# I love and want chickens! But their sicknesses terrify me. Please advise.



## Rothe (Jan 7, 2017)

Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum and this is my first post

Right now, I have a hand-tame finch as a pet. Recently, she laid yolk with no shell. Panicked, between vet visits I learned about egg yolk peritonitis. Luckily, my sweetie doesn't have that! But I learned that it's quite prevalent? in chickens , which I have always hoped to own in the future. 

My first question is, is it really so very common? I've had differing input from various sources including the Internet and vet assistants. 

My second question; I don't care at all about getting eggs from my chickens if it means they get to live long and healthy lives with me. I'm very serious about considering giving any pet chickens I get in the future hormone implants, if they are viable and safe (the cost is not really the issue, though I know it is fairly hefty). I had inquired about spaying, but learned that it's at the very least traumatic, at worst deadly, so I don't think that's a good option...

Does anyone have any advice or success stories, as far as keeping chickens from laying to avoid this terrible disease? I don't think I could bear to own chickens if that's how they'd most likely die... they'd be special pets to me, not livestock, and I plan to give them just as much care as people do for dogs and cats, and I do for my bird now. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!!


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

Welcome to the forum. I've owned chickens for many years and NEVER had one single bird develop EYP. Most of my birds have lived very long lives, 10-14 years old range. EYP is NOT common. Chickens stand more chance of getting a respiratory disease due to improper biosecurity due to the owners fault.
As far as preventing a hen from laying...that is ridiculous...that's exactly what they are intended to do in nature, that's their job, to lay eggs, what God intended.
Why would anyone want to prevent a hen from laying is beyond me, not to mention the stress the bird would have to go through, OR you can get a rooster.
Experiment with your finch and see what happens. You already know the answer to that, same with chickens.


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

If you're that afraid of it Don't get chickens or adopt some unwanted roosters.

One thing to consider is that on these chicken sites you'll hear more about illnesses because that's usually what brings people here.

Kind of like going to a Hospital and expecting not to see a sick person.?


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I have to agree with the guys on everything they said. My oldest hen is 11, she gave me a lot of eggs and a lot of wonderful chicks to boot. Like dawg, I've raised them for many years and have never seen it.

But chickens are like little kids. If there is trouble to find, they'll find it. If you are that nervous and don't even have them then I'm not sure it's a good fit.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

I agree with Robin, Dawg, and Nm. Yes they do get sick, but to be afraid will only prevent the enjoyment of having them. Yes, we are saddened to lose a "pet" although chickens are not the same kind of pet to be held and petted like a dog or cat. However, there are exceptions to that.


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## chickenqueen (Jan 9, 2016)

Welcome to the chicken forum!!!The joy of having chickens far out weighs the possibilities of future illnesses.All life-people,dogs,horses,plant life etc all have diseases and disorders and all life eventually dies..The key here is prevention-quality feed,clean housing,protection from the elements and predators(the #1 killer)and sufficient room in the coop and pen.A chicken can live 20+ yrs but average lifespan is 1 year due to predators(including people!!!).I had a rooster make it to 13 y o and roosters can make a good pet,my Jr will lay in my lap to be petted and if I stop,he "growls"so I pet him some more.Chickens are wonderful to have and they are the reason I get out of bed every morning.Instead of focusing on what might go wrong,think of all the good things chickens might bring to your life.Eggs for one-if you have never had a farm fresh egg,you're in for a treat and it's a wonderful time when your chicks grow up and start laying.They are very entertaining to watch.They will come running to greet you like a dog-they probably are looking for food but it still makes you feel good when they come running to you.They can learn their name and other little tricks and behaviors,they are smarter than most people give them credit for.Some like a lot of human contact,some do not but even among the breeds,there are exceptions to the rules.Chickens have been around for millions of years,they are said to be the closest living relative to the dinosaurs and if egg laying problems were prevalent,they wouldn't still be here.Think about it....


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

In 9 years, I've had one get EYP. welcome and I really can't add more to the advice given above.


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## chippy99th (Dec 22, 2016)

Ten years ago, we got our first chicks. A decade later, we have a flock of 30, made up of 7 different breeds (counting two different mixes), hens and roosters, currently ranging in age from 3 weeks to 8-ish years.

In all that time, with all those birds, I have never had a hen with egg yolk peritonitis. The idea that it is "prevalent" or that that's how they'd "most likely die" is almost laughable, although I certainly understand your worry; I feel the same about my birds.

