Hey Y'all. I am new to this forum and new to raising chickens. We have 4 Buff orpingtons, 2 black orpingtons, 1 lavender orpingtons, and 1 Wyandotte. We got the blacks, lavender, and Wyandotte after the buffs. They are all getting along great after the week of pecking order establishment. My concern is the Wyandotte. She is a real loner. She doesn't really participate with the other hens in the flock. She like to stay in the coop while they all free range. Every now and then she will come out of the coop and join the others but it will take her a year and day to catch up to them. The only time she doesn't move at a snails pace is when someone wants to pick her up. Also she has no interest in mealworms. The rest of the flock is addicted to them. I have noticed too that she lays down all the time. She lays down to eat even. She will be walking around the outside of the coop and just drop and fall asleep. The weirdest thing of all is that she will sit and stare at random things (the wall, a leaf, the cat) and just sit there with her mouth open and eyes shut until its time to go into the coop for the night. Also our Lavender Orpington has started to bully her.. Any thoughts on my Wyandotte named Wynonna?
Wow! Could be brain damage? I have had hens over the years that are loners. No matter what the flock is doing, they are off doing their own thing. But maybe she has something she is fighting, (illness, etc) You could give her some pedi-lyte and add some vitamins to their water, if you don't already. My go to for under the weather chickens is to scramble up some eggs, add a little yogurt and add the pedi-lyte to it and stir/mash up a bit. They love it! It gives them some extra protein, calcium, good bacteria, and electrolytes. I give mine nutri drench about once every 2 weeks, I started giving them the vitamin after hearing about how they can develop vitamin deficiencies. Oh, and WELCOME to BYC!!!
I had a chicken who was attacked by a dog last spring (2012). She was the only survivor of the three that were bitten. It crushed her ribs and she had bloody stool for 3 months, but man she kept going. She still laid daily for me, even through the winter without a lamp. She would have episodes of infection though. I didn't try to fight it or intervene because I didn't want to force her to keep living if her body was injured. She'd be fine for weeks or months, then backslide. She would go listless, lay down in one spot, rest her head forward so her beak was in the dirt, squint whenever she was looking at things, pant, "stare off", and generally appear that she was on her death bed. I would get so close to putting her down and then she'd bounce back after a few days. This continued until August this year, when she started backsliding again, and one day I told her "Sunny, you gotta make up your mind whether you're staying or leaving." The next day she laid down under the walnut tree and passed quietly. Man she was a cool, super friendly chicken... Anyways, sounds like she's got an internal infection, possibly internal laying, genetic deformity, or something. It's not good.
May sound dumb, but I got a little teary eyed. Had 2 of our three attacked by a dog this past Wednesday. One was gone instantly, the second hung on for about two hours. Buried them side by side in the back yard...
Thank Y'all for the replies! TTracy We have found that the "chicken Gatorade" works wonders. the whole flock got to sneezing and had runny noses a couple months back. We added the electro-lyte to their water and within a couple days they were done with the sneezing and were full of piss and vinegar again. Jrose I am sorry to hear about your bird dying. It was difficult for me when we had lost our two hens. I never thought I would get so attached to these birds but some how they become friends and companions. Like losing a good friend. Jules3 that doesn't sound dumb by any means. Like I said before, our hens are like our friends. So as to Wynonna..... I think she is just a little Forrest Gumpy. I love it! Also we found out today that we do indeed have a roo in the flock so we will be down one more here shortly.
