Hello, had my chickens for a little while now. We have 5 plymouth barred rock, we love them. We consistently get 4 eggs a day from the 5 hens.
We have named them all, they are whitey(white skin on back from rooster in former coop), sunny(reddish skin showing from former rooster), mushu, penny and waddles(larger than the other birds and waddles while walking).
The birds love free ranging around the house, follow us like puppies and have to come over to see what we are doing anytime we are outside. I can call them and they come running because they know I will have a treat for them.
The one I'm concerned with is waddles. She will hang around with the other birds, but often is just standing somewhere by herself. She doesn't seem to be as energetic as them, if I feed bread to them, 4 of them will come running and eat it out of my hand. I try to feed waddles and she will just stand there and look at it. I toss it in front of her and she really doesn't make of it. The other day the birds were digging and making a dust bath, my son and I watched them and laughed at their antics the whole time. Waddles stood with them, but didn't participate with them all. In the coop at night, the birds all go up on the roost and tuck themselves in, I've found that waddles will occasionally jump up, but more often she will lay down in the same corner of the coop for the night. We will frequently go in and pick her up, place her on the roost and she will settle down on it and go to sleep.
I don't know if I should be concerned about her, is it normal for one to be just that lazy or is it because of her being bigger? She eats her food, pecks at insects and drinks while I'm watching, but she doesn't just seem to be as energetic as the others. They all actively forage and scrape at the ground, then hop back to see what they might have uncovered, but she just seems to slowly walk around and just hang out. Sometimes it's like she is falling asleep standing near the others.
I've checked her out and didn't notice anything different from the others, I sat on our deck steps one night and held her for quite a while and she sat on my leg while I petted her, so she isn't afraid of us, but just doesn't act like the others.
We have named them all, they are whitey(white skin on back from rooster in former coop), sunny(reddish skin showing from former rooster), mushu, penny and waddles(larger than the other birds and waddles while walking).
The birds love free ranging around the house, follow us like puppies and have to come over to see what we are doing anytime we are outside. I can call them and they come running because they know I will have a treat for them.
The one I'm concerned with is waddles. She will hang around with the other birds, but often is just standing somewhere by herself. She doesn't seem to be as energetic as them, if I feed bread to them, 4 of them will come running and eat it out of my hand. I try to feed waddles and she will just stand there and look at it. I toss it in front of her and she really doesn't make of it. The other day the birds were digging and making a dust bath, my son and I watched them and laughed at their antics the whole time. Waddles stood with them, but didn't participate with them all. In the coop at night, the birds all go up on the roost and tuck themselves in, I've found that waddles will occasionally jump up, but more often she will lay down in the same corner of the coop for the night. We will frequently go in and pick her up, place her on the roost and she will settle down on it and go to sleep.
I don't know if I should be concerned about her, is it normal for one to be just that lazy or is it because of her being bigger? She eats her food, pecks at insects and drinks while I'm watching, but she doesn't just seem to be as energetic as the others. They all actively forage and scrape at the ground, then hop back to see what they might have uncovered, but she just seems to slowly walk around and just hang out. Sometimes it's like she is falling asleep standing near the others.
I've checked her out and didn't notice anything different from the others, I sat on our deck steps one night and held her for quite a while and she sat on my leg while I petted her, so she isn't afraid of us, but just doesn't act like the others.
