Treating Sour Crop in Chickens

Last week a friend asked me to stop over and take a look at one of her hens. The poor thing had a full crop and it didn't seem to be going down overnight. Also, my friend told me the chicken had bad breath! Chickens don't really get bad breath so I knew there had to be something wrong with her crop and went over to take a look. Turns out her hen had sour crop. 

Today we're going to discuss what sour crop is in chickens? Is it common and how can I diagnose and treat it? 

Chickens are likely to eat just about anything, so it's not unusual for them to have crop problems. When chickens feed, the crop will fill up during the day and empty overnight. If the crop has not emptied, there is something wrong with digestion or a problem with what they're eating! 

Sour crop often starts by a blockage or slow emptying of the crop. Unfortunately, it often goes along with impacted crop and can cause pendulous crop!

Funny chicken jokes

Years ago I used to write a weekly series of chicken & egg jokes, cartoons and funny stories called Friday Funnies. I would publish old jokes i knew, ones readers would send me etc. At the time blogs were more like online diaries, unlike today when they're more like information banks.

Anyway, somewhere along the line I was advised to remove all of these short posts because that's the way blogs were expected to be now. *rolls eyes* Obviously I believed it. Not really sure if it's true or not, but I digress.

Recently chicken jokes came up and a long time reader asked me about the joke series and the idea came up to consolidate them into one post. So basically that was a really long intro to say: here are all the chicken jokes that I published to the blog over 2 years. 

So let's do things funny side up today!

Impatient for eggs? Raise the Golden Comet chicken

I have mentioned a time or two how much I loved rising the chicken breed Golden Comet. Since they are such a great breed, I decided it's time they get their own post! These hens are well known for their ability to start laying at around 4 months and lay an egg almost every day for several years! Plus they are widely available now and a friendly addition to any flock!

I bought my first comet at a feed store and the only reason I picked her was because I wanted a colorful chicken. I had hatched a bunch of black copper Marans and they all looked like little ravens. I couldn't tell them apart yet and I wanted something different. Golden comets are buff colored chicks that become a gold or a cinnamon colored adult with some variation of lighter feathers in the tail. 

Actually, I have seen pictures of golden comets with a few black feathers in the tail, but none of mine ever had that.

Comets fall into a category called 'production' egg layers. Over the years they have been selectively bred to lay more often and be less broody. They were originally created for factory farms but have moved into backyard chicken keeping in the last 15 years or so. They lay better in winter than most other breeds I've raised!

They are a sex-link breed which means the males and females are easily distinguishable at hatch. This makes them a favorite with hatcheries as many people only buy pullets.

How to become a crazy chicken lady

Chicken keeping has exploded in popularity lately It seems like everybody knows somebody who's raising backyard chickens for eggs! Most people are content to just have a few chickens, enjoy their eggs and that's it. Of course there's those of us that take it to extreme. Enter the crazy chicken lady! 

You would think to become a crazy chicken lady all you would have to do is raise a few chickens...but there's so much more to it than that! Just being a chicken lady isn't enough, you have to make sure everyone else knows it too! 

Kind of like the crazy cat lady of the chicken world. We go above and beyond in our chicken keeping obsession, but you too can become a crazy chicken lady in just six easy steps!

How to : Freezing raw eggs

I finally started taking all the eggs off my silkie hens at least twice a day! You cannot leave an egg in with silkies because it takes about 6 hours before one of them decides she's broody and she's gonna hatch that egg! *rolls eyes* I mean, sometimes a silkie hen will even decide to try to hatch the floor, but it's less likely for her to go broody if there are no eggs sitting in the coop.

Quite frankly I have had it with chicks this year! I just took the last 20 to auction and I do not want anymore. So I decided to start taking their eggs everyday and very quickly found myself with several dozen little silkie eggs.

Related reading: How often should you collect eggs?

I currently have nine silkie hens, so the eggs add up fast! I also have six Marans hens, so I really don't need this many eggs. At least not right now. I decided I better preserve some and what easier way to preserve fresh chicken eggs then by freezing them?