Hopeful homesteader
Songster
- Jul 22, 2021
- 472
- 810
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Firstly, my chickens have dry pox. Every chicken owner locally is dealing with it due to this years large number of mosquitoes. None of them seem to be phased by it at all, and it's pretty mild with only a few small black dots on combs and/or wattles but there's been no change in behavior the last week or so since the blisters started showing so I've just been monitoring and not really concerned. Yesterday morning while cleaning the coop I happened to notice 1 cockerel, about 13 weeks old was standing in the middle of the run and the only thing off was that he had his head tucked close to his body, nothing else about his posture was abnormal, I saw him walk around just fine and then go huddle with 4 other chickens, his eye's look normal also and alert, moved his head to watch me going back and fourth out there. The last few days the temperature has suddenly dropped into the 50's and I was cold out there and since he and several others are in the middle of their juvenile molt, I wasn't sure if he may just be chilled from this sudden weather change until his feathers come in? Later in the day when its warm he wasn't doing it, I'm gonna go out as soon as the sun comes up to see if he does it again this morning but otherwise no behavior changes, still eating and drinking normally, and normal poop. I'm paying closer attention because of the pox but could he just be cold? I know they can handle colder temps than this but not sure if the sudden change can be harder to adjust? I'll update if anything comes up.
