Chicken Drinking A Lot of Water

I have a little bantam polish hen who is 7 months old, lately she has started drinking every time she sees the dish. In a few short minutes I will watch her go over and drink several times. This has been happening for 3 days. Her crop is empty in the morning and doesn't seem to be extremely hard or mushy. Her poops were normal until yesterday when of course they became watery from drinking so much. It is also a problem because her head feathers are becoming soaked. She takes a sip of water and shakes her head flinging water of the dish, then goes back for another sip and does that over and over again. I have removed feathers to try and keep her dry at least but it hasn't helped. I put a nipple water pail in today but am not sure how long it will take for her to learn to use it and surely can't take the other water our to encourage use. Any suggestions as to why she is so thirsty and how to train to a nipple would be appreciated.

 

Those are the same bird. One she has full feathers on her head and the other her head is all wet from drinking so often and flinging the water about. I removed feathers but it is not helping. Thank you so much, I have a crate exactly like you describe. I just did a full check on her and the crop is full and her underbelly seems to be normal, smooth, no lumps or bumps.

 

So I tried to isolate her in the cage and she freeked, she was going to get hurt. The other chickens really didnt like the whole idea either and were flapping about. I spent most of the day in the pen today and she pecks at the ground and scratches constantly when there is no food there. I put food where she is scratching and she doesnt eat it up. I made special scrambled eggs to see if she would eat that up and she had a few pecks and moved on to the ground again. I have only had her about a month and the previous owner said they took care of themselves, free range 100 percent. I am not sure if the fact that she is not able to eat fresh grass all the time part of the problem. She has so many different dishes and feed types, I just do not know what to do to ensure she is eating properly. Any more advice is greatly appreciated.

 

I am really starting to wonder if that isn't the case. I have some wheat growing for greens that I will let her try tomorrow and see if that is what she wants. She is very energetic and shows no signs of illness or trouble, so I will work diligently to get her eating properly.

 

Excellent suggestion thank you.