Broody, inactive, no appetite

[kmgehweiler]

Hi I am new to this forum although a very frequent lurker! I am in desperate need of help for one of my hens. I am new to raising chicks and have no clue what the problem is. The particular hen in question is about 1.5 years old, I do not know her weight. She was given to me my my mother in law about 2 months ago. For the first month that we had her, we were getting abotu 5-6 nicce brown eggs a week from her. Then we got a few that looked "wrinkled" and after researching here, I went to pick up oyster shell which has been fed separately in one container inside the coop, and 1 container outside of the coop. For the past month I would say, she has stopped laying, and 3 weeks ago so did the other hen I was given at the same time. This hen has been acting what I assumed was broody, she sits in her nesting box constantly, I rarely see her down. I pick her up once a day and move her outside but she never stays there for long. All this time, no eggs. I also never see her eat or drink much, only when I directly put her next to the feeder, and then only in small quantity. Today I did more research and went to dunk her in a bucket of cool water, to find her outside, which made me hap[y and hopeful. However, the second my husband went into the coop in search for eggs, she took off quickly back to sit in her same spot. Anyway he brought her out and we dunked her in the cool water, she did feel extremely warm but really calmed down with the water on her belly, so we also ran the hose gently on her back. In the process of this I started taking a closer look and realized that she has lost most of her feathers from her underbelly, and her comb seems paler than it should. She also was feeling like a bag of bones, no shocker there. I squeezed and prodded and don't feel anything lumpy or misplaced (not that I would know what to look for). She has been fed layena and also is uncontainde during the day, although she hasnt been leaving the coop much, and no vaccines or worming, guilty, it didnt even occur to me that they would need wormer. So any advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Squishypuff]

most of that just sounds like she's broody. The feather loss is normal- they pluck their own chest/belly feathers. Don't know about the pale comb though...

 

[HeatherFeather]

combs go pale when they are off lay for any reason. totally normal. I look for that when looking for broodies. Why don't you get some fertile eggs and put them under her to hatch? Breaks the broodiness real well IME!

 

[chkn]

You need to have a place where she can safely stay outside the coop during the day for a day or two until she snaps out of it. To stay broody is not good for the health. Now if you have a rooster and you want to take advantage of it.....

 

[kmgehweiler]

Thank you for the advise, I do feel much better knowing that this is probably just broodiness, I will try your suggestions to get her to snap out of it. I do have a rooster, but I am not crazy about him and don't neccesarily want more of him around, and anyway I think I mentioned above~ she isn't laying. If she doesn't stop in a few days with the cold dips, I will get her some eggs to hatch.
Thanks again, Karyn