3 Chicken Questions

[2DogsFarm]

1. Which of these breeds is most likely to lay double-yolk eggs:
   Buff Orpington
   Black Australorp

The other hens in my flock are an aged Amish mutt, a 3yo Barred Rock & an Easter Egger - last one same age (around a year) as the above suspects.
Which brings me to:

2. Easter Egger was laying pretty blue eggs from November (when I got the younger hens) until Winter moved in.
   No blue eggs since
   Can I expect her to restart once it warms up?

3. Buff Orpington has a HUGE lipoma on the back of her head.
   Thinking “abcess” I tried lancing it & got nothing. I am now thinking: lipoma.
   I realize it could be malignant as well.
   That was weeks ago. The thing is a bit bigger (near eggsize ) but does not seem to be bothering her.
   She’s eating, drinking, acting normal.
   Local large vet practice has a vet who will work on a chicken, but Cha-Ching!
   Do I let her be & consider it a cosmetic issue?
   Or bite the bullet & Care Credit surgery to remove it?

[eponacelt]

I’m not sure either of those breeds are particularly prone to lay double-yolks. The only breeds I’ve ever had them from are red sex-links.

I would guess the Easter Egger will start laying again soon. All of my hens slacked off pretty hard this winter (their 2nd or 3rd) so if she’s more than a year old, its likely just that she’s older and they don’t all lay all winter.

As for your third question, I would let her be unless she seems like she’s in distress. Even if you took her to the vet, its VERY hard to get wounds to heal on chickens, so the best thing you might be able to do is give her a good quality of life for as long as she has. That’s what I would do.

[Gardenhorse]

@eponacelt

As for your third question, I would let her be unless she seems like she’s in distress. Even if you took her to the vet, its VERY hard to get wounds to heal on chickens, so the best thing you might be able to do is give her a good quality of life for as long as she has. That’s what I would do.

Agree. I personally wouldn’t pay for surgery on a chicken. Especially if you have to put it on credit.

[2DogsFarm]

Thanks for the #3 responses.
Pretty much the way I feel.

This isn’t my first flock & I’ve experienced a lot of Chicken Mortality from a variety of reasons

@eponacelt Easter Egger is just now around 1yo, so I’ll be looking for my blue eggs again

Hmmmmm… Googling said older hens can sometimes go to double-yolk as the “machinery” shuts down.
So the Amish mutt - my oldest hen - at somewhere near 6 or 7, may be The One.

[Seagram]

I’ve also only gotten double yolks from the youngest reds. Never from an old one, so that’s something new I’ve learnt today. My black Australorps and Gold laced Wyandottes slacked off pretty hard this winter as well. We were discussing how chunky they are (they are a dual purpose bird), and low and behold we are getting a few eggs a week from them again. Lol!!
My reds have been a little bit lazy this winter, but now everyone seems to be picking up the pace again. I think the oldest chicken I have is around 3 or 4, and I try to add an extra 6 or so chicks every year. I have lost to foxes and a weasel, sometimes they just up and die.
Wouldn’t bother with a vet even if I could find one. As long as she doesn’t appear to be suffering.

[LilRanger]

I would suspect the Orpington, but that’s just because I had an Orpington lay double yolks, but only in the early stages of her egg laying, go figure!

And I also would not get surgery on a chicken. Birds are notoriously sensitive to drugs, and the limpoma is probably less dangerous than sedation.

I had an 8 yo lavender Orpington laying eggs all through the winter, no doubles. Darn raccoons ended my chicken owning this year.

[2DogsFarm]

@LilRanger

Darn raccoons ended my chicken owning this year.

For me it was hawks & that ended my freeranging after 10yrs
Lost 2 hens in a week. Fini!

Worst loss before that was rooster & 2 hens (1 was my pet) to a fox in a single afternoon. Bastard left the bodies to collect later, I disposed of them before it came back.
Saw BIG fox that weekend by my barn, some 200’ from the coop & fenced yard where I had confined the survivors.

[LilRanger]

That sticks. We just finished with our Year of Predation. We lost 2 to hawks, 2 to an owl, 3 to coyotes/bobcat (chickens gone with feather trail, so who knows, both animals in the area) and after we kept them all in, raccoons busted in and finished them all off.

[2DogsFarm]

So far my fenced yard & coop have kept out predators.
I “roofed” the yard with crisscrossed baling twine after reading that hawks see this as a barrier.
Only once, when I forgot to close the door from yard to coop, did I lose a hen to a coon. Found the headless body the next morning. My Bad

[Mango20]

I have a black australorp and she is the most consistent layer of medium sized eggs that all come out exactly the same size every time. Based on my one chicken, I would not expect them to be likely to lay double-yolkers as a breed.

Your Easter Egger should start back up any day now. Mine started last week. I do have one hen whose egg laying mechanism just quit working a couple of years ago, but I think that’s less likely in your case.

What to do about your Buff Orpington is your call. I personally am not really willing to spend tons of money on chickens, so I would just leave it alone as long as she seems happy and the other chickens aren’t pecking it or anything. Chickens are fairly short-lived, so it’s not like surgery would extend her lifespan a significant amount.

