Broody hen weight loss and weird poo.

[StripeyThing_1]

Hi all,

My broody hen was laying on eggs for the past 24 days, however they all hatched on day 21. I took her chicks away as soon as they hatched.
She has been laying on nothing for the past 3 days, but she is still broody.

Around day 12 she started severe weight loss that would only get worse. She used to weigh 5.2 pounds and now she weighs 2.6 pounds. I can feel her keel very easily and her butt is very skinny. She had been eating or drinking rarely since the very beginning, I had to force feed her a little bit every day.

Her poop is also very strange. It’s very liquid like and projectile. It also has some indigested food chunks and stinks so bad. She only had this poop 5 times, once every 3 days after day 11.

Any help or advice is appreciated, sorry for all the weird descriptive words.

 

[BastyPutt]

@Wyorp Rock probably knows something about the poo.

Out of curiosity, why did you take her chicks away?

 

[BastyPutt]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/not-digested-food-in-poop.1002474/
Here is a thread on the digestion. Seems like a lot of good instruction.

 

[Isadora]

I'm not sure why you removed the chicks but it would have broken her broodiness to have left them with her.
She needs to be kept out of the nest and broken. I've used a wire dog crate with no nesting material in it in the past and have broken several birdies successfully.
I can't really speak to the weird poop except that it would likely have to do with her eating so little. I'm sure the experts will weigh-in here shortly.

 

[StripeyThing_1]

She has been known to be mean to the chicks. She would have killed them if I didn’t take them. I will try putting her in a dog crate.

 

[fluffycrow]

She has been known to be mean to the chicks. She would have killed them if I didn’t take them. I will try putting her in a dog crate.

When is she mean, when she hatches her own chicks?

 

[StripeyThing_1]

Mean as in “ I am going to eat you” she has done that before, kill her chicks I mean, she doesn’t actually eat them.

 

[fluffycrow]

Mean as in “ I am going to eat you” she has done that before, kill her chicks I mean, she doesn’t actually eat them.

So she hatches chicks and then tries to kill them?

 

[fluffycrow]

Anyhow, she needs to be broken. The method Isa suggested works great

 

[aart]

Mean as in “ I am going to eat you” she has done that before, kill her chicks I mean, she doesn’t actually eat them.

Then why let her hatch?