In fact, the _vast_ majority of diseases and injuries on this site and others are very uncommon and I've never had almost all of them. Almost without exception, my chickens have died only because of old age or because we chose to cull them for reasons other than sickness. Chickens can live as long as dogs, and they are very sturdy, healthy animals.

If you want a chicken that doesn't lay, I would browse the internet for roosters. There are literally hundreds of people whose tiny fluffy baby turned out to be a rooster they can't/won't keep, but want a good home for. Roos can be just as friendly as hens. If all you want is a pet, consider that.

Anyway, chickens can survive a lot. One of my 3-week-olds hatched missing a leg! She can hop around fine and is perfectly healthy. (Unless you hatch your own chicks, you'll avoid deformities like that.) Not to scare you, but I've had hens completely ignore injuries that would have made my dog cry for days.

Proper care will protect from almost all causes of illness and injury -clean coop, good food, enough water, protection from weather and predators. Really, it's pretty simple. (I would have to disagree with a previous poster saying average lifespan for a backyard chicken is just a year. If that were the case, almost no one would raise chickens as they'd only be laying 6 months at best. If you take the time to ensure they're protected from predators, that should not be an issue. It hasn't been for me, and we've even had coyotes get in the backyard.)

And a lot of the things that look very frightening online are often no biggie in real life. For example, mites. Newbie owners will panic thinking their chickens will die from mites. Unless it's a very severe amount, they'll be fine. I've adopted feral chickens that I'm certain have had mites for years. They usually object more to the methods of getting rid of mites than to the mites themselves.

Anyway. You're probably already sick of hearing me yap, but this is it: GO FOR IT! Chickens are SO much fun, with so much personality. If you're willing to pay for hormone implants (which I wouldn't recommend), then you have money for a proper coop set-up to keep them safe. Good luck!


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## Rothe (Jan 7, 2017)

Sorry to get back so late, thank you all so much for your advice and contributions. Actually, that's really what I wanted to hear-it's mostly the EYP that scared me so very much. The initial point of learning about that disease was also when I was most stressed about my pet bird, and everything I read was just so so scary. 

I would love to have a rooster, more than a hen, actually, though I love them all so much. And I would be even more happy to adopt-my problem is, I live in Japan. I'm not able to have a rooster for the same reason people would give theirs up. My neighbors would probably run me out of town. This is all future-I'm not able to begin raising them now. But I want to do some serious planning and considering, and it began with me asking my vet about spaying them or the medicine for suppressing their laying. She told me that rather than medicine or surgery, the best thing to do was regulate how much light they see very strictly. 

Like I had said, it's not that I want to prevent the chicken from doing something is naturally does, it's just that eggs are not as important to me as making sure that something I thought was too common wouldn't deprive the chicken of a happy life. I'm really encouraged by everybody's stories!

With that out-of-the-way, my only real barrier is time. I have a fantastic old shed outside that I can use as a chicken coop if I fix it up correctly, and the thought is very exciting. I've also been seeing a lot of people raising chickens as house pets… And I know that's considered crazy… but the idea of a chicken curled up beside me on the couch is almost too much to resist, ha ha. Does anyone have any experience with that? 

Also, if anybody had any good books off the top of their head to learn about raising chickens, any recommendations would be appreciated. I've got a few on the shelf already, but I'm always willing to read more. If I do get chickens, I would very much like to hatch my own, however, I'm more likely to buy them when they're already in the fuzzy walking around stage.


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

House chicken? You'll need these:
https://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/product-search.aspx?catID=0&Strname=diapers&CatName=


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## Rothe (Jan 7, 2017)

dawg53 said:


> House chicken? You'll need these:
> https://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/product-search.aspx?catID=0&Strname=diapers&CatName=


Haha! They're so ridiculously un-cute, aren't they? I've seen those! But yeah, an absolute necessity. A house chicken would be so dumb for me, considering I have an old, traditional house with straw mats for flooring that a chicken would probably love to scratch and peck to shreds. But chicken friend.... on sofa....


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## chickenqueen (Jan 9, 2016)

Hey Chippy,you can disagree w/ me but the average lifespan for a chicken is 1 year.I also stated a chicken can live 20+ years but the AVERAGE lifespan is 1 year.Millions of chickens are kept for 1 year for optimal egg laying,then butchered.Billions of chickens are slaughtered by 6 mos of age every year.Even people on this forum(I'm not naming names-you know who you are!!!) butcher their hens when their production slows down/stops.Thousands of roosters are culled in the hatcheries because they hatched but no one wants them.Your chickens will probably live longer,as well as mine,but the vast majority of chickens will not see their first hatchday.I stand by my facts!!!


