Head smells like canned peas

[roz]

Hi there,
About a week ago I noticed a not so pleasant smell coming from our brooder. We have 13 5 week olds and 5 3 week olds in there. I'm perfectly fine with the smell of chickens....I actually enjoy it most of the time, but I've been keeping an eye on my 5 week old salmon Faverolles because she seems much more mellow than the rest, resting a bit ore but she does get up and eat and drink too. Anyway, today I picked her up and noticed the smell that I've smelled is coming from her head. For lack of a better description, it kind of smells like a can of peas. I can't say I've been in the brooder long enough to see her poop lately. I tried to search on here for bad smelling heads and came up empty. I'm guessing this is not something that's good....that she smells funny. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I can't help with the smell thing but I think the older ones are overdue to come out of the brooder.
I have 6 chicks 3 weeks old and have been in their coop compartment since 1 week of age since pulled from the broody.
I put a heat lamp on them only at night for about a week and they're doing fine.
Our temps have ranged from 52-92 during that time. If it wasn't getting below 65 at night I left the light off.

 

[roz]

Wow, I thought they weren't suppose to go outside until they are fully feathered? I was hoping to move them all out together. I had the 3 week olds in a dog crate inside the brooder up until today with the exception of a few supervised togetherness with the older ones. There has been some pecking, and I don't want to move one group without the other. I would love to move them out, but preparing the new coop has taken longer than we thought. We have 7 hens outside that will be moving to the new smaller coop, and our chicks will move to the bigger coop we already had, but I'm going to have to hose it down, bleach it, and move the whole run and coop to fresh ground before they get to go out. Our weekends have just been so busy...we thought we'd have it done by now. Even I am ready to move the chickens outside and reclaim our dining room, but it's not an option yet. We also only plan to keep 12 of the chicks. We had to order some straight run blue Cochins and we're playing the waiting game to see which ones start to look like Roos. I'm hoping to post some pics soon, and I'm hoping for at least one female as that is one son's favorite breed!
I know they are outgrowing the brooder, but it is a 6 foot in diameter circle of appliance boxes that stands about 4 feet tall as well. Hopefully they'll be fine for another week!

 

[roz]

Forgot to mention we don't have electricity in coops so can't put heat lamp on them when they go outside.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Is it still that cold there?

 

[roz]

Lows in the 50s highs in the mid 70s for this week. It really is a mute point though until we get the coop ready. Right now I wish someone could explain the off smell coming from my chick's head though. I had read that salmon Faverolles are less hardy chicks because they get picked on, one of the 5 we got from mcMurray never would eat/ drink and died after 5 days, the others I sold because we had to get more chicks than we needed for the minimum order. I really want my sweet little Faverolles to be ok. I only have one (not that any are expendable!). I hope I can find a good home for any blue Cochin Roos we end up having! I veered off topic again. Seriously though, I have no idea about the smell. The overall odd smell went away this week, so I'm wondering if more of them smelled bad and got over what they may have had. I had some really bad issues with my older hens last week...sneezing all around, one was clicking when she was breathing, and for one night had mucus in her mouth (never had that before and freaked out a bit about it). I put them on Denagard and they 're doing great now. I realize as much biosecurity as I can have, the baby chicks were certainly still exposed. They will also be exposed when they go outside even if they are in a different run than the others just because they 'll be sharing the same air in the backyard.

 

[roz]

Why can't I seem to find any information online about smelly faces? I have seriously spent the last 3 hours scouring the Internet and ignoring my house which is in desperate need of cleaning! I have tried every kind of search I can imagine from searching smelly crops to odor around face, and I keep coming up empty. Something seems off with my chick. I did see her poop and it was tan colored. It seemed normal. She isn't as active, but she does move around and eat and drink. It's the smell that concerns me because it doesn't seem normal.

 

[applefalls]

I have never experienced a smelly-headed chicken (never thought I'd type that phrase!) but I can tell you an experience I've had with children...
Years ago, when I taught a day care class, we had a boy we teachers kept noticing had an odor near his head. We said something to mom and she admitted that she noticed it too. Suggested a doctor visit and it turned out that he had a very bad sinus infection from a string he had shoved up his nose that had gotten into his sinuses (this is gross, I know).
That was many, many years ago, but since that time, whenever I notice an odd smell to a child, it turns out to be infection.

This leads me to guess that the chick may have an infection.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I have never experienced a smelly-headed chicken (never thought I'd type that phrase!) but I can tell you an experience I've had with children...
Years ago, when I taught a day care class, we had a boy we teachers kept noticing had an odor near his head. We said something to mom and she admitted that she noticed it too. Suggested a doctor visit and it turned out that he had a very bad sinus infection from a string he had shoved up his nose that had gotten into his sinuses (this is gross, I know).
That was many, many years ago, but since that time, whenever I notice an odd smell to a child, it turns out to be infection.

This leads me to guess that the chick may have an infection.

Wow, good call.

 

[roz]

Oh no! That is a very interesting (and funny) story. So if she has an infection, should I think it is in her nostrils, or in her crop? How should I treat it? She is 5 weeks old, should I try adding ACV to their water (along with the 3 week olds too)? Given that my older flock just had some respiratory issues, can I assume it may be related? I was starting to worry about cocci because they are in the 4 to 8 week period, but no blood in stools, and I don't think I see other symptoms either.