# Chicken Constantly Sneezing (Need help from birdlovers)



## janamsingh

hey guys currently i have around 12 birds in total.
4 Aseel (2 males and 2 females)
2 regular type of birds (one male and 2 females)
2 old english roosters (white)
2 bantams (one male and one female)
one last little yellow hen (i don't know about her breed)

Problem:
my yellow hen just constantly keep on sneezing all the time. Normally i have placed her inside a box which has a bulb but that wont do her any good. 
Besides her sneezes she appears to be perfectly fine alhumdulillah. 
So i was wondering if any of you wonder birdlovers would give me any tips in this regards. I am all ears. 
thanks

And here is a clip of that yellow cute bird.


----------



## Sylie

Hi, welcome to the forum!

You have some very nice birds. The bird that is sneezing, what breed is she? Is that an Aseel? I've never seen one in real life, so neat looking!

Here are some questions that will help us figure out what is going on with her.
1. Is she eating and drinking like normal? 
2. Is she as active as usual? What is your weather like? 
3. Does she live in the house with you? 
4. Does she live with the other chickens, meaning, does she get to go outside with the others? (I noticed that she is inside your home in the video)
5. What kind of bedding do you keep her on? 
6. How old is she? 
7. Is she laying eggs? 
8. If she is old enough to lay eggs, is she laying as many as usual?
9. How long has she been sneezing? (days, weeks, months?)
10. Does she have liquid coming from her nose or eyes?
11. If you feel underneath her wings, does she feel hotter than normal?

As soon as you can answer the questions here, we'll be happy to try to figure out what is happening.


----------



## janamsingh

Sylie said:


> Hi, welcome to the forum!
> 
> You have some very nice birds. The bird that is sneezing, what breed is she? Is that an Aseel? I've never seen one in real life, so neat looking!
> 
> Here are some questions that will help us figure out what is going on with her.
> 1. Is she eating and drinking like normal?
> 2. Is she as active as usual? What is your weather like?
> 3. Does she live in the house with you?
> 4. Does she live with the other chickens, meaning, does she get to go outside with the others? (I noticed that she is inside your home in the video)
> 5. What kind of bedding do you keep her on?
> 6. How old is she?
> 7. Is she laying eggs?
> 8. If she is old enough to lay eggs, is she laying as many as usual?
> 9. How long has she been sneezing? (days, weeks, months?)
> 10. Does she have liquid coming from her nose or eyes?
> 11. If you feel underneath her wings, does she feel hotter than normal?
> 
> As soon as you can answer the questions here, we'll be happy to try to figure out what is happening.


Thank you so much for replying. And no the bird that keeps on sneezing is not aseel. it is some other breed (i think her breed is red mille fleur). And regarding your questions
1) She is drinking a little water but she is eating absolutely fine
2) Yes she is absolutely active and running bird. She sleeps well and during sleep she never sneeze. And weather in my city of lahore is around 20-22 C. But she has been through winter and back then she was fine. 
3) yes she lives inside with us
4) no she is from a small breed of hens so whenever i place her with the others, they kinda try to injure her. so i have placed her separately
5) her bedding is like a card board and a bird cage. because she is really small so i don't risk placing her with others outside.
6) she is grown up from my understanding because birds of this breed do not grow any bigger than her.
7) no she don't. i have not tried to mate her with bantams and aseels are extreme huge for her.
8) yes she is old enough to lay eggs i guess. we have her for almost 8 months and she is not growing any bigger so i feel she is mature enough. plus since i observe her daily so maybe i dont feel the grown in her body that much.
9) around a few weeks now
10) no not at all alhumdulillah. her nose is fine and eyes are gorgeous. she is fine besides her sneezing 
11) she feels normal. her chest feels like protruding (as in the video). but even then i think that it is just me assuming that her chest is a bit protruding.

And i would just want to add that i am absolutely fine with her sneezing. All i want to know that does she feel any sort of pain? If she is fine than i am fine. plus

1) she sneezes more at night
2) summer time is approaching in my city of lahore. so maybe she will get well during summer


----------



## robin416

Check her naires (her nostrils). It's not uncommon for them to get something caught in there.


----------



## janamsingh

her nostrils seem to be okay. i have seen a few other videos on youtube where the hens are sneezing and one of the most famous video on youtube shows a bantam chicken sneezing. I feel that this sneezing thing is common in bantam chicks. I know mine is red mille, but red mille is also a sub-breed of bantam. 
Plus i have not noticed any health hazard besides this sneezing. It is like, she would sneeze and that continue eating or doing whatever she is upto.


----------



## robin416

I really think it's some sort of irritation in the sinus'. I raised bantams, I never noticed that they sneezed more than any other bird.

What are you using for bedding? Could be something the bird is sensitive too.


----------



## Sylie

It sounds like she may be allergic to something in the house that is making her sneeze. If you are keeping her on cardboard, is it shredded or just a flat piece? You said she mostly sneezes at night but not when sleeping. Does she sleep with her mouth open at all?

If she is eating and drinking and acting normally then I wouldn't worry too much about it. What concerns me is that she isn't laying eggs yet. you said that you've had her for 8 months, how old was she when you got her? 

Do you burn incense in the house? Chickens have sensitive noses and it may be bothering her if you are.


----------



## janamsingh

bedding would be cardboard placed inside a birdcage. she is seriously small sized as compared to my aseel and other hens so i cannot risk placing her with them. especially if i placed her with aseels (which as you know are breed for fighting in pakistan and india) it would just take a few seconds for me to take her back outside.































Rest of the aseel, old english and 3rd type (i dont know its exact name) are placed outside










left old english, middle aseel, right the 3rd type lol

moreover i cannot leave that little bird outside unattended because a cat might just make her one bit (she is a cute little creature as you can see). 
So given the situation i thought to just keep her in that birdcage. and besides she has stayed there for almost 8 months and its only recently that she has started to sneeze.


----------



## janamsingh

Sylie said:


> It sounds like she may be allergic to something in the house that is making her sneeze. If you are keeping her on cardboard, is it shredded or just a flat piece? You said she mostly sneezes at night but not when sleeping. Does she sleep with her mouth open at all?
> 
> If she is eating and drinking and acting normally then I wouldn't worry too much about it. What concerns me is that she isn't laying eggs yet. you said that you've had her for 8 months, how old was she when you got her?
> 
> Do you burn incense in the house? Chickens have sensitive noses and it may be bothering her if you are.


yes on a card board and it is flat. yes she definitely never sneezes during sleep. and i have not noticed her mouth when she sleeps but when i take her in my hands she sort of opens her mouth for a bit longer than normal (i suppose). 
she alhumdulillah she is eating very fine. and yes she has not layed even a single egg yet. yes i am having her for almost 8 months now and she was ammmmmm almost the same size. i have never had such red fleur birds before, this is my 1st interaction with them. 
i must say i was a bit touted into buying her. normally i have aseel birds .

but i am just keeping my fingers crossed for the summer to come. maybe when the temperature rises she will be fine. till that time i have placed this bulb in her cage to keep her warm.
moreover i have had this experience with hen that the one which appears to be the weakest is the one which stays with me the longest.  
hope that is the case with her as well.
and thankful so much all the kinds suggestions. next time if i buy one of these i would be careful.


----------



## Sylie

Having her on cardboard is a little unusual. If you can, try to get her some wood shavings (pine is best) so that she can make a nest to lay eggs in, she may be waiting to have a nest before laying eggs.

The bulb is okay to have but she shouldn't need it inside the house. Anything above 10C and she shouldn't need a light. She may be over heated, that could make her sneeze and keep her mouth open a bit longer than needed.


----------



## robin416

What Sylie said. 

One question, well maybe two. Have you tried her with one of the other birds that are not Aseels? And are her eyes round and bright looking?


