I'm new to having chickens and so far have only had Turkens, which I raised from about 2.5 weeks. Our Rooster absolutely HAD to go, so last Sat I traded him at a farm swap meet for a 8 month old Barred Rock hen, of who I was told was already laying. Now I do understand she could be stressed but how long might it be, before I see an egg from her? IF she was in fact already laying eggs. I was so excited to finally be getting eggs (or so I thought) ,as my Turken hen is just turning 5 mos tmrw and is not laying yet.
The BR whom I have named Lucy is in Quarantine in a nice large coop