We have a 5 month old buff orpington (named Butterball). This is our first time raising chickens, so we've noticed her strange eyes before and didn't think much of it. However, when we let the chickens out into the run she makes a LOT of noise and doesn't come out. When we move her outside she doesn't peck or walk around, and continues to make a lot of distressed sounds. She also doesn't roost and sleeps in a corner of the coop. We moved her back into the coop tonight when it was beginning to get dark. We watched her through the window...she walked along the wall strangely looking at it as if searching for a way out, and then tried to fly straight up, smacking her head into the beam a couple inches up on the wall. We moved her back with the other chickens who were pecking at some food on the ground and she simply walked into the others and ignored the food. So, we're thinking she might actually be blind and are looking for confirmation. The white in her eye is not a glare or effect of the lighting - it's what her eye really looks like in person.
Sounds like she has always been like this? I don't have any advice but I have had a few chickens in the past who seem as if they had very poor eyesight. We usually noticed it when they left the brooder and though they were clumsy they did seem to do OK for a while as long as they stick close to the flock . Sady, in all but one case they died around the time they started laying. The one that survived stuck close to the coop and because she liked to be handled by our kids, we kept her long after she stopped laying, so although she for was always the "low chicken" in every flock, she actually lived for over 10 years. I wish Butterball all the best. Hopefully someone else has had a different experience and will it post it here.