----------



## janamsingh

Sylie said:


> Having her on cardboard is a little unusual. If you can, try to get her some wood shavings (pine is best) so that she can make a nest to lay eggs in, she may be waiting to have a nest before laying eggs.
> 
> The bulb is okay to have but she shouldn't need it inside the house. Anything above 10C and she shouldn't need a light. She may be over heated, that could make her sneeze and keep her mouth open a bit longer than needed.


so i have removed the bulb today. and judging the fact that the temperature is going to increase rapidly here in my city, so maybe bulb will not be required any further. and about the house, i am trying to find something at home. inshaa ALLAH i will be able to find something that is a bit softer and gives her some comfort. currently she sleeps well on the cardboard, but still i will find something else.


----------



## janamsingh

robin416 said:


> What Sylie said.
> 
> One question, well maybe two. Have you tried her with one of the other birds that are not Aseels? And are her eyes round and bright looking?


in the right side of the 1st picture above, there are bantams. i placed her with them but those bantams would always fight with her. so i separately them. 
other than that, i have never tried placing here with those 3 types of birds in picture number 5.

1) my oridinary hens lay brownish elliptic eggs. 
2) and i have 2 old english roosters. i dont have any old english hen. so i have placed an ordinary white hen with them. she laid eggs that were white in color. mostly we would consume those eggs. i tried to hatch it one time but the chick couldn't make it. i have placed another egg in the incubator yesterday. hopefully this time i would be able to see the result of this hybrid breeding. 
3) aseel eggs are a bit bigger and the chicks normally make it. they are really active from the get go. 
i have never tried to breed aseel rooster with any of the other hens, because that could be seriously dangerous. lolz. even aseel hen can take down an ordinary rooster so i wouldn't take that chance.


----------



## robin416

You can't just plop her in with birds that don't know her. It takes a slow introduction, like her in her cage right next to them. 

From the pics it looks like where they live is barely big enough for a pair so there might be a space issue trying to get three in one space.


----------



## janamsingh

robin416 said:


> You can't just plop her in with birds that don't know her. It takes a slow introduction, like her in her cage right next to them.
> 
> From the pics it looks like where they live is barely big enough for a pair so there might be a space issue trying to get three in one space.


yes agree with you, i am not supposed to put her with the other birds with getting her acquaint. and maybe this type of set up has got her acquaint with the rest.

but yes you are right, there might be space issue if i just place her with the others. i have a parrot cage as well. shall i put her inside that? it is wooden and we have one green parrot inside.


----------



## robin416

Not even with the parrot. I have a feeling she will not survive that. At least you asked about it first, too many wouldn't.


----------



## janamsingh

robin416 said:


> Not even with the parrot. I have a feeling she will not survive that. At least you asked about it first, too many wouldn't.


our parrot is really serious shy. but i have not placed my little hen with her. we already have 6 cages now. lol. 3 outside for the bigger birds. one cage with 2 sides (one for this bird and other for the bantams) and a last one for the parrot. 
i will try to make the existing cage as comfy as i can. and as i text right now, i hear no sneezing because she is asleep. hopefully with the change of the cardboard, the sneezing will go away.  tnx so much


----------



## robin416

As you've seen birds can be quite vicious when they're space is compromised by a stranger. The parrot is so much stronger than a chicken, it wouldn't take much to kill the hen.


----------



## Shishir Jinturkar

There are two strains of a common respiratory disease in chickens that you need to know about to keep them well. _Mycoplasma_ is a genus of bacteria that is known to attack the respiratory or locomotor system in chickens. There are two strains of _Mycoplasma_ that can cause respiratory diseases in chickens: _Mycoplasma gallisepticum_ (MG) and _Mycoplasma synoviae_ (MS).


----------



## janamsingh

robin416 said:


> As you've seen birds can be quite vicious when they're space is compromised by a stranger. The parrot is so much stronger than a chicken, it wouldn't take much to kill the hen.


yes i am not keeping them together to stay safe


----------



## janamsingh

Shishir Jinturkar said:


> There are two strains of a common respiratory disease in chickens that you need to know about to keep them well. _Mycoplasma_ is a genus of bacteria that is known to attack the respiratory or locomotor system in chickens. There are two strains of _Mycoplasma_ that can cause respiratory diseases in chickens: _Mycoplasma gallisepticum_ (MG) and _Mycoplasma synoviae_ (MS).


any medicines? what about panadol?


----------



## robin416

Don't worry about this just yet. Sneezing is not enough of a symptom to be medicating the bird. If the others are normal chances are she had something irritating her sinus'.

Believe it or not, they can have allergies just like humans do.


----------



## janamsingh

yes all of the remaining birds are fine and dandy. no problems at all. and hopefully when this global problem subsides and temperature goes up in our city, she will be fine.


----------



## robin416

Just keep watch. You know it could even be something in the house that's bothering her.


----------



## janamsingh

robin416 said:


> Just keep watch. You know it could even be something in the house that's bothering her.


yes i definitely will watch out. we don't have any particular plants that can cause any elergy. Can this sneezing be caused by any type of food? i just feed all the 12 hens that same things. which includes vegetable left overs and wheat. my brother used to bring them bird feed from the market, but bird feed in my country ...........
bird feed in my country is not the most suitable to say the least. now we have stopped giving all the hens the bird feed because of the sheer smell of the feed was overwhelming for us humans (let alone those small birds). but could it be the reason that the bird feed caused some sort of elergy on this sneezing bird? she was the most fragile was the most prone to any disease i suppose.


----------



## Sylie

I wouldn't think that the bird feed would be causing her allergies if you have gotten rid of it and stopped feeding it to her. If it's gone and out of the house, that probably is not the cause of the ongoing sneezing.


----------



## janamsingh

yes we stopped the bird feed a while ago now. as i am typing this post she is still sneezing in the background. 
it is like 2 sneeze per minute for the whole day (apart from the time she sleeps, say 8 hours). it is like 2x60x16 = 1920 sneezes per day. 
this just constantly causes a concern for me. i feel a little hurt whenever she sneeze. 

i know that animals do not know that they are ill and maybe she never knows that she is sneezing but me being human feel it a little. 
maybe it is just innocuous and she feels no pain. i hope that this is the case. because besides this sneeze
a) she is active herself
b) and she has not caused any illness to any other birds


----------



## janamsingh

and i know that i said that her timings of sneeze change from morning to night. but it might be the case that i am just overthinking. i don't feel her sneeze when i am outside the house or in the other rooms away from her cage, but as soon as i come near the cage or when you guys recommend me something , i start to observe her more. and whenever i observe (meaning listening instead of hearing) she sneezes.


----------



## robin416

Can you take her outside? Cage and all? Watch to see what she does. It could be a cleaning product, a cooking ingredient, almost anything in the house that doesn't bother us but will bother them.


----------



## janamsingh

changed the cardboard and guess what? the sneezing is now 90 percent decreased. now i know why she sneezes less when i take her up in my hands, its perhaps when i took away from that cardboard she smelt a bit fresh air. 
i must change that cardboard frequently and maybe i should get something else arranged for her soon. currently i am bogged down to this global problem, but i shall get her some different kind of cage without cardboard and all.

But it is really a new experience for me and really fascinates me how a trivial cardboard can influence a bird and it is also fascinating that how a bird can be so much sensitive to such small things.


----------



## robin416

Something to think about, she's much closer to the source than we humans are when we're standing up. So, she's like the canary in the coal mine. The first to respond to noxious odors. It's also possible if you're not keeping that cardboard changed ammonia from her droppings is building up, causing her to sneeze. You might notice it because you don't have the sensitive smell ability that she does.


