Chickens get constipated?

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Bickerton

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The last two mornings there has been hardly any dropping in the hen house to clear up.
I have changed their feed to pellets instead of mash last week but otherwise nothing else has been altered..

Is this something I should worry about?
 
Are they eating the usual weight of food, i.e. is the feeder going down as you would expect, and going to roost with their crops full? It may be they aren't eating normally whilst thy get used to a new kind of food. You could try giving them pellets in a warm mash sometime after lunch so they get a good feed before the long cold night.
 
Have been giving them warm mash etc a few weeks and included pellets into it since I bought them, and they've all wolfed that down every day. They've eaten alot from the feeder too.
 
I just wonder why you think they might be constipated. Are the droppings they are producing the usual consistency? - ie, firm, two parts, white + brown. Do you give them any green stuff as well as pellets etc?
If they are normally active, feeding OK, and there are no other signs of ill health, maybe they are just nicely housetrained girls who save it up t do big ones when the emerge in the morning?
Are they actually roosting on the perches, where you expect them to be, or are there any droppings anywhere else in the house or nest boxes?
Probably nothing to worry about - certainly a lot less worrying than the opposite problem!
 
I just thought was odd the massive reduction in the amount of droppings
 
Just before they lay they stop pooing continuously and start pooing big ones first thing in the morning in the run Bickerton. It prepares them for motherhood, when they only poo once a day away from the nest.
 
Most of mine have been laying about a month I think a few still aren't yet as i'm averaging 3 eggs a day. It would be nice if I won't be cleaning about 4ft line of crap from under the perch lol.
 
chrismahon said:
Just before they lay they stop pooing continuously and start pooing big ones first thing in the morning in the run Bickerton. It prepares them for motherhood, when they only poo once a day away from the nest.
Click to expand...

Now THAT's a trait in a bird that'd be worth exhibiting and winning prizes for. Just imagine, rather than winning a prize for the most perfect comb & feathers, winning for having perfect toilet manners, pooing once a day in a specific "toilet" corner of the run, maybe even in a litter tray 8-)
 
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