surely and are able to fill a booth with veggies, herbs, eggs and other things from our garden! How cool is that?! Hanna and I have been able to keep our giant garden alive and thriving, even though we seem to make every mistake possible and kinda have the worst luck. But we’re doing it and it’s awesome! And I’m already looking forward to being even better next year!

11. Bonus update

And yeah, and Archie is still an awesome little bear.

April 28, 2017April 28, 2017

Countdown to the last frost is upon us!

Good Afternoon! And Happy Friday!

It’s been a very busy but exciting week here at Archie’s Acres! The last frost is upon us! And the 100+ tomato and pepper plants couldn’t be more excited. No wait, scratch that, Hanna and I couldn’t be more excited to get them out of our sun porch! They’re about 6 inches tall and clearly looking for more space to grow. And of course we’re all for that. We’re hoping for only one more week of a frost threat out here. Oh please…

In preparation for the big move, we’ve begun building a 150′ by 35′ deer/rabbit fence around our entire garden. It’s a lot of work, and really kills your hands, but it’s worth it. The deer, rabbits and raccoons are ferocious eaters out here!

Wrapping the entire area in 30lb test fishing line and 2 feet tall chicken wire.

Spring is the season for Baby Animals.

…and we have a couple around here.

Our baby chickens are growing and flourishing. They’re learning the rules of being a chicken. And believe it or not, there is a protocol and of course a pecking order. The 20+ babies that we got from the hatchery in Iowa (Hoover’s Hatchery: https://www.hoovershatchery.com/) are now about 2 months old and are living outside in a rabbit hutch that we converted to a chicken coop. They’re still unable to join the adults because they’re not even close in size so they won’t stand a chance with the adults, who tend to be bullies.

The 7 blue egg laying chicks that we hatched in the incubator earlier this month are happily in their brooder in the garage, growing and socializing and learning chicken things. They have about 2 more weeks until they have all of their feathers and can handle the outside temp changes. But we’ll most likely keep them in the brooder for another month since there is only 7 of them, and they won’t outgrow their current space as quickly.

Baby Quail!

We have also hatched 7 baby quail in the last week. They are Coturnix quail, which is a breed of Japanese quail; they are the easiest quail breed to start with, they are cold hardy, mild-mannered and prefer to hang out on the ground which makes egg collection easier. We will sell their eggs at farmers markets this summer.

At first we had only hatched 1 quail, who was alone for over a day, he/she was very lonely, so a new hatchling made him/her very happy. He/she was very concerned with the well-being of the new baby. It was very sweet to watch. Since then we’ve hatched 5 more. They are the tiniest creatures. And their growth rate is impressive. In just 2 weeks they have developed at a rate that would take a chicken over a month to reach. These quail will reach full maturity at around 2 months old, while a chicken will take 5-6 months.

One of our baby quail needed braces for his splayed legs.

Baby Lamb!

Annnnnd we now have a baby lamb! Her name is Tilly. She lives in our house currently, as newborns are prone to hypothermia. She is 1 week old today and follows us around like a puppy. We got her from our friend Mike, who is a hog/sheep farmer nearby (he was also our realtor). Tilly was a triplet and her mom was unable to make enough milk for all 3 babies, so she needed to be bottle-fed, and we volunteered. At first it was a tough process, she didn’t take to bottle feeding very well. But 2 days later, she was a maniac at feeding time. She hits the bottle like a tiny bass and inhales her food. She’s growing and getting stronger every day. She will be in charge of landscaping our 2+ acre fenced in pasture. It’ll be nice to not have to make the time to mow that.

Busy busy busy…

All of these baby plants and animals have kept us very busy. Please follow us on Instagram. @ArchiesAcres

I try to post at least once a day. And as Spring really kicks in, we’ll have more of a focus on our organic vegetables and herbs. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

April 20, 2017April 21, 2017

Farmlife is a busy life!

Yes yes, I realize that it’s been forever since we’ve posted an update. So I’ll do a top 10 list of things that we’ve done since I last checked in.

TOP 10 THINGS WE’VE DONE ON THE FARM…

1. Those blue egg layer Cream Crested Legbar and Whiting True Blue eggs finally hatched! We have 7 beautiful new chicken babies! I’ve been actively humanizing them by relentlessly picking them up, so they’re a friendly little crew.

2. Our windbreak has been massively added to on the West and North sides of the farm by planting 25 arborvitae trees, 10 plum bushes, 10 serviceberry bushes and 10 nannyberry bushes. They’re all only about 2 feet tall, but seem to be doing well. Now we just have to wait 5 years…

3. We tilled our entire 150′ by 35′ garden. Since we don’t own a tiller yet, so we borrowed our neighbors. Geez, tilling is hard work!

4. We planted over 150 potatoes. Many many radishes, onions, peas, carrots and Brussels sprouts seeds went in the ground too….

5. We re-potted over 150 tomato, pepper, cauliflower, flower and broccoli seedlings. Some of the rarer tomato and peppers seedlings will be sold at the Rockford Green City Farmer’s Market this summer for the first few markets anyway. We’ll be there every 2nd and 4th Friday until the end of September.

Here’s the link to find out more about the market:

http://www.rockfordcitymarket.com/

6. We built a deer and rabbit fence around the entire garden. The rabbit and deer population is impressive out here. When we come home in the evening, there are always at least 8 baby rabbits running across the driveway. And we learned last year that they are ferocious eaters!

7. We weeded, re-roped and trimmed back our Centennial and Chinook hops plants to get them ready for Spring. This is the 2nd year for these hops so we should get an even better crop this summer! Last year we only got enough to do 2 batches of beer. So this year we’re hoping for at least 4 brewing sessions with our own hops.

8. We just started hatching quail eggs! Last night, in fact. We have 20+ cortunix quail eggs in our incubator. So far 3 have hatched. They are so cute! And surprisingly loud. We plan to sell quail eggs this summer. Quail develop surprisingly fast, they’ll be fully grown and laying in only 2 months!

9. We have moved all of our Iowa hatchery chicks out to a pen across from the chicken coop to get them acclimated to life outside. They’re all over 7 weeks now so they have all of their feathers and can survive the elements. Happy to report that all are doing well!

10. We have finalized our farmer’s market paperwork with the Rockford Farmer’s Market. We’ve bought all of the licenses that Illinois requires for every single thing they can think of. And it’s a lot. We have an egg license, I have my ServSafe food handling certification, a food handling permit and our individual licenses to sell in each county where we plan to sell. Plus our LLC insurance, FEIN and sales tax ID requirements are all squared away. We have all the required packaging and labeling materials to sell in Illinois, it was tedious and over-the-top, but that’s finally done. Phew.

Life is good here at Archie’s Acres. Spring has the trees and flowers blooming, the grass is green and the woods are coming back to life! It’s so fun to watch nature do its thing every spring.

For daily picture updates about Archie’s Acres, follow us on Instagram! @archiesacres

https://www.instagram.com/archiesacres/

A beautiful Spring day at Archie’s Acres.

March 23, 2017March 23, 2017

Being a chicken lady isn’t always easy…

Life is not all about treats, cute faces and beautiful eggs when you’re a chicken mom. Oh and let’s not forget about chicks, and broody hens who surprise you with a new chick every now and then, and watching a sweet incubator hatching, and feathered mobs rushing your porch every morning…

Chickens can have health drama.

2 days ago, Floppy wasn’t up in the roosts at bedtime with her friends. She was kind of dazed, a little lethargic and very, overly people friendly. We knew something was off but we weren’t sure what. We have a checklist we go through when trying to figure out what’s wrong with a chicken. Is s/he pooping. What color is their comb. Can they walk. Can they stand. How’s their breathing. How do their eyes look. Those few questions narrow our course of action down significantly…there are 4 main concerns that we have when dealing with an oddly acting chicken.

Floppy, named after her awesomely floppy comb.

Is she egg bound?

Every once in a while, due to a calcium deficiency, stress, a rare double-yoked egg and sometimes illness, a hen will be unable to lay an egg. Which will kill them. Think about it, the egg is in there until you help her get it out. If you don’t, and she can’t, she will die. Our first hen loss was in this way. Penelope, she was one of the 9 original chickens that came with our property, courtesy of the previous owners. We worked for 3 days to help her, and she was working too. We gave her warm epsom salt baths to relax her, making sure her backend was submerged. We made a little bed for her, a little bigger than a nesting box with a towel over top to give her a relaxing dark place to sleep. We even applied Preparation H to her since she had been working so hard for so long, to help ease some of her local pain from pushing. We worked really hard, and so did she. But to no avail. The loss was particularly tough.

Could it be Marek’s Disease?

This is a viral disease of poultry, primarily chickens. It can cause partial or total paralysis of the legs, wings, and even neck, it creates tumors in the body (often near nerves which causes the paralysis), blindness and death. It’s spread through dander so it’s a serious concern for us. If one chicken has it, they all will have it. But just having the disease doesn’t mean they’ll show symptoms, therefore all new members of our flock are required to be vaccinated and we will no longer be taking in rescues due to learning about it. So on that note, the first thing we’d look for is leg, wing or neck paralysis. And go from there.

Chickens get colds and flus just like humans do.

Wheezing. If there’s any wheezing or one eye is cloudy, they’re going into our homemade chicken hospital to begin intravenous antibiotics. We have had amazing success with 1cc of Duramycin 72-200, twice a day. We’ve had Claire, Newman and Ruby all make a full recovery after 5 days of treatment. Which makes a chicken mom feel really good!

Could it be chicken crop issue?

A sour or impacted crop is always a concern. The crop is basically the holding area for food before it travels to the stomach. We’ll often comment on a chickens’ “food boob” being especially large after a big meal, it’s because the thing is packed with food waiting to be digested and they’ve clearly had an amazing meal. A sour crop happens when the crop is never fully emptied, which means there’s old food in there fermenting, which results in a bacterial / yeast infection within the crop. Sounds pretty gross, because it is. Long grasses, excessive amounts of bread and pasta, moldy food and inadequate amounts of grit can cause this.

Since our chickens free-frange, a lack of grit is not an issue, but undigestible pieces of manmade material is, little pieces of plastic or a rubber band, which is how an impacted crop can happen. A strange object is blocking the crop from being emptied. Chickens are nosy, they’ll peck at anything. This is why I give the chickens a large bowl of yogurt a couple times a month. To keep things moving, keep a steady flow of good bacteria going. And I don’t often give them bread or pasta, which doesn’t offer much nutrition anyway. An impacted crop will feel hard and the sour crop will feel soft, and the best time to check is first thing in the morning, if the chicken is lethargic, since the crop is emptied almost completely overnight.

And none of these applied to Floppy…

Her lethargy and death happened abnormally fast. We found her standing on the coop floor, not even facing a corner (which chickens do when they’re sick) just staring at us. She had no symptoms of anything, aside from just wanting to curl up into a ball. She seemed dazed. Her crop was a little mushy, but not overly so. We gave her a epsom salt bath anyway. She would not open her beak for anything. We placed her in a dark warm corner with a towel. And she died peacefully the next morning. We think she must’ve eaten something poisonous. She was only a year old. It was really sad, and strange. We buried her next to Penelope at the south end of our property.