My hens are about 6 months old and so far so good. Except Lucy. She had an ecoli infection that I treated and she not longer has the infection. Now she just has inflammation which we are treating with once daily shots. Every night they were going in to roost as chickens ought to but twice this week after dark I've found Lucy sitting in the run by the door and not safe inside the coop where her sisters are. Anyone know if perhaps she's not dealing well with the anti-inflammatory medicine or if perhaps the dark is setting in before she has a chance to roost? She also doesn't usually join her sisters on the roost but instead settles into a nesting box. Any ideas? Thanks!
Maybe she is too weak to make it up on the roosts? Being weak or sick can make a hen the flock outcast and she may get bullied a bit at roosting time. I know this isn't a popular view but I don't raise birds to spend money on them or have to coddle them to get them to survive. Lucy would be culled from my flock post haste. Problem solved for her and for you.
I'm not sure about the effects of the medicine, but I free range all of my birds. Normally all of mine put themselves up, however it also seems like they have an internal alarm set to a specific amount of light. Whenever it gets dark enough, no matter where they are they will just hop up on something and roost there for the night. Not a bad idea when its a fence or a tree, however I have a silkie roo who constantly roost on a massive boulder in my pasture. By massive I mean its about 8 inches tall, so its not the safest place. I dont know about your birds but you might just watch them a few nights around dark and see how they react, mine either make a straight line for the coop or just roost where there are.
