I now seem to have the opposite problem! Whereas Flossie appears to have an impacted crop, Myrtle's crop seems quite empty at the end of the day. The other night she was lying like a pancake in the nesting box when I went to shut them in at night. I picked her up and she seemed very light and her crop was empty. I've made a point of giving her more corn at the end of the day but this seems to be all that is in her, especially compared to greedy girl Sybil's bulging crop. Is this normal - could she just be digesting her food during the day? She doesn't seem out of sorts but she does look a bit pale (no lice/mites etc). She has been moulting and is just growing new feathers underneath. Should I be worried?
Chickens crop empty at night
- Thread starter elmdene
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mollteaser
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Is she brooding, and not leaving the nest box in the day to eat? I only day that because you mentioned pancaking...mine didn't.go proper broody, would eat and drink, but then go back and sit on nothing!
chrismahon
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Her crop should be full at night but if moulting she will eat rather less because she will have stopped laying. Mollteaser has a good point about broody. Or is she being bullied away from the feeder in which case have two. Could put corn mixed in with feed to encourage eating but ours dig a lot of it out to get to the corn only. Some of ours just stop eating from time to time and are encouraged with a variety of treats and they then get back into the habit of wanting a full crop. We have two at the moment just starting to get their appetite back again. Both have had a shot of probiotic natural yoghurt which they like and it aids the digestive system as well. What are her poos like?
A full crop at roosting time is what you should expect as this will then see her through the night. If she is not filling up with corn, then I'd suspect that there's something wrong. You say she feels light. How much flesh has she on her breast ?
She's not broody - only seems to want to spread out in the nest box at night, the rest of the day she's running about. And she does seem to be eating ok - I just can't work out where it's all going :? ! I give her extra corn rations in the evening and it's as if that's all there is in there. I thought last week her crop may not be full because she didn't like the taste of the flubenvet but they are off it now. Maybe it is, as Chris says, because she has stopped laying and has moulted a bit, whereas Sybil, who is still laying sometimes, having had a rest over the summer with her babies, is fairly hefty in comparison. Her poos seem normal as far as I can tell from the inspecting the coop this morning. She is a little pale though, and getting a bit too thin. Will keep an eye on her, try and feed her up and give the yoghurt a try.
chrismahon
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Is it going straight through because she has no grit in her gizzard?
chrismahon
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Sounds like she needs to be confined to a run so that you can see exactly what she is eating and pooing. Daffodil is filling up on apples at the moment and her crop is empty at night because they are basically 99% water and go straight through.
mollteaser
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chrismahon said:
Mine are doing very odd poos because of all the windfalls....they love the really rotten ones!
You might try making a mash by soaking pellets in warm water and fluffing them up until they're nice and crumbly, then add CLO or poultry vits etc and maybe soem mealwaorms or sunflower seeds. Mine get this every teatime through the winter and prcatically bowl me over when i appear half an hour before roosting time. Consequently they always go to bed with nice full crops.
They get mash soaked in warm water first thing in the morning and again in the evening with mealworms or corn added (not that they're spoilt or anything) and Myrtle does eat some of it, but where it goes is a mystery. Sybil's crop is full to bursting every night and hers is virtually empty apart from the extra bit of corn I give her. The apple comment may be relevant though - they are all feasting on fallen apples at the moment, but it's only Myrtle's crop that is empty. I will give her closer surveillance today.