[JB]

We had an Australorp who regularly laid double yolkers

The other doubles have been from one or more of the following (your guess is as good as mine): a half Brahma, New Hampshire Red, Rhode Island Red, black sex-link, Dominique, and/or Barred Plymouth Rock.

I’m not sure doubles are more common in one breed than other. I think it’s about individuals

[LilRanger]

Racoons pretty much laid siege to my coop. Digging under the coop, pushing the wire fening until they found weakness, then, last of all, busting through the plastic pro panel roof!

It was bad.

[2DogsFarm]

Those were some determined coons!
Sorry you had to deal with that.
What I hate most is the basta*ds just rip the heads off & leave the rest.

[Mosey_2003]

The lump, is it squishy or firm? Chicken puss is extremely firm, so nothing running out when lanced doesn’t mean it’s necessarily not an abscess. I’d probably enlist my vet tech friend and really explore it, myself, but otherwise I’d say leave it alone.

Double yolks typically are the younger birds, but I’ve had some here and there that stayed more likely to lay them for whatever reason, it really could be any of them.

The Easter Egger should start back up soon. My Rocks quit when we got that first real cold snap and I’m just now getting some again from two of them. The ISA Browns laid nearly perfectly all the way through, they really are machines.

You wanna talk about sickening waste? The mink that came through here about made me want to puke. Chickens dead and scattered and not a thing actually EATEN on any of them, just killed in a frenzy I have the most consistent trouble with raccoons and opossum. Being more proactive this year, it’s always something with them.

[baybrio]

@Mosey_2003

I have the most consistent trouble with raccoons and opossum.

I’ve had racoon and opossums for years without any trouble - until last fall. My birds had to spend nights in my big horse trailer until we could get it sorted out.

My dog’s vet will look at my birds and treat them if necessary for a very small fee (I don’t bother him with my birds very often). You could ask how much it would for the vet to give you an opinion. You might get a big discount if you bring a couple of dozen eggs.

[2DogsFarm]

@Mosey_2003

lump, is it squishy or firm? Chicken puss is extremely firm, so nothing running out when lanced

Firm, but appears to be detaching, flopping to one side & possibly smaller.
Still not affecting her quality of life.
I could try opening it further, but I think that might lead to a bigger problem.
No vet tech friend, but maybe my vet could look when she comes for Spring vax - probably in May.
She’s big on posting the oogy horse stuff on FB.

[eponacelt]

I lost 2 hens to hawks this year, in quick succession. We’ve hung reflective tape above our run which has helped keep the rest of the flock safe for now.

Worst predation I’ve ever had was years ago when they free ranged my farm and went into the coop at night. Someone gave us 6 easter eggers who simply refused to go back in the coop at night. They took to roosting in the rafters of my barn. Well, one morning, I came out to find piles of feathers ranging from the center aisle of my barn, all the way to the back fenceline and beyond. Damn fox had come into the barn and taken those hens one by one. The only one that got away was the goddamn rooster.

A few months later, the rooster had become so aggressive that I told my husband to get rid of it because I was in fear of entering my barn yard!

[baybrio]

@2DogsFarm

She’s big on posting the oogy horse stuff on FB.

We all know we secretly wanted to see pics of that stuff.

[baybrio]

I’m so very sorry to hear about your losses. I’ve heard the reflective tape works wonders. It’s so hard with the night preditors.

[MrsFitzDarcy_amp_Feliks]

Big chicken gal here. I used to try to free range my chickens, but accidents happen. My dogs nudged open the sliding door while I was gone and I lost 3/4 of my chicken, including my show chickens (large fowl silver-laced Wyandottes and bantam black Wyandottes). It was depressing. I bought a new coop and friends helped me build a covered run. I used 1"x2" wire fencing. One morning I came out and two of my brand new bantam salmon Faverolles had been beheaded overnight. They were fairly pricey show chickens, too. I reevaluated and rewired with 1/2" hardware cloth. I didn’t have a problem with wildlife slaughters after that.

I lived in suburban Tucson at the time, and we had rampant coyotes and bobcats. Now I live in town, but there are coyotes and bobcats here, and they can climb a 6’ wall. I hear it all the time on the chicken Facebook groups I am on. People desperately want to free range, but unless you can babysit them the whole time, or you have a really well trained livestock guardian dog, you are risking your flock. If you have dogs that are diggers or coyotes around, I’d recommend using hardware cloth below ground, too. Dig a trench about a foot deep and put the hardware cloth in it.

Tucson is a hard place to have chickens in the summer. I have to put up misters when it’s over 100 degrees. If you have egg chickens you have to be sure to pick up the eggs quite soon or they will start to cook in the shell. For my show chickens the misters “burnt” their feathers. The blacks looked sunburnt, losing their sheen. The feather quality diminished a lot.

Since I moved to the city, I board my bantam Wyandottes with a friend, and I lost my bantam salmon Faverolles to the heat because they dumped their water over and I didn’t realize it. I felt so bad.

If you ever want a docile, sweet chicken that lays pinkish brown eggs, Faverolles are great. They come in large fowl and bantam. They have muffs, beards, leg feathers and are oh-so cute.

A male:

Hens: