Lethargic Araucana

[lovemychooksies]

Hi, my bearded Araucana has become very lethargic in the last 4 days, I notice she is first in the coop in the evening, and last out in the mornings.
She seems to walk quite slowly and has taken to just sitting in random areas with her eyes closed and head slightly tilted to the side. She also has a very loud bawk. Since I got her a month ago I have only ever had 2 eggs from her and the shells were very thin, one egg cracked in my hand. I think she lays her eggs while roosting and they break on impact with the floor, and i think they eat them before I let them out in the morning.
She seems to be eating as normal, I hav'nt noticed if she has abnormal droppings.
Sorry about the array of little concerns I have but I am just trying to piece together if she is unwell or not.
She was my fathers hen but was very badly bullied by a drake he had and she has lost a lot of feathers on her back due to this, so I took her. my chickens have a lovely free range home and they forage all day long.

 

[lovemychooksies]

Hi thank you all for taking the time to reply to my post and offering any advice you may have - NOT!
I guess I will just have to seek advice from another source. I thought joining this site would be helpful, I thought wrong. I will be buying some books, which I am confident will be more reliable.
But a genuine thank you to the few people who offered advice for my previous posts, I really appreciated that.
Bye.

 

[toynutz]

Sorry no one has responded yet... sometimes people just don't have an answer. This really is a good, helpful site.

Is she getting enough calcium? I had a hen that was laying thin-shelled eggs. I made sure she had lots of oyster shells but she didn't seem that interested in it. I found out she loves cheese... so she got extra treats of cheese for a few weeks and that helped.

Or it could be something more serious. Have you checked her for internal laying?

 

[lovemychooksies]

Hi! Thank you. I posted this query yesterday and i really did hope I would get some suggestions, as I am worried, and I joined here as I thought I would have experienced chicken keepers to help me out. I am relativley new at keeping hens, 10 months. But I am coping very well and I adore my little ladies who all have their own little personalities.
She is acting as normal but her head seems to be moving in a strange way, she will sink her head down into her body and twists it to the side as if its sort of falling, and she closes her eyes a lot. She has not laid any eggs that i can see, only that once or twice.
She has become very docile and will let me pick her up no problem where as before she wouldnt.
I also have the problem in the last week where my chooks have taken to laying outside of the next box and I actually cannot find them, I found their secret laying place the other day and it had a dozen eggs in it but they have flitted somewhere else now, we have a very large area where they free range!! And I miss getting eggs in the morning, I had to buy store eggs today!!
Anyway, thankyou for your interest.
Bye again