Hands off chicken keepers: how do you manage sick chickens

[angc11]

Hey all! This is specifically a question for people who keep their chickens in a hands off way and/or who free range their flock. I have a basically semi-feral flock of 18 (17 hens, 1 rooster) that are all a year old and range on my property which is 6 acres of woods. They do have a coop that they put themselves into at night which opens at dawn and closes at dusk. It’s a moveable coop that I can’t get into. They come to me when I have food for them, but otherwise I really cannot actually catch any of them (except for a few super docile cochins (don’t ask me why i have cochins)). They’re all a year old and are all very healthy, laying eggs like champs and foraging very well. They also have Grubblies all flock feed available to them at all times and they get some scraps from time to time. They also have access to eggshells and flaked oyster shell at all times.

Anyway that’s the flock background. For the first time in my year of doing this, I have an Ameraucana x wyandotte cross hen who doesn’t seem to be doing great. Over the last couple of weeks, she has started to act lethargic and potentially like she’s egg bound (low energy, penguin stance, tucked tail and head tucked into body). Her under-carriage also has started to hang lower almost like she really does have an egg stuck in it or something but I’m not sure and do not have experience with egg bound hens. I can try to get a pic later if that would help. Otherwise, her comb is still bright red, she has a good appetite and I have not been able to catch her no matter what I try and it just seems to stress her out which can’t be helping. I unfortunately have a coop that I can’t get into very well so catching her on the roost at night is not a great option. I figure she can’t be that sick that she can evade me that well but there’s definitely something wrong with her. I’ve been trying to give high calcium foods to the whole flock like sardines, yogurt, etc and she definitely is eating those things. But is there anything else I can do for her without being able to catch her? I guess my plan has just been to wait until she gets so bad that she can’t run from me. But it has been dragging on for a couple of weeks and every day she seems to be the same, no worse or better.

Any advice or experience from hands off keepers? I feel kind of bad just leaving her, but I really don’t know what to do for her at this point. She still stays with the flock and forages with them and they aren’t bullying her. She’s still eating and other than her stance and her lethargy, still looks relatively healthy. And she was laying eggs at some point this winter (maybe as recently as a month ago but not sure) and then stopped and now is like this.

That was all really long and probably too much detail for what I’m really asking which is how do other hands off chicken keepers deal with situations like this and does anyone have any advice for me? I really do like to be as hands off as possible with the flock. I don’t really like handling my chickens and they don’t like it either. So I’m trying to find that balance of letting them do their own thing, but also trying to be an ethical chicken keeper and not letting the birds suffer if they don’t have to.

@BlindLemonChicken i hope you don’t mind me tagging you in this novel but you’re always one person who comes to mind who’s keeping chickens similarly to how i’m trying to so I would love to hear your experience with things like this. Thanks!!

 

[Mrs. K]

Well, I too am hands off. I just like to watch them. Mine find being handled very stressful, which is hard and stressful for me. So I don't.

I am not going to do an internal examination. Or stick calcium tablets down their throats.

I really tend to go with the idea that if you can't catch them, they are not that sick. She is eating, and hanging with the flock, if she is out in the woods - she is getting exercise. I would expect this bird to either get better or to get worse. Then you can catch her. If I got to that point, I would give the coop de grace, and cull her.

Mrs K

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

really tend to go with the idea that if you can't catch them, they are not that sick.

^ This. I just lost a game hen to something similar to what you’re describing. She was puffed up yesterday and today I opened up the coop and she didn’t come out and she let me pick her up so I popped a calcium citrate pill in her mouth and put her back in the coop where she died. If you can’t catch them they are probably ok but since you can see concerning behavior I would try to catch her before the coop opens in the morning. One thing I don’t do is chase chickens all over the place because it’s stressful for me and them.