----------



## janamsingh

i shall atleast change the cardboard often. moreover i will let her out for half an hour daily and keep a look on her. at least for the time being (when i am 24 hours at home) i should let her play in the frontyard for half hour daily and rinse the cardboard (if i am not able to change the cardboard daily).


----------



## robin416

And at some point, we do need to talk about what they're being fed. I don't know what the issues are with the feed you bought but they really should be on a balanced diet to keep them healthy.


----------



## janamsingh

yeah that feed was a nightmare to say the least. the feed is the chicken itself (i know you wont believe it). in my country unfortunately the leftover wings/beak/claws etc of chicken (which is a high protein source) is recycled to make it feed for other chickens.
it is an industry norm and is sort of rationalized. 
most of the birds take it, especially aseels. but i think this bird (which i have for the 1st time) does not fancy feed much.


----------



## robin416

They do it here too so don't feel bad about how they make feed there. 

The problem with what you're feeding them is that it lacks all the vitamins and minerals they need. The girls need extra calcium for egg laying, none of what you're feeding them is providing that. Protein levels would be very low too.


----------



## janamsingh

oh ok! i thought they only make bird feed like this in my place.

And taking up your calcium point, i noticed that my old english roosters peck into the eggs and eat it whenever they get a chance to do so. it is maybe they are trying to use egg as a calcium source.
so shall try to give this little hen some poached egg? not desi egg, but poultry egg.


----------



## robin416

Your rooster is eating the egg for the protein that is in the egg, he doesn't need the extra calcium. The calcium is in the egg shell. 

I've never had a rooster do that, hens yes but never a rooster. It does point to you needing to do something to make their nutrition better.


----------



## janamsingh

my father says that they white roosters are very choosey and will not eat vegetable remains. now i understand why? maybe they want more proteins as you pointed out. i should better give them something else too. it is quite fascinating that how these prolongs holidays has helped me pay attention to such things. normally i would just feed them and leave for office and when i would return i would give them some food again and that's it. i would spend time with them on weekends, but not on daily basis.
and i wanted to ask you one more question...
can i buy another chick and place it with that yellow hen? that chick is available for me online @1.2 usd approx. the seller says its australorp chick. i can't say anything about the integrity of his claims but its cheap and even if it is not australorp, it may give company to my yellow hen.
but will it be ok. i mean that chick would certainly be smaller than this hen, maybe she would hurt that chick?


----------



## robin416

I'm going to strongly urge you not to get another bird, whether a chick or full grown. You have to solve you feed and space issues first.

It looks like most of your birds are bantams, here is the recommended open floor space for them. 3 square feet of open floor space. That mean no floor space taken up by waterers or feeders or nests.

And yes, she's liable to go after the chick. Or she may not but if you get it and she goes after it what are you going to do then?


----------



## janamsingh

if she goes after the chick, it will create definite space issues because i already have 5 birdcages (besides the one for the parrot). 
i will try to work on your recommendation and try to make some space for the bantams.


----------



## robin416

Yes, study on it for a while. Make things a bit better for them. I know this chicken addiction thing is hard to fight. Every single person I know, including me, has had to fight the urge not to get just one more.

You know you don't have to have premade cages, you can build them nice places to live in.


----------



## Sylie

I would like to revisit 2 issues if we could, I don't feel they are resolved. 

the cardboard flooring for the sneezing chicken, is there anything else that you can use instead of the cardboard? If I read your post correctly, she does better when she is away from the cardboard. I am not even a little bit familiar with your country and their ways of doing things but maybe you could find a woodworker or sawmill or something that would let you have wood shavings (pine) for her instead of cardboard? Here in the United States you can usually get them free or really cheap from places like that. It's a bit messier to clean up but she would be better off without the cardboard. For now, yes, please keep washing the cardboard once or twice a day if you can, she may be allergic to the chemicals that they use in the processing and printing (most cardboard has words printed on it? Does yours?). I don't know your financial situation or, like I said, I don't know your country but a lot of stores that carry pet supplies ( like canary food or pet fish supplies)will carry small bags of pine shavings (please don't use cedar, the aroma is hard on their sinuses). 
Maybe, if you had a piece of cloth, like an old shirt that you don't wear, you could cover the cardboard with that, maybe that would help?
I agree that you should take her outside whenever you can for fresh air, that is a good idea.

The other issue is her feed, can you tell me exactly what is in her feed besides chicken beaks and feet? is there corn or oats or barely or any other grains? Do you have access to commercially prepared chicken food? I'm not sure if you can order feed online or not but in her case, I would try to order some if you can't get any from a store there. She needs calcium. One way you can give it to her is to give her uncooked egg shells from the other chickens. clean them out really well and grind it to powder and just put a bowl of the powdered egg shell in her cage to eat as she wants to. She will eat as much as her body needs and she will not eat it if her body does not need it. She will know how much of it to eat on her own so just leave a bowl of it for her.


----------



## janamsingh

yes wood worker is easy to employ. once this outbreak settles inshaa ALLAH i will definitely make her a wooden box. i would try to make a box which cannot be breached by nocturnal rodents and i would try to make that box without a base. i would place it in the grassy yard available to me. and the cardboard does not have any paint on it. 
And the reason for placing the box in the grass would be that the grass and mud can absorb her dropping plus if the box is moveable i can simply trod a few steps forward and place the box a few steps ahead each day/couple of days.
i live in lahore (pakistan) and it is 22nd largest city in the world with around 12 million population (Source: https://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/ )

but having said that we have every bird food available in the market but demand for bird food is not that high and it is perhaps due to the fact that most of the people just feed their chickens what ever is left at the home.

BIRD FEED

And the bird feed is in the shape of grains. I am not exactly sure what do they have in it (besides beaks and feet) because they just mix it all in and make a mixture out of it in the shape of grains. 
Apart from that i can we have this other type of bird feed


















as you can see. this is the 2nd type of feed i guess. this has corn grains and a very small quantity of wheat grains and other grains i don't know at all about. lolz

ok now about this feed. 
Aseels will eat anything (they are like ostriches i guess, anything that fits in the mouth is gone into the tummy).
old english are chosey, they will eat as per their mood.
and this yellow little hen. she kicks this feed and finds something inside and eats it.

besides this feed if you cook rice we give them left overs and any vegetable that is easily accrued is given to them.


----------



## robin416

That second one looks totally acceptable. It looks like it has corn, wheat, peas and the rest I can't quite see. If you want to up their protein you can boil up some eggs to mix in and use the egg shells for the girls' protein.

If you're talking about putting her in a solid box, that's not good. She won't be able to see anything and will be in the dark. Your birds need more room, sunlight for vitamin D and shade for protection from the hottest part of the day. 

This virus is making it difficult for everyone. I can't imagine what it's like for you and your family living in such a densely populated city. Stay safe and healthy.


----------



## janamsingh

nice point about the darkness. i would have never noticed it on my own. thanks for that.
and yeah it is very densely populated but we are holding good alhumdulillah.

i would try to make a box having sunlight in it. and about that poached egg, i would definitely try that as well. 
and other ingredients in the feed that were not visible includes pearl millet (widely present in africa and subcontinent). it is chiefly grown for forage but used in feed as well.


----------



## robin416

Just in case it's the differences in countries, for us it's called hard boiled eggs. You cook the eggs in their shells in boiling water for 15 mins. Poached for us is breaking the egg into boiling water. 

Think about using wood for a frame and wire as the sides. 

Does anyone smoke in the house? That could set her off too. 

If your pearl millet is the same as hours, my chickens don't care for it. The aseels might like it. My Guineas and quail think it's the best thing there is. Do most people leave their chickens out to roam there? That's where the chickens get the protein and many of the vitamins and minerals they need.