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## chippy99th (Dec 22, 2016)

Oh, Chickenqueen, that’s not what I meant at all! I totally agree with you on those points. I’m very sorry if I offended you!! 

I guess I wasn’t including commercially slaughtered chickens and chicks in my estimation. I abhor that practice and I am looking forward to more humane laws about commercial poultry. And I was also not including birds culled/killed for meat, since we were mainly talking about pets here. 

Since Rothe doesn’t seem to intend on culling any potential pet chickens, I discounted that as a threat to the chickens in question. But it’s true that humans are predators of chickens, in fact their main predators. If you don’t count the chickens we kill, their average lifespan shoots way up.

A backyard bird with decent care and owners that don’t want to kill it can live quite a long, happy life, so a prospective chicken owner who doesn’t intend to kill any should not fear that their birds will, on average, live only a year. But you are absolutely right that the chickens who end up living these charmed lives are by far the minority, and most do die –or rather are killed –before turning a year old. 

Again, sorry if I stepped on your toes! You are right to stand by those facts. Part of the reason we got chickens was because we were horrified by the mass slaughter of day-old male chicks in the egg industry, and yet so many non-chicken keepers I talk to have no idea those things go on. There definitely needs to be more awareness.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

What you can see is many instances of internal laying. That seems to be a problem with mainly hatchery birds because they are bred for egg production and to heck with the rest of the bird. Those that raise birds in backyard flocks most often have the healthiest birds.


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

They breed for the eggs because that's what people want(the 85% that aren't on the net).Feed it for a year to get 300 eggs or feed it for 3 years to get 300 eggs?


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Exactly, Nm. But you have people like many of us on here who want them to be around for far longer with the fresh eggs being a side benefit. That type of breeding does not work for everyone, just like trying to regulate us the same as commercial houses didn't work out.


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

Get some Dominiques from Meyers.They don't lay much if any other than that first year.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

chickenqueen said:


> Hey Chippy,you can disagree w/ me but the average lifespan for a chicken is 1 year.I also stated a chicken can live 20+ years but the AVERAGE lifespan is 1 year.Millions of chickens are kept for 1 year for optimal egg laying,then butchered.Billions of chickens are slaughtered by 6 mos of age every year.Even people on this forum(I'm not naming names-you know who you are!!!) butcher their hens when their production slows down/stops.Thousands of roosters are culled in the hatcheries because they hatched but no one wants them.Your chickens will probably live longer,as well as mine,but the vast majority of chickens will not see their first hatchday.I stand by my facts!!!


I agree with you . but aside from ones that you eat, my experience has been 3-8 years, not including Marek's virus deaths. chickens have been bred for a lot of things, but long life isn't one of them.

CQ, in the works of chicken husbandry, they are close to eliminating eggs that carry males.

years ago I realized that people are on chicken forums for chickens as pets or for food, but the thing in common is we all want healthy happy chickens.


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## chickenqueen (Jan 9, 2016)

I had a 13 y o rooster.Another rooster broke his leg and I put him down after 2 mos of nursing.He would've been 14 next month.Glad to know they can sex an egg.I butchered some roosters I hatched out and couldn't find homes for.I couldn't eat them,I kept seeing their sweet little faces...


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

CQ: I just got an email from Meyer hatchery. They're looking for someone to work for them via computer, from Ohio or Missouri. Here's a link:
https://www.meyerhatchery.com/index...23&utm_campaign=freeshipping&utm_medium=email


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## chickenqueen (Jan 9, 2016)

Thanks for thinking about me,Dawg!!!Just visited the site and was very interested but you need to type 60 wpm-I'm a "pecker",typing w/ 1 finger and I don't think I can peck 60 wpm.Besides my laptop isn't working right and the big computer died a long time ago,other wise I would've tried to wing the 60 wpm part...Maybe next year.


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

chickenqueen said:


> Thanks for thinking about me,Dawg!!!Just visited the site and was very interested but you need to type 60 wpm-I'm a "pecker",typing w/ 1 finger and I don't think I can peck 60 wpm.Besides my laptop isn't working right and the big computer died a long time ago,other wise I would've tried to wing the 60 wpm part...Maybe next year.


I hunt and peck also lol.


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