 

[angc11]

Thank you @Mrs. K and @BlindLemonChicken , it’s always so helpful to get advice from people who are much more experienced at doing what I’m trying to do! I also agree wholeheartedly that trying to catch chickens is the worst experience for all parties involved. And I really do think my chickens would actually rather die than for me to catch them and shove a calcium tablet down their throats haha. I’ll continue to observe this hen from a distance. She was out foraging the whole day today so that’s a good sign at least.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I’ve only been free-ranging “full time” for just under a year so I have a lot to learn. Seems like every month is a new thing lol

 

[Shadrach]

Any advice or experience from hands off keepers?

Don't be one is my advice.
It sounds sort of cool "I don't handle my chickens." However, being hands off is a choice and choices are usually better made with experience. To make such a choice having been able to handle ones livestock is rather important. Farming, it's a hands on mucky, injurious, frustrating,experience.
Hands on is even more important should one keep chickens as pets. Hostile nervous pets aren't a great deal of fun.
It seems some attribute assumptions to keeping conditions where keepers are hands on, often that the creatures they care for are more like pets and tame.

Victoria Roberts, a British freerange poultry expert, (BVSc. MRCVS, Vetinary Author, Lecturer), who I have a great respect for recommends learning to handle ones birds. It's a two way learning process and carried out correctly results in calm birds and calm keepers getting the job that needs to be done over efficiently with minimum stress and pain. Think vetinary rather than emotional support cuddle bundle.
The birds still free range, I've had them roosting in trees and still been able ot handle them if necessary. It took me a while and one learns a lot about the creature one is caring for in the process.

Two suggestions, one a bit late now, the other one can learn in a couple of minutes.

Build/buy coops where one can access all the rossting spaces. The advantage of this design is it allows one to take a bird off their roost when it's dark and at that time the bird will be a lot clamer than if it had been chased around in the day when trying to catch it.

Second is, learn the tail grab.
My theory is, if one can get the bird close enough that it will feed from ones hand, that bird can be caught. It's how to catch it. Most should know trying to grab the legs is a bad idea, hips dislocate easily, some try for the full body grab, chickens do not like having their wings restricted. But, often the main problem I've seen and experienced is in many attempts to handle a chicken, lack of confidence and concerns about causing the bird pain and injury make one hesitant and that's enough to lose the bird.
If one can get the bird close enough then a quick grab of a BIG handle of their rear end (big bunch of tail feathers) one isn't restricting any bones or internal organs so one can be fairly, erm, positive in ones grip. In my expeience it stops them dead for a moment or two as they try to pull away. In that moment one can then slide the other hand under the chest of the chicken and lift. Yup they'll flap and shout a bit but they usually settle.

 

[Mrs. K]

I can handle my chickens, and when I was first starting, I had a flock that would sit on me, but I really didn't like it. I never tamed them that much again. I have culled birds, I am not afraid of them.

I don't really need to handle my chickens. I don't think it is wrong or right deal. Just personal preference.

Mrs K

 

[Perris]

Any advice or experience from hands off keepers? I feel kind of bad just leaving her, but I really don’t know what to do for her at this point. She still stays with the flock and forages with them and they aren’t bullying her. She’s still eating and other than her stance and her lethargy, still looks relatively healthy. And she was laying eggs at some point this winter (maybe as recently as a month ago but not sure) and then stopped and now is like this.

it has been dragging on for a couple of weeks and every day she seems to be the same, no worse or better.

how do other hands off chicken keepers deal with situations like this and does anyone have any advice for me?

I have experienced similar. Some have recovered, some have not. I suspect it is a combination of a two or more not-normally fatal common illnesses coinciding. A compromised immune system.

I interpret the behaviour as the chicken is sick, with something that the rest of the flock does not perceive to be a threat to their own health. The chicken wants to remain with the flock, and the flock is happy to have their company, so I don't isolate them. If it gets to the point that the chicken self-isolates, then they also are ready to let themselves be caught. I now recognize this as a pivotal moment. Those whose immune systems were capable of fighting it off don't get to this point. Those who do have given up the fight, and in the wild would be predated now. Interventions such as force feeding may save it (often don't), but I prefer to let the animal decide on its own fate. (Been down that road and don't like it, for me or the chicken.) Instead I bring it in, offer any food it wants to eat, water, a comfortable place to sleep.

