Pandemic in the Coop

Our chickens are sick. Egg production fell of a cliff a couple of weeks ago—we have been getting 5-8 eggs a day at a time when we should be getting a couple dozen. That sometimes happens when they are molting, or in late summer when it’s really hot, but neither of those things are happening right now. Earlier in the week, I found two dead birds in the coop, but that’s not out of the ordinary. They were older hens and hens sometimes drop dead for no obvious reason. The husband found another dead one the next day.

Yesterday afternoon though, when I went out to the coop, I could tell something was wrong. The chickens—especially Dave, the rooster—normally get very excited when I show up to give them their afternoon scratch grains. No one was excited. Most of them were droopy and lethargic. By the time the husband got home, some of the chickens were coughing.

We cleaned the coop thoroughly and replaced the bedding. He said all but one came in to roost, which was a good sign, but we didn’t know what we would find this morning. I was expecting a bunch of dead chickens. It was also eerily quiet; Dave usually starts up as soon as he sees a sliver of daylight, but all he could manage this morning was an anemic croak. We did not find any more dead chickens, but most of them are coughing and looking unhappy. The pullets, thankfully, don’t seem to be affected.

We’ve had chickens for more than 10 years and never had a problem like this. I looked online and I’m leaning toward infectious bronchitis as the diagnosis. I am wondering if it came in with the 10 Leghorns we got about a month ago. The husband was doing a job for someone who raises show chickens and these were hens that she didn’t want to breed. She offered them to him for free. I expect that her chickens were vaccinated, but recovered chickens can still be asymptomatic carriers. The Leghorns don’t seem to be affected by this. They are also the only chickens that have been laying reliably lately.

We might still lose a few chickens, but this infection should clear within a week. Unfortunately, it’s probably now going to be endemic in our flock and we’ll probably have to vaccinate from now on. (The vaccine can be administered in their water.) Hopefully, it won’t affect the pullets. And we’re going to have to rig up some kind of cooling system this weekend. The chickens don’t like hot weather, and chickens that are already stressed by illness are going to have a much harder time in 90+ degree heat.

In other news, I do have a broody hen—one of the Light Brahmas has been on a nest for almost three weeks now and I am hoping to see chicks soon.

Oh, and the irony?—infectious bronchitis is caused by a coronavirus. :-/

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I weeded the corn yesterday morning, then top-dressed it with a thick layer of compost. And then we got a nice, gentle rain for a couple of hours, so that was great. My assistants were busy digging up the pasture:

They’ll have plenty of shade in the heat next week. I’ll also make them a big mud wallow to roll around in.