----------



## janamsingh

let a chicken outside in my street and in 10 minutes it will be gone. lolz. and if you leave a fancy cat (eg punch faced cat) it will be gone even quicker. someone will just snatch them away for a quick buck. plus i am a bit skeptic i suppose, so i dont take the risk. plus our streets are not that spacious, we live in the most dense places on the world.
in villages people still leave their birds outside simply because people recognize each other and they have plenty of acreage for the birds to roam around easily.
in a few months inshaa ALLAH i am planning to go to my village so i will share pictures of chickens over there.
and yes i knew about difference between boiled and poached eggs, i will give them both (one by one) and see the difference.
and nobody smokes in our house maybe for 2 generations now.lol.
and good to know that in usa they also give pearl millet (we call it either "jawar" or "bajra" i am not sure) to the chickens.
and it is good to know that you also have quail and quineafowls. 
do you have any chukar partridge? it is the national bird of our country


----------



## janamsingh

pearl millet is called bajra
and another item of the feed is sorghum which we call jowar


----------



## robin416

I would have a difficult time living in such tight quarters. I'm not a city person at all even though I've lived in them and grew up in what we call suburbs. I've been able to live in the country for many years now. 

Things like animal theft happen here too. Funny thing is that it happens more often in the country than in the city. 

My chickens didn't like the millet, it's the others that like it. My quail are Pharaohs. They're just pets as all of my birds are. But I'm fortunate that my birds have plenty of space and fresh air. My Guineas are let out each morning and they go to their coop at night because they know I'll give them millet.


----------



## Sylie

My chickens love red millet but do not like the pearl. Must be a worldwide chicken thing lol.

I completely agree with Robin, you can make a wood frame with mesh wire sides and top for her to be outside and get to the grass, that's a good thing. Just make sure that she has some shade too, she can get too hot and then you have problems.

I think the feed you are giving her is fine, my only caution is that it does not have enough calcium. I mentioned in my last post about grinding up egg shells into powder and giving her a bowl of that. Please do that if you can. Don't give her boiled shells, only uncooked. Cooking/boiling will take the calcium and other nutrients out of the shells and then it's no good for her.

I think that you are doing a great job with your chickens.


----------



## janamsingh

Sylie said:


> My chickens love red millet but do not like the pearl. Must be a worldwide chicken thing lol.
> 
> I completely agree with Robin, you can make a wood frame with mesh wire sides and top for her to be outside and get to the grass, that's a good thing. Just make sure that she has some shade too, she can get too hot and then you have problems.
> 
> I think the feed you are giving her is fine, my only caution is that it does not have enough calcium. I mentioned in my last post about grinding up egg shells into powder and giving her a bowl of that. Please do that if you can. Don't give her boiled shells, only uncooked. Cooking/boiling will take the calcium and other nutrients out of the shells and then it's no good for her.
> 
> I think that you are doing a great job with your chickens.


thankyou so much. yes i try to do my best with the chickens that i have. i would love to have other birds like chukar, ducks and quails etc. but space would definitely be a problem. you guys are also doing much better than me. 
and about that egg shell, yes you have made a good point, after boiling them, i might as well lose much of the calcium. i would give it to my self before boiling the egg. it would require mashing into small piece or i would just give it to her without mashing it and let her sort it out for herself.


----------



## janamsingh

robin416 said:


> I would have a difficult time living in such tight quarters. I'm not a city person at all even though I've lived in them and grew up in what we call suburbs. I've been able to live in the country for many years now.
> 
> Things like animal theft happen here too. Funny thing is that it happens more often in the country than in the city.
> 
> My chickens didn't like the millet, it's the others that like it. My quail are Pharaohs. They're just pets as all of my birds are. But I'm fortunate that my birds have plenty of space and fresh air. My Guineas are let out each morning and they go to their coop at night because they know I'll give them millet.


i only have one experience with guineas in my life. it was vulturine guinea fowl. and i must say that she/he was really fiesty. it is in our zoo and it can bite your finger off if given half a chance. i was really fascinated with her bright-ish purple colored wings. which type of guineas do you guys have?


----------



## Sylie

I don't have guineas, I wish I did but my city won't allow them. Only chickens and ducks for me


----------



## janamsingh

Sylie said:


> I don't have guineas, I wish I did but my city won't allow them. Only chickens and ducks for me


oh sorry. i was replying to robin, they have guineas with them. 
but i am pretty sure that ducks would be fun raising.


----------



## robin416

I have the helmeted Guineas. They are a little easier to domesticate. 

What is hard for us is that you live in a city. We're in areas that we have open areas to have chickens and allow them to be out in the open air. 

I wanted to ask, do they sell oyster shell there? That's what most of us use for our hens.


----------



## janamsingh

maybe they have oyster shells in karachi city only. but it is 1210 kms away from lahore. and vendors can bring those items to lahore but as they ''demand drives the supply'', and i am very much sure that there is no demand for oyster shells in lahore and it is mainly because of the fact that mostly people give their birds the food items that are 
a) easily available and
b) cheaply available
but i would love to tell you that there are a nice handful of individuals that are absolute bird enthusiasts and they would feed their aseels with dry fruits (dry fruit is a combination of almonds, walnuts and all different sorts of nuts).

And it must be great to live in an area which has open spaces  you guys can surely afford to keep more than just 12 hens i guess


----------



## robin416

That's what makes it difficult to give you ideas on how best to keep your birds. Your country is very different from ours. Some of what we can suggest would be totally useless to you. I saw the chart for Lahore. Where most of us live we don't come anywhere near the 12 million number. 

You can learn a lot from those enthusiasts. 

Something I've noticed, your English is amazing. We've had other countries here, sometimes it's very difficult to understand each other even though they are using English to communicate.


----------



## janamsingh

and i would even consider 12 million to be an understatement because many people come to lahore to do jobs which sort of takes the figure even higher. its amazing to live in a city having a population way more than the population of norway and denmark combined. 
and there is definitely a lot to learn from them. but every person is different, so you never know. sometimes you approach a person to take a picture with his dog/cat and he is amenable towards you, sometimes it is not the case. so he maybe enthusiast towards his/her own pets but not towards you.lolz

and yes english is fine alhumdulillah. its my fourth language so i have to improvise at times to make some sense of my sentence. but online translation helps at times. 
and when you said about English, firstly i thought you are talking about my old english roosters. they are amazing too.


----------



## robin416

I found that to be true also, that you just don't know how some people will receive a smile or hello from another stranger. I know it's very different from when you lived in the village. But some feed off the energy of big cities and it's a place they need to be. I enjoyed most of my time in the big cities but after a time it got old. 

Well, you're way ahead of me, English is my only language. I did study French and understand some of it still but I struggle at times. 

Nope, not the Old English birds. Which leads me back to a thought. When this virus thing is over try to contact some of the chicken hobbyists. They will have a wealth of information for you. And if they let you you can see how they house their birds there in the city.


----------



## janamsingh

inshaa ALLAH this problem will go away soon. You guys stay strong as well.

and yes i would definitely try to consult some local bird owners. long term plan would be to make a bigger setup at my rooftop, but it will take a few years though


----------



## robin416

Funny you should mention the rooftop. I was thinking of a young man from several years ago, he had his birds on his rooftop. I don't remember what country but he was in the Middle East. Then the hot days of summer hit. He was extremely worried because his birds were not doing well. It was the unrelenting heat baking off the roof. So, keep that in mind before you put them up there. 

Make sure they have some sort of shade awning at least. If possible something to make sure the air is moving.


----------



## janamsingh

in our city, it is normal for many people to make rooftop cages for hens and pigeons. if you don't have acreage on the ground, you might as well use your rooftops. 
but you have a valid point, it can be sweltering hot in summer here, and it can definitely pose some more challenges.


----------



## janamsingh

gave her the egg shells. and she really really enjoyed them. i was not expected her to even taste it twice but she finished it.


