I recently acquired 2 Red Star hens. They've been in a quarantine coop and run for a little over a month now. Both birds seem to have improved leaps and bounds health-wise since I took them in but there's something about one that's got me a little worried.
As far as I know brown egg laying chickens are suppose to have red ear lobes, right? There are rare exceptions but we're talking about Red Stars, not exactly rare. Both birds lay a brown egg daily, one has typical red ear lobes, the other though has white. Now it's not the entire lobe either, it's more like a layer of white that is just covering the lobe almost completely. Also, the same bird seems to be showing signs of what I can only describe as "pastey butt". I've only encountered that with chicks, so I'm assuming it is a problem.
Anybody have any advice as to what is wrong with this hen? I was hoping to begin integrating them into my laying flock soon but not if I can get this figured out. These birds came to me as "house chickens", they'd lived inside an apartment for over a year.
Here's some pictures of the bird in question,
This is her when she first came to live with us, her comb is now pink.
this is how she looks today,
and here's a photo of her bum, sorry about the poor quality, she wouldn't hold still.
As far as I know brown egg laying chickens are suppose to have red ear lobes, right? There are rare exceptions but we're talking about Red Stars, not exactly rare. Both birds lay a brown egg daily, one has typical red ear lobes, the other though has white. Now it's not the entire lobe either, it's more like a layer of white that is just covering the lobe almost completely. Also, the same bird seems to be showing signs of what I can only describe as "pastey butt". I've only encountered that with chicks, so I'm assuming it is a problem.
Anybody have any advice as to what is wrong with this hen? I was hoping to begin integrating them into my laying flock soon but not if I can get this figured out. These birds came to me as "house chickens", they'd lived inside an apartment for over a year.
Here's some pictures of the bird in question,
This is her when she first came to live with us, her comb is now pink.
this is how she looks today,
and here's a photo of her bum, sorry about the poor quality, she wouldn't hold still.
Last edited by a moderator: