Mystery Hen Found in my Yard

[Wyorp Rock]

It is sweet of you to help this poor girl.
Now I don't want to be a damper, but I encourage you to practice biosecurity and quarantine your new found friend. Since she just suddenly appeared, you have no way of knowing what her health and condition may be. She may just be lost or someone may have let her loose because of illness or old age. It would be heartbreaking for you if she did have something that could infect your flock and cause everyone to become ill. Of course, continue to take good care of her like you are doing, check to see if she belongs to anyone, quarantine her to make sure there is no illness, then if all goes well slowly integrate her into your flock. I would search here on BYC to get ideas on how to do this. Here is one to get you started.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/12751/urgent-reminder-please-quarantine-newly-acquired-birds

 

[sophiaw00]

Thank you all for the well wishes! My new friend, is eating and drinking! I brought her pellets & water and she's been loving it. She can stand, but doesn't like to walk. I noticed she has crooked toes, so that might be why? I'm almost positive shes a red star now. She looks so similar to the photos I've seen of ex battery hens. She seems to not know what to do with herself, and is definatley the same breed as battery hens. She has a lot of feather loss and virtually no tail.

Thank you so much for the quarantine thread link. I'll check it out. I have already set up her temporary quarentine cage. She'll stay in there until it's nicer out and then I'll transfer her to my makeshift brooder/chicken hospital where she'll stay for at least 2-3 weeks. That is, if I don't find her owner, which I will continue to look for over the next several days

My hen, Vivi, taught me a lot about introductions because unfortunately she was my first introduction and it didn't go too well. She was attacked and almost died after going into depression and not eating. BUT my girl fought and she lived AND she's currently sleeping on the top roost of the roosting bar, right next to the same hen who almost killed her.

I'll give this new girl as much TLC as she needs until she's healthy or I find her home. Keeping her could cause problems eventually due to lack of space - currently have 10 chickens and an 8 x 4 foot coop.

 

[Sonya9]

JMO but I would stop looking for the owner. You didn't ask your neighbor, you just saw that his two other birds were in the pen so I would bet this bird came from his house.

Sounds like he does not take care of his birds properly, if he doesn't come looking for the bird then he doesn't care about them and you would be doing the bird a favor by letting her live at your place.

If it becomes an issue in the future just "play dumb" and say you saw all his birds were in their pen and you had NO IDEA this stray came from his house.

 

[Alexandra33]

She's adorable! There is no better person for her to have come to for rehabilitation, love, and food, so maybe this whole situation will turn out to be a wonderful thing. Please keep me posted on her; I love watching unkempt birds transform in good hands!

-Alex

 

[BigRedRoo]

It is sweet of you to help this poor girl.
Now I don't want to be a damper, but I encourage you to practice biosecurity and quarantine your new found friend. Since she just suddenly appeared, you have no way of knowing what her health and condition may be. She may just be lost or someone may have let her loose because of illness or old age. It would be heartbreaking for you if she did have something that could infect your flock and cause everyone to become ill. Of course, continue to take good care of her like you are doing, check to see if she belongs to anyone, quarantine her to make sure there is no illness, then if all goes well slowly integrate her into your flock. I would search here on BYC to get ideas on how to do this. Here is one to get you started.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/12751/urgent-reminder-please-quarantine-newly-acquired-birds

Yep I was thinking this aswell. I came home to find a red sex link in my coop two days latter had mites!

 

[sophiaw00]

Update:

This morning I moved her to my garage. My chick brooder is being used as a chicken hospital for the second time now. I threw some hay in there for her to forage in, but she immediately made a nest and laid an egg!

I found her sister walking around behind my coop again today. She wouldn't come near me, so I put a bowl of food out in a cage. She went in and ate it. I'm going to let her go in and out of the cage for a few days so she gets comfortable in the cage, and then when she's not paying attention I'll lock her in there so I can bring her inside and care for her. I feel bad that she's by herself outside. She's in worse condition that the one I already saved so I really hope I can catch her.

She's very nervous about me and super skinny. Her skin is very sensitive from her molt and being so cold. When I had to pick her up to move her, she was in pain. It broke my heart.

Last night while she was eating/drinking, I kept hearing noises coming from her that sounds like a belly growling from hunger. Does that happen to chickens when they are hungry?

Here's a picture from this morning of her.

 

[nuklee0]

I think you should keep them. They could just be rogue chickens. A guy close by sold his house and was moving away so he gave me his 5 hens. When I attempted to let them free range with my flock for the first time, one of the hens immediately disappeared. A couple days later I saw her foraging on the other side of our property. I tried to lure her back and even tried several times (unsuccessfully) to catch her. A week later a neighbor from that side of our property said the hen was over there and I still couldn't catch her... 2 weeks later, my roo was able to round her up and she started sleeping in the coop and hanging out with the flock... Then 1-2 weeks later, she just up and left again. Unless a predator got her... But I think you should just keep them especially since you've already checked with the neighbors and if they're willing to stay with you.

 

[sophiaw00]

I am planning to keep her. I have one more neighbor I am going to ask but that's the last house around me with chickens and even they are two miles away, so I doubt she's theirs. I am also trying to catch the other one.

My mom doesn't want them in the garage for very long so I need to find a way to keep their hospital brooder outside some how that also keeps them warm. My only heat lamp is in the coop. Of course the easiest way would to be to introduce them to my flock right away, but I don't want to risk sickness or mites.

Do they sell chicken sweaters somewhere to keep them warm?

 

[Sonya9]

Either you have small hands or that is a huge egg!

 

[Alexandra33]

My mom says to check etsy.com for the sweaters. We saw pictures of chickens wearing sweaters one time,and it was unreasonably humorous and cute!

-Alex