----------



## robin416

You need to share the shells with the other girls and not give her quite so much at one time. 

Have you started the new feed? I'm wondering if she did that because she needs a more complete feed.


----------



## janamsingh

ok next time i would give shells to the other birds as well. even though those old english kind eat their own eggs. lolz. we really have to be alert enough to get the egg out quickly lest those old english roosters would eat them. and i don't know whether you guys have heard about this or not, but when my hens lay an egg, they start screaming for a couple of minutes. i wonder why???
and the new feed? i think you are asking about boiled egg? 
i would give them boiled egg next time (now that the egg shell experience went fantastic).


----------



## robin416

No, the feed that had the grain in it. The one with the wheat, peas and millet. 

It's possible the shells are thin on the OE's eggs which makes them easy to break into. That's where giving the extra calcium to the girls will help make the eggs more solid.


----------



## janamsingh

oh yes of course robin, i have started giving that other feed to the birds. 
and yes it was over easy egg shell. plus i crushed the shell into smaller pieces and hen herself also crushed it further into smaller eatable pieces


----------



## robin416

That's great that they're getting the new feed.

When do you sleep? I'm guessing you're not going into the office now because of the virus so you have time on your hands. But you seem to be here at a time when you would normally be sleeping.


----------



## janamsingh

haha. yes you are 100 percent right. it is 11:19 pm as i am writing this post. and normally this time i am sleeping. but these days we cannot even go 500 meters from our house. even though only 54 people lost their battle to this problem since its outbreak (which is meager as compared to other countries) but still the lockdown is very strict. 
And perhaps this will stay for the next month as well.
This lockdown is seriously affecting the poultry business in our country.
The poultry business in our country (to my knowledge) has 3 steps (which is known as factoring)
1) the mills/companies that produce the feed, sell this feed to the factor/commission agent. (at a price say 100,000 rs)
2) the commission agent gains the access to the feed and then he sells the feed to the poultries (at a price say 120,000 rs)
3) the poultries than use that feed and give it to their beautiful little millions of chickens.

Now this cycle continues, the commission agent keeps on paying 100,000 rs in installments and he keeps on receiving 120,000 rs in installments.

Problem Arises when the mills/companies get shut down 
1) Now the companies have to further manufacturing produce. The existing stock is now sold at higher price to the factor and the factor that adds this cost in the amount which is ultimately charges the poultries.
2) The higher the companies charge, the higher the commission agent charges.
3) The ultimate burden is now passed on to the poultries.

Now i have heard that the poultry owners do not have anything feed left to give to their poor little chicks. The chicks are now being dumped into huge garbage water on our city. It is really heart breaking for me personally. The chicks are now considered as onerous and are being dumped while still being starving at the same time. 
I don't know why i am sharing this with you. I tried to post this before but could find courage !!!

Hope everything gets fine now.


----------



## robin416

It upsets me too. They could stop the suffering by euthanizing them. 

I'm surprised they also shut the feed manufacturers. Here they are considered a necessity. Without them millions of birds would starve and there would be no food to sell to stores and stores to their customers. 

We are set up pretty much the same. We call step 2 the middleman but in the end it's the same. 

When did Pakistan first report cases? I know our first one was in January and then it skyrocketed from there.


----------



## ZDibi

Im not very experienced in chicken health, so I would recommend calling a veterinarian if there are any vets in your area. I have heard that sneezing can be a sign of a type of respiratory disease/problem, so it would be important to get a professional answer. I hope she gets well soon, and I will keep her in mind in my prayers.


----------



## janamsingh

Yes they have shut down most of the feed producing mills. and besides even if a few are operating they are
a) charging higher and higher prices
b) hoarding for the upcoming days to sell even at more higher prices

These days points above are making the situation even more worse. 
If only they would feel the pain for those poor little chicks. 

Our first case was diagnosed on 29th January, as per news at least. only ALLAH knows best though. 
And after the first case, the country was still relax with the situation. But it was when europe's numbers started to come to our knowledge that we started to close everything down.
How is your place? is everything closed at this moment?


----------



## robin416

You pretty much described what happened here, can't happen here, we don't have to do anything different. Luckily there were quite a few citizens paying attention and began to make changes on their own. 

Our first recognized case was towards the end of January but there is thinking it was here a month earlier. Too many that were negative for flu but very, very sick. 

Yes, most non essential business' are closed. We can shop for food, feed for our animals, buy gas. But it's not easy to see a doctor. They are actually asking us to stay away from doctor's offices if at all possible. All of the dental offices are closed except for emergencies. 

It's a strange world right now. If any of us living on my road visit, we do it outside and away from each other.


----------



## janamsingh

ZDibi said:


> Im not very experienced in chicken health, so I would recommend calling a veterinarian if there are any vets in your area. I have heard that sneezing can be a sign of a type of respiratory disease/problem, so it would be important to get a professional answer. I hope she gets well soon, and I will keep her in mind in my prayers.


well thank you for the prayers. there are not many vets for chickens. the only vet shop near our house deals with cats. but she active besides her sneezing. and i am planning to get her a separate little cage prepared by woodworker as soon the markets reopen. that is the goal, to get a separate place for her and see how it pans out. 
but for the time being, she is doing well and eating fine. and besides she has not caused any concerns to the other hens that i have. and i know that i have placed her separately, but still birds can get ill from other birds. but this is not the case with her. every other hen is absolutely fine alhumdulillah. and this kinda brings me back to your point that this maybe not be any sort of illness besides this can be some sort of respiratory issue. 
So being unaware with the chicken's respiration issues i am not planning to inspect her beak on my own because i might harm her. for the time being, i am just trying to clean the cardboard, give her the requisite nutritions and just wait it out till the markets reopen.

and just out of curiosity, do you guys have any birds?


----------



## robin416

ZDibi said:


> Im not very experienced in chicken health, so I would recommend calling a veterinarian if there are any vets in your area. I have heard that sneezing can be a sign of a type of respiratory disease/problem, so it would be important to get a professional answer. I hope she gets well soon, and I will keep her in mind in my prayers.


ZDibi, he lives in another country. With everything shut down right now even if there were a vet available they probably wouldn't see her.


----------



## janamsingh

robin416 said:


> You pretty much described what happened here, can't happen here, we don't have to do anything different. Luckily there were quite a few citizens paying attention and began to make changes on their own.
> 
> Our first recognized case was towards the end of January but there is thinking it was here a month earlier. Too many that were negative for flu but very, very sick.
> 
> Yes, most non essential business' are closed. We can shop for food, feed for our animals, buy gas. But it's not easy to see a doctor. They are actually asking us to stay away from doctor's offices if at all possible. All of the dental offices are closed except for emergencies.
> 
> It's a strange world right now. If any of us living on my road visit, we do it outside and away from each other.


yes indeed strange world. and maam i am only 29 and still i love my teens, back in 2004, 05 ish. i can only imagine has beautiful 90s were. things were genuine (generally) back then i guess. 
and yes dentists are closed here as well. food shop's timings have been curtailed as well. but if one is giving one's birds some vegetables etc, they should be still be fine even if animal food has become scarce


----------



## robin416

LOL You're only 29 and already looking back in time? It must have been a wonderful childhood. Didn't you live in the village then?

It's a lot quieter on the road these days. There isn't a lot of traffic to start with but now there's even less. I broke the silence here this weekend by getting power equipment out to clean up my property. I still have another half acre or so to work on but it keeps me busy.


----------



## janamsingh

yes it was great. i would put it as 
"In my childhood, we had what we should have had (necessities, schooling, relationships), and we didn't have what we should not have had (artificial foods, excessive availability of internet, insidious crimes in our locality)"
So yes i miss those days. 

And half acre, wow. our house is 10 marla and half acre is like 8 houses. good for you. having such a big place, i would have had tried to make a nice little fish pool. 

