- Sep 4, 2013
- 37
- 1
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Hi,
I got 4 chickens about 3 weeks ago, they should lay eggs starting the first week or two of October, I think she said they were 14-15 weeks old when I got them. All looked healthy and she is a reputable chicken farmer.
They've all been happy and active, but today I noticed my easter egger just seems "off". They have all been sort of crowding around her and she's been sort of hiding under the coop stairs. Occasionally she walks around and pecks in the run, but she's not roosting on the bar in the coop, she's mostly hanging out in the coop on the floor, sort of standing and sometimes sitting. This evening I saw her in the run with her eyes closed, just standing. All day today I've felt like she has a "tired" look, her eyes aren't open all the way (I honestly can't remember if that's normal for her or not, but the other pullets open their eyes all the way while she has her eyes mostly open). She still tries to scramble away when I try to pick her up, but when I finally picked her up she didn't fight or try to run away, and her legs just dangled, she had no "fight" in her- normally when I hold her she tries to get away, flaps her wings, etc. Today she just sat in my arms, closed her eyes like she was tired at times, but just sat in my arms and I don't feel like that's normal for her. She also *seemed* to feel lighter than I expected. I have no actual proof that she's lost weight, and I haven't held them in a few days so I can't say for sure that she's lost weight.
Normally I open their run door in the am, and they come and go and peck around our whole fenced in yard as they please. I worry that she may have gotten some buckthorn berries that may have dropped over the fence from a bush outside our yard.
Could these be normal behaviors for a pullet that's about to lay her first egg? Or is she getting sick? We've had a lot of rain the last few days, temps in the 60's & 70's. The yard has been wet. I noticed some of the bedding in the coop was damp, we identified the source of how rain got in and its getting fixed tomorrow, could she have gotten sick from damp bedding?
I got 4 chickens about 3 weeks ago, they should lay eggs starting the first week or two of October, I think she said they were 14-15 weeks old when I got them. All looked healthy and she is a reputable chicken farmer.
They've all been happy and active, but today I noticed my easter egger just seems "off". They have all been sort of crowding around her and she's been sort of hiding under the coop stairs. Occasionally she walks around and pecks in the run, but she's not roosting on the bar in the coop, she's mostly hanging out in the coop on the floor, sort of standing and sometimes sitting. This evening I saw her in the run with her eyes closed, just standing. All day today I've felt like she has a "tired" look, her eyes aren't open all the way (I honestly can't remember if that's normal for her or not, but the other pullets open their eyes all the way while she has her eyes mostly open). She still tries to scramble away when I try to pick her up, but when I finally picked her up she didn't fight or try to run away, and her legs just dangled, she had no "fight" in her- normally when I hold her she tries to get away, flaps her wings, etc. Today she just sat in my arms, closed her eyes like she was tired at times, but just sat in my arms and I don't feel like that's normal for her. She also *seemed* to feel lighter than I expected. I have no actual proof that she's lost weight, and I haven't held them in a few days so I can't say for sure that she's lost weight.
Normally I open their run door in the am, and they come and go and peck around our whole fenced in yard as they please. I worry that she may have gotten some buckthorn berries that may have dropped over the fence from a bush outside our yard.
Could these be normal behaviors for a pullet that's about to lay her first egg? Or is she getting sick? We've had a lot of rain the last few days, temps in the 60's & 70's. The yard has been wet. I noticed some of the bedding in the coop was damp, we identified the source of how rain got in and its getting fixed tomorrow, could she have gotten sick from damp bedding?
