Heavy breathing hen

[cundare]

One of our hens has, for the last few days, started breathing rapidly and with her beak open. Not always, but often. Is this something to be worried about?

I brushed it off at first as merely indicating stress, b/c not too much earlier she had been the unwilling love partner of one of our more aggressive roosters. But now I've seen this behavior several times, so I'm starting to get concerned.

She's otherwise behaving normally, alert, hungry, not sluggish.

 

[Eggcessive]

Can you separate the rooster for a few days to less the stress? Does she hold her wings out away from her body as she has the open mouth breathing? She may be hot, and that is the way they cool themselves. Is there plenty of shade over the coop and run, and where she is spending her time? Make sure that she is drinking plenty of fluids, and has good ventilation?

 

[cundare]

We're in a moderate climate, so heat is almost never an issue for our birds. We'll be keeping the rooster in a separate pen, where he can't interact with her, from now on.

She's a free-ranger and we always make sure there's plenty of water distributed around the yard.

The reason I'm concerned is that this is unusual behavior for her. She's a resourceful, independent bird who frequently figures out how to get into a neighbor's yard (everybody has chickens here), so I'm concerned that she may have picked up something over there.

There has been no avian flu reported in my state.