And i was born here in lahore, so i have spent my entire life over here. we have a village called "pabbi" and we visit there once/maybe twice per year for a few days. and when next time i go there, i will share some photos of the birds from my village. in our village everybody has chickens with them.


----------



## robin416

That does sound like it was a wonderful place to be young. Please don't tell me all the junk and processed foods have made it to your city. That is one of the worst things the Western world could share with other countries. 

I did a conversion on marla to acre, I live on 1120 marla piece of land. I cleaned up about 3/4 (120 marla) of an acre but have a 1/2 (79.9 marla) left to finish. The rest is in trees. 

I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures. It's always nice to see other places. There isn't much to see where I live except lots of trees. 

Is Pabbi the name of the village or what you call it?


----------



## janamsingh

1120 marla. haha. you almost live in our whole street. lolz. or even more than that, we have 300 marla in one street (approx) so 1120 is a huge place.
good for you.
i will definitely share those pictures inshaa ALLAH. 
i wonder how your place would look like at night? don't you guys get scared? 

and pabbi is the name of the village


----------



## robin416

Most of us on our road live on larger parcels like that. In the US there are still many places to buy larger parcels and you don't have to be rich to buy them. 

It's very dark for those of us that don't have lights outside. I choose not to have them. For the most part no one bothers us in the country and most who think it might be a good idea realize that all of us have guns. 

What you describe where you live is what it was like for me when I lived in the bigger cities. 

Yes, once we get over this it will be great to see pics of Pabbi. I appreciate small places like a village or small town.


----------



## robin416

I was curious so did a little searching. I can completely understand why you cities are so jam packed.

Area > Land > Per capita Pakistan *4.51 sq km per 1,000 people*
Ranked 173th. 

USA* 30.16 sq km per 1,000 people*
Ranked 60th. *7 times more *than Pakistan


Population: 200,960,000 Pakistan


Population: 327,352,000 USA


----------



## janamsingh

robin416 said:


> I was curious so did a little searching. I can completely understand why you cities are so jam packed.
> 
> Area > Land > Per capita Pakistan *4.51 sq km per 1,000 people*
> Ranked 173th.
> 
> USA* 30.16 sq km per 1,000 people*
> Ranked 60th. *7 times more *than Pakistan
> 
> 
> Population: 200,960,000 Pakistan
> 
> 
> Population: 327,352,000 USA


wow. its like you guys have 7 times more space than us. and our population is only growing by every day passing. 
As you said its dark without lights outside. i guess you guys don't leave our sweet houses after evening and stay inside. that is really different.  
my only understanding of your area comes from movies and other documentaries wherein they show a skewed impression of those areas i suppose. 
you have country accent?


----------



## robin416

LOL No, no country accent. I lived all over my country so I've never developed one. 

You have less people than the US but a whole heck of a lot less land. 

Folks do go out after dark. The small city isn't that far away and folks will go down there for dinner or shows. We have very little to fear here when it comes to moving about the area. 

Until you've been able to physically visit a place it's really hard to understand it. For us there are very bad areas, there are very over populated areas and quite a few places like where I live where we can spread out. There are deserts, tropical areas, grass plains with no trees, all trees, lots of mountains. I'm sure much of what you've seen is accurate but with us so large and so different from one place to another it's hard to get a clear picture. 

One of the things I do to learn more about an area is go to google maps. It allows me to get an aerial view of different areas of the country and in many instances street views. 

I'm going to see if it will do Lahore.


----------



## robin416

I found Pabbi. No wonder you find it special. Someone was kind enough to post a bunch of pictures, it looks like a wonderful place to be.


----------



## janamsingh

so nice.
yes it is a small but beautiful place. people gel together quite well. even though modernization is kinda encroaching there as well, but still it is a great place to raise one's children. guys still respects elders over there and air is fresh and people still believe that humans should sleep at night. lolz. not like lahore where guys are awake all night long. like me. lolz.   
and you said you have visited the entire length of your country, have you been to alaska? and if you so have you got any chance to see trumpeter swan over there? can you name a few birds for me, that are new to me? 
i mean i am almost free thesedays, i would be nice to look up for any new birds on internet and study a few things about them. 

and from my experience, if you visit a new place, the first food difference that you can realize is that, the 1)water and 2)onions taste different over there. and that is the case with pabbi as well, the water and onions taste extremely different over there as compared to lahore. and also the textures of many of the fruits and vegetables are different over there.


----------



## robin416

It's larger than I thought it would be. When you said village I was picturing something much smaller. I think it might be bigger than the city south of me. 

One of the things I noticed about Lahore is there is actually quite a few green fields within the city. Are those for the palace since they were located right outside of the walls.

Never made it to Alaska. The farthest North and West I made it was to Washington State. The furthest East and North I made it was to New Hampshire. The furthest South was to Texas and Florida. I lived for a few months in Ontario Canada. 

I don't know what birds we would have here that are different than yours. One would be the Canadian Goose and the other would be the American Eagle. 

I have noticed the same thing too. But there isn't a huge difference. Just enough to tell things are different. We also get so much from other countries that it's hard to keep track. Food right off the farm or straight out of the fields is still better than the stuff imported.


----------



## janamsingh

yes it is a big village  and is it seriously bigger than a few cities south of me? wow.
i searched for canadian goose. and it is beautiful bird. and we don't have any such goose over here. 
and only for a few months in canada? why so? was it part of some job that you were doing at that time?
and in lahore we have never had food "right off the farm" but we also do not get any vegetables imported over here. maybe i guess that during transport from different parts of country the food's flavor changes. this would mean that even without packing the food (as in case of imports) transportation (which would mean that vegetables are a few days old) can also influence the taste.


----------



## robin416

None of the pictures that person posted showed the streets packed with vehicles, The sidewalks were not overwhelmed. It would be the place for me when it came to having to live in a city. 

LOL No I lived in Canada when I was a kid still. 18 and just exploring the world. Most of my travels had something to do with work, some were just because I got bored and needed a new view. 

With these imported food stuffs they are harvested just before they're ripe which affects the flavor and texture when it finally reaches the table. 

But your food is still local, isn't it? Grown outside of the city and brought in.


----------



## janamsingh

there are many smaller villages surrounding pabbi, but they lack in basic schooling and medication needs, so in order to get these facilities many people from the surrounding villages have sort of resorted to pabbi. This notches up their children's education level (because the surrounding villages don't even have proper schools). Plus pabbi is located on a highway (grant truck road), so villages away from highway still have to come to pabbi to catch a bus etc.

And visiting canada at 18 would have given me some really goosebumpy alacrity. lolz. i could muster any more apposite words of english to explain my ''would have been'' excitement level.  but still it's all good. lahore is a great place.

And yes food is all local. a few super markets may shelf a few fruits that are being imported but besides those, eveything is local alhumdulillah. some grown outside our city & some grown in other provinces (states). plus i am at an age in my life that i can enjoy every taste of fruit so i am thankful alhumdulillah. and pomegranate is my fav.


----------



## robin416

The pictures I saw of Pabbi showed at least one school. It appeared to be quite large. Showed a little about the main street. There was some very beautiful scenery too. 

Yes, I get bored and need to experience new things, new sights, learn new stuff. I've never lived anywhere for more than 8 years, some just a few months. I will probably stay where I'm at now for good. Maybe. 

That makes all the difference in the world that your food is local. The taste is far superior to what is harvested too early and shipped. There is a small vendor here that I've gotten peaches from. I can not tell you how amazing they tasted. The peaches came from a local orchard.