I can then observe them up close and personal for as long as I wish and when it is not obvious to me that the bird is suffering, they have usually passed quietly, within a few days. The flock knows what is happening and the matriarch comes to the back door to be let in to visit the ailing. It appears to me to be a good death, in so far as such a thing exists. I euthanize those I think are suffering. I don't see a need for speed in any of this. Some illnesses just take longer for a body to deal with than others. One that recovered needed support for the rest of his life, and in hindsight I think I did him no favours by nursing him through the worst week of it. At the end of the day I do what I feel comfortable with, as well as what I think is best for the bird.

 

[allosaurusrock]

Penguin waddling and tucked under belly for multiple days sounds like Ascites (water belly) rather than egg binding. Generally speaking, if a chicken is so sick that it’s easy to catch, then it’s REALLY sick. They’re prey animals and they hide pain well. The symptoms you are describing are not normal. I know you are hands off, but it is worth catching this bird, feeling her abdomen, and checking her for parasites. If her abdomen is distended then it is water belly, and it would be better for her to be humanely killed.

 

[Briarhopper Ranch]

Hi @angc11,

Hope I can help a bit. First, a bit about my birds. I have a country flock of birds, and not counting turkeys and babies in the brooder, my flock is an about the same size as yours. My birds free range sunrise to sunset on the land around the coop / barn / our home. (We’re on ~50 acres with no close-by neighbors.) Everyone in my flock has a name, both for fun and identification, and most sleep in the coop except for a handful of older Easter eggers who prefer the rafters in our 1940s tobacco barn. Some of my birds are so tame I have to be careful not to step or sit on them (mostly Marans, Bielefelders, olive eggers) while I’ve got some Legbars who don’t want me within 5 feet of them. Still, none likes to be handled. I keep an eye on the flock for signs of health or behavioral issues and to know who’s laying what, when and where. But there are certainly times during daylight hours where I can’t pinpoint their location.

<tldr> In short, I wouldn’t call my flock “feral” by any means, but I don’t have any house chickens coming inside for pedicures. They’re country birds in the country doing country chicken things and they don’t like to be handled.

Sharing a few things that may help you:

• in daylight, one place I can “corner and capture” a bird is in the old tobacco barn which offers a few nooks and crannies
• I have a bird net for extreme cases. It looks like a pool skimmer somewhat and I deploy it when necessary to catch a bird
• I keep a couple of dog crates with waterers / feeders handy to use as bird hospital rooms.
• I had a first year layer “penguin walking” and straining after several attempts on the nest. 10 minutes in a warm epsom bath and she popped that egg out in the hospital crate before I could return with food and water. Quick, easy fix.
• one hen was ranging off by herself and I noticed she’d broken toenail. A cleanup and some vetricyn spray + a night in the hospital and she was good as gold. Easy fix.
• I had another older hen off ranging by herself for a few days. I was aware she wasn’t laying successfully this spring, I had seen her infrequently on the nest and if she laid anything, it was a blue softshell egg. Finally, one day she vacated the nest and left a lash egg and some green infectious material. I isolated her, disinfected the nesting box and after a short rally, she passed the next day of suspected infected oviduct.

*Does this last case sound more familiar to you? More like what your bird is experiencing?*

• Are you able to observe your hen in question’s nesting behavior at all? Is she nesting? Is she laying? Is she laying healthy eggs or something else?
• In my scenario, “lash egg hen” went from “up and about, free ranging if somewhat isolated” to “dying in a corner” pretty quickly. My only regret was not euthanizing her humanely the night before. [EDIT: I am not making any recommendation to this regard for you hen; I’m just sharing my personal experience with my bird.]

I hope something I’ve shared here helps.