My broody EE, Lucy, just hatched 2 chicks on Monday. Her feathers look terrible, but then she's never been pristine. She has always looked a little dishevled with her white feathers. But in the last week or so, I've noticed that her skin is looking very yellow. I can see more skin on her face, so maybe she's always had this color skin and I've never noticed it and I'm seeing it more now b/c she's losing some feathers. Her belly, which is bare, is pink and yellow.
So my questions are....
A) can brooding do something that would make their skin yellow?
B) could she have had yellow skin to begin with and this is normal?
C) could this be a bad sign?
D) can she also be molting the same time she is brooding?
The only thing I can add is that she was (until the last 7 days) a very active brooder. She was constantly off her nest, taking dust baths, eating, running around and sometimes sitting on the roosts. I'm actually surprised her eggs hatched. I checked her for mites and lice and she's good and I've been feeding her while in her broody cage (wax worms, feed, bananas, yogurt, sprouts, cracked corn and lettuce) she wouldn't eat much, but she was eating. I haven't seen her drink, even when I put the water up to her beak, but she could be drinking when I'm not around. She did her big broody poop. And she did take a very long Peat Moss & DE dust bath right before I put her in the broody cage for that last week...this could explain why her feathers are so dirty...but they are also very messy, like when you stroke a feather the wrong way and it separates.
Thanks for any advice.
So my questions are....
A) can brooding do something that would make their skin yellow?
B) could she have had yellow skin to begin with and this is normal?
C) could this be a bad sign?
D) can she also be molting the same time she is brooding?
The only thing I can add is that she was (until the last 7 days) a very active brooder. She was constantly off her nest, taking dust baths, eating, running around and sometimes sitting on the roosts. I'm actually surprised her eggs hatched. I checked her for mites and lice and she's good and I've been feeding her while in her broody cage (wax worms, feed, bananas, yogurt, sprouts, cracked corn and lettuce) she wouldn't eat much, but she was eating. I haven't seen her drink, even when I put the water up to her beak, but she could be drinking when I'm not around. She did her big broody poop. And she did take a very long Peat Moss & DE dust bath right before I put her in the broody cage for that last week...this could explain why her feathers are so dirty...but they are also very messy, like when you stroke a feather the wrong way and it separates.
Thanks for any advice.
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