----------



## janamsingh

yes there are a few schools in pabbi (unlike the sorrounding villages). and you must be rich to be able to travel that often?
good to know that you enjoyed those peaches


----------



## robin416

LOL Not rich by any stretch. It's just easier to do here. I met a woman recently who did pretty much the same as me. In the beginning it was just her then it was her and her husband. They lived in many of the same states I did. I guess it's just us crazy Americans.

Although I do know people who have never ventured far from their birthplace or even left their state. I just couldn't do that, stay in one place. I had to explore. 

So how are things going now with the virus there for you?


----------



## janamsingh

66 people in 73 days in my country (since 29 january). it is not at all bad as compared to other areas around the globe. there is no hot zone, not even a warm zone, everything is fine alhumdulillah. 

well they say "you remember your first day in every new place but you never remember the second day in that same place". this means that if you keep on traveling you end up having many more memories  so its good that you have traveling alot


----------



## robin416

It's pretty serious here. So many have died and it's really just getting started.

I'm surprised your numbers are so low with so many people living in a small area. It doesn't seem to matter if you traveled or not, once it's there it spreads like crazy. Good on your government for shutting things down quickly.

Something I realized. Your city is very much like cities in the NE of the US. Especially New Jersey. Everyone is crowded together and the people that live there have no problems with it. I have a friend who lives there. He said he could never leave because that's his home.


----------



## janamsingh

lahore is like a combination of 2 cities. there is this opulent part which is mostly spacious and very less populated, and then there is this extreme opposite region where the streets are virtually narrower than 3fts. And yes i can relate to your friend, i also can't leave lahore for much longer. maybe because of the memories that a person has in his city that he/she don't want to leave that city i guess.

and yes luckily we are quite safe from this virus 

and does this look good? i don't see any cracks on the egg and there is not gathering of any sort of mole inside the egg.


----------



## robin416

I'm not sure what you're asking about the egg. I don't see any development if a hen has been sitting on it but that might be because the picture is too far away. 

See all those lighter areas? That is from the lack of extra calcium. 

Which birds is this egg from?


----------



## robin416

Did you use another smart phone to light the egg up? That was a slick idea. One I'll have to remember to tell to others that don't have small maglights.


----------



## Sylie

Yeah I don't see any development there, it looks just like my eggs do and I don't have any roosters at all lol. (I candle unfertilized eggs just for fun)


----------



## janamsingh

robin416 said:


> I'm not sure what you're asking about the egg. I don't see any development if a hen has been sitting on it but that might be because the picture is too far away.
> 
> See all those lighter areas? That is from the lack of extra calcium.
> 
> Which birds is this egg from?


oh ok, now i know how to look for calcium in eggs, thanks for information 
and i have placed 5 eggs in the incubator. and 4 eggs are similar to this picture. today is 12 th day i guess. one egg is different. and i thought that 4 are fertile and one is bad. lolz.
i will post the picture of that one egg tomorrow sometime inshaa ALLAH.

and i just search for this rooster on the internet "Ayam Ketawa" it was crowing so beautifully. hope you search it up. it was great


----------



## janamsingh

robin416 said:


> Did you use another smart phone to light the egg up? That was a slick idea. One I'll have to remember to tell to others that don't have small maglights.


i was taking the photo with my camera (sony a6300) and my brother was placing the egg on his phone. he was trying his best to adjust the egg on the top of the phone so it was a bit shaky. plus some one told us that you should not take the eggs out of the incubator for a longer period of time, so we hastily took this pic and shoved them back in quickly.


----------



## janamsingh

Sylie said:


> Yeah I don't see any development there, it looks just like my eggs do and I don't have any roosters at all lol. (I candle unfertilized eggs just for fun)


i must tell you i didn't even knew about candling, but then i say this post by mitzy, so i tried it on my eggs. 4 are just similar to this one. only one has a dark black growing inside it.


----------



## robin416

That is an absolutely stunning rooster. I had never heard of the breed but we actually have them here in the states. I'm going to have to look for a recording of the crow so I can hear it.


----------



## robin416

janamsingh said:


> i must tell you i didn't even knew about candling, but then i say this post by mitzy, so i tried it on my eggs. 4 are just similar to this one. only one has a dark black growing inside it.


Hang with us, kid, and you'll learn a lot of interesting things.

Which birds were the eggs from?


----------



## janamsingh

robin416 said:


> That is an absolutely stunning rooster. I had never heard of the breed but we actually have them here in the states. I'm going to have to look for a recording of the crow so I can hear it.


yes they are amazing, i saw a few clips on them on the internet, absolutely adorable creatures. it is native to indonesia. 
and i am sure that you might find a few in states, there must be a few guys who love this breed and have them


----------



## janamsingh

robin416 said:


> Hang with us, kid, and you'll learn a lot of interesting things.
> 
> Which birds were the eggs from?


maam, i am going no where    
and the eggs are from that 3rd breed (in my picture that i posted before). i don't know about the name of the breed but it is the most prevalent type of chickens that we have around here. the rooster is very prolific
here are a few more pics of that rooster. he is a big fellow but still almost equivalent to my juvenile-still-fledging aseels.


----------



## janamsingh

aseels have still not grown their head manes and still do not crow, but still they are equal in height to this fella


----------



## robin416

I love that dark read of his feathers. I had initially thought Rhode Island Red but his tail feathers look too long.


----------



## janamsingh

i looked up rhode island red rooster and yes they are the closest to resemble him. he is mean though. 
is it possible for a rooster to have no breed?


----------



## robin416

It is possible to have mixed breed birds that have no known identity. Sometimes we can look at a bird of mixed parentage and tell one of the breeds involved. But not often. I saw one recently that I thought might have Cochin in his heritage, turns out the breeder had cochins. 

Yep, roosters can be monsters. Most of the time we luck out and don't have to deal with a mean rooster because they can be dangerous. Especially to children.


----------



## janamsingh

robin416 said:


> It is possible to have mixed breed birds that have no known identity. Sometimes we can look at a bird of mixed parentage and tell one of the breeds involved. But not often. I saw one recently that I thought might have Cochin in his heritage, turns out the breeder had cochins.
> 
> Yep, roosters can be monsters. Most of the time we luck out and don't have to deal with a mean rooster because they can be dangerous. Especially to children.


just curious to ask, are mixed breed roosters more prolific or the one's that are not mixed?


----------



## robin416

There really isn't any difference. Some roosters of any type will have higher testosterone levels and will breed more frequently.


----------



## janamsingh

okay 
how is your side today? we are experience even more stricter rules today onward from the officials


----------



## robin416

I honestly don't know what to tell you. Not sure they can lock us down more than they have. 

If they already had you staying home how can they make the stay at home rules more stringent?


----------



## janamsingh

there can be 2 types of ways to make rules even more stringent i guess.

1) push way: wherein they can apply more stringent curfews and make sure that reinforcers are present at ever corner of our city. sort of "pushing us inside the homes".
2) pull way: wherein they could try to ''persuade'' us to stay inside. people would be reeled in (pull inside) if provided with some apposite utilities.

in the past few days government is trying best to apply this pull way of ensuring we stay inside. the measures include 
a) launching a complete new channel for education of students thus ensuring (or atleast aiming to ensure) that students stay at home (and not opt for private tuition as evidenced in the past few months), 
b) launching a volunteer's force to try to raise money and also try to ensure that necessities are made available to people at their door step,
c) our premiere is conducting more frequent press conferences (almost daily now) to update the masses about improvements or otherwise.

our country's casualties sit at 93 currently, but as per doctors in the country we will hit the maximum height on the curve next week, after which the curve would flatten out. 

and i don't know about your place, but our city will be so hot in a couple of weeks that i think even this virus would not stay here. 
plus in 2 weeks times we are having ramadan (which is a month of low activity), so hopefully we should get over it soon in shaa ALLAH.


----------



## robin416

So approaching what they did in China. The hardest part for your population there in the city is it's hard to even go outdoors without encountering another person. At least out here in the country I can go out and not have anyone near. 

