Our broody hen is tucking her head under her and it seems as if she can't keep it up if she wanted. She is sitting on two eggs that are due to hatch in 2-3 days.When we take her of the nest at first she can't stand up straight and sort of hobbles about. Our friend has an incubator we are going to try to see if we can borrow. Until then the eggs are still underneath her. What else can i do?? Does anyone know what is wrong with our hen and what we could do to help her? She is our favorite.
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Ok, first thank you Sumi for pointing us in the right direction on what to post-- this is a learning process for us!
second, here is some more info on our hen (and when I can post a photo I will):
1) She is a 14mo old barred rock. She is somewhere between bantam and large fowl in size and as not lost any noticeable amount of weight.
2)Her behavior is that she keeps her head tucked directly underneath her. When we first saw this thought she had lost it!
3)She has been acting like this for about a week but it has gradually gotten worse (at the beginning she could pick her head up and did not tuck it in as far as possible- just kept it near the ground. No other hens/roos are acting like this.
5)There is no external signs of injury.
7) She has been eating layer feed/hardboiled egg and drinking water. She does not eat or drink a lot but we were not too worried since our last broodies did not eat/drink much either.
8)We did notice the poop looked a little strange- runny and at time with some clumps. It was also green occasionally.
9)She is on a pine shaving nest in our coop w/ a sm. sized wire cage around her. (There is room for her food and water and room for her to get up if wanted). We would also let her out every once in awhile to exercise for 10min or so.
I hope this helps! Thank you!
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We went out to check on her and she seemed to be doing better! (YAY) Her head was not all the way underneath her and she even lifted to give us her broody mama stink eye!
We will still try some vitamin E and watch her for a few days though.
---
Ok, first thank you Sumi for pointing us in the right direction on what to post-- this is a learning process for us!
second, here is some more info on our hen (and when I can post a photo I will):
1) She is a 14mo old barred rock. She is somewhere between bantam and large fowl in size and as not lost any noticeable amount of weight.
2)Her behavior is that she keeps her head tucked directly underneath her. When we first saw this thought she had lost it!
3)She has been acting like this for about a week but it has gradually gotten worse (at the beginning she could pick her head up and did not tuck it in as far as possible- just kept it near the ground. No other hens/roos are acting like this.
5)There is no external signs of injury.
7) She has been eating layer feed/hardboiled egg and drinking water. She does not eat or drink a lot but we were not too worried since our last broodies did not eat/drink much either.
8)We did notice the poop looked a little strange- runny and at time with some clumps. It was also green occasionally.
9)She is on a pine shaving nest in our coop w/ a sm. sized wire cage around her. (There is room for her food and water and room for her to get up if wanted). We would also let her out every once in awhile to exercise for 10min or so.
I hope this helps! Thank you!
--
We went out to check on her and she seemed to be doing better! (YAY) Her head was not all the way underneath her and she even lifted to give us her broody mama stink eye!
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