93 really is not a bad number. Not compared to us. My state has had 96 deaths and I don't think we've seen the top yet. 

They're still confident that this virus will die off when the heat comes around. And even if it does die back they expect it to return in the Fall.


----------



## janamsingh

what hurts the most is that parks are off. we have a few parks, almost the size of your house, some even smaller i guess  and these parks are flooded with people on weekends. but now everything is off.

its almost 14th day today. 4 of the 5 eggs are the same, but one egg was a bit different (the last time i checked). in our country there is a lot of lead shedding and the incubator is inadvertantly off during those times. does that make those eggs prone to infertility?


----------



## robin416

They've had the parks shut down here for a while now. Because of the size of our country even those in the cities can get out in the air and still maintain distance from others. I guess that's one advantage we have when it comes to our size.

No, your power going out wouldn't affect fertility. It will cause anything you want to hatch to take longer than the 21 days.


----------



## janamsingh

i guess over incubator experiment went wrong this time 
4 of the 5 eggs have nothing and the 5th egg stinks very bad and has some sort of liquid on its surface. i guess i should start over again, with some new eggs?

and yes you guys have a huge country so you can have places to go easily, without others being around you.


----------



## robin416

Definitely get rid of that one, it's liable to explode in your incubator and cause things to stink bad for some time.

Why are you hatching if you don't have room for more birds? Will you sell them to someone?


----------



## janamsingh

yups we are brimming as far as our capacity for birds is concerned. i don't where i will keep them, but i do know that i will find some place to keep them  don't know where, but somewhere. 
removed that one egg.
and quite amazingly our country has reopened almost every kind of business (except a few )


----------



## robin416

Well, that didn't last long. I wonder what the heck it was all about then?

Are you still going out or sticking close to home? 

You've got the time right now, better get to building.


----------



## janamsingh

yups i am still staying at home 
and yes the situation was seriously barring sales and halting movement of the masses so they had to soften the rules. but is only inevitable now and i am sure that (come what may) people will start moving out because most of our community consists of "daily wagers" and hence they can ill-afford staying home for any longer now.


----------



## robin416

You all are stuck between a rock and a hard place. I'm sure you've seen some countries are delivering food to those that have to remain in. Are they at least wearing masks? 

This bug really seems to like it when there are a lot of people in one place. Just stay safe. OK?


----------



## janamsingh

yes they are wearing masks. 
hope its over quickly because now it is becoming so much boring at home. 
i mean my weight is 65kg for the past 12 years now ever since i was 17. but now i feel i will gain atleast 30 kgs whilst doing nothing the whole day long. can't even go jogging


----------



## robin416

I know this is a poor comparison but if you're gaining weight then you're still on your feet and healthy. 

Who is doing all the meal preparation at your house? How many are at home right now?

I'm OK with not being around people but I have to admit, it is getting pretty boring. And then having to remember to change behaviors, like wearing my mask when out, not touching things unnecessarily is hard.


----------



## janamsingh

mom prepares the meals. we are 12 people at home. only my brother goes for job. we have rented out 2 shops (in lahore) and 1 house in pabbi. i also had a meager job which i left just before this bug started.
hopefully i would join some job in mid august after everything settles.


----------



## robin416

You have people to be with, that's a blessing. So many in my country don't. I guess there are other countries that it's the same with people being alone in their homes.

You sound more like the more level heads in the US that say we will not be moving about again freely for months. Some want to get back to normal now. I can tell you I won't be moving around without a mask for a long time.


----------



## janamsingh

if this problem ceases quickly i could visit pabbi on 5,6 and 7 june this year


----------



## robin416

There is so much unknown about this virus I wouldn't bet on it leaving quickly. More and more scientists are saying get used to it, it's going to be around for quite a while.

BTW, how is the subject that got you started on the forum? The sneezing girl.


----------



## janamsingh

alhumdulillah my entire family is healthy so i am thankful for that. plus our premier is doing great efforts to help cope with this problem.
and yes she is doing really fine now. the sneezing is almost over now. and frankly i have not made many changes. i have just placed that cage nearest to the other three cages. maybe perhaps there are a few plants that are causing to irritation to subside.

plus my 2 aseel have started to fight, so we had to shift one of them to the other cage. and due to shortage of cages we have up that rhode island red type of rooster to an acquaintance to make space for the other aseel rooster. i was in the favor of harvest that rhode island red but my father couldn't allow that. he felt a little sad for that bird. so that end decision was made to give it to that acquaintance.


----------



## robin416

I like your father, a lot. Sounds like he gets attached to the birds too. 

I felt like an idiot when I first wore a mask away from home until I realized most people were wearing them too. Until they know more, I'll keep on wearing it. And staying close to home. Which I do anyway.


----------



## janamsingh

yes he is not just attached to these birds more than generally 
just asking, do guys generally keep bigger birds as pets at your end? such as ostriches
i mean you guys have a lot of space, so are bigger birds kept as pets?


----------



## robin416

Only the odd balls keep large exotics. All of the larger birds are kept by sanctuaries or zoos. Although some do keep Emus. I'm not sure why. I wouldn't particularly want one that could kill or seriously injure me with one kick.


----------



## janamsingh

robin416 said:


> Only the odd balls keep large exotics. All of the larger birds are kept by sanctuaries or zoos. Although some do keep Emus. I'm not sure why. I wouldn't particularly want one that could kill or seriously injure me with one kick.


haha. amongst the emus, ostriches and cassowaries, emus are the most suitable of the 3. they are shy and avoid confrontation. and i have also seen a few guys on the internet from your country that keep emus as pets. 
emu eggs are such bright colored


----------



## robin416

I've never understood those that keep non domesticated animals, especially those that can kill so easily.

My Guineas are not considered domesticated, yet, but they can't kill me. They come when I call, go up into their coop at night. But they are still considered wild.


----------



## janamsingh

how many guineas you guys have?


----------



## robin416

Just three now. Had 25 where I used to live.

Bad storm last night using phone at the moment.


----------



## robin416

I'm running a generator for power now. It maybe out for another 24 hours. There was tons of damage done to the system. Three people were killed in the storms.


----------



## janamsingh

sorry to know about the storm. i cannot even imagine a storm causing such damages. we don't have such storms over here. 

how are the guineas holding up in the storm?


----------



## robin416

They're are about like my black cat, complain when the weather isn't just like they want it. Usually they meet me at the backdoor when it's bedtime but the generator has them all messed up and were near their coop as far away as they could get and still be near enough to know I had their bedtime treats.

The last word I had on our power is that it might be three days before it comes back on. Which means I need to run to town to get fuel.

And we've got another round of nasty storms coming in a couple of days.


----------



## janamsingh

that seems exciting.lol. i mean the storms and the fact that you don't have modern day power. but i am sure it must be causing some inconvenience and i am really sorry for that 

and ammm...... is there any way for me to get an easter egger egg? from your country. how much would it cost me if i aim to get one via western union?


----------



## janamsingh

or even an appenzeller hen


----------



## robin416

My power is on. I was just whining to one of the neighbors I wanted a hot shower. It wasn't five minutes and it came on. 

There are laws regulating shipping things like eggs or birds to other countries. Get caught doing it and people are going to be paying big fines. Plus an egg with that kind of shipping distance probably would not survive the trip. Shipped eggs within my own country can be a challenge due to rough handling.


----------



## janamsingh

and i guess together with the laws, this bug might also cause delays in shipments etc. 
i really hope this ends quickly because it is causing a lot of trouble.
can you give me any creative ideas regards chickens that i can include in my vids


----------



## robin416

Man, you're asking the wrong person. I don't have a creative gene. Mine is more how to work around an impossible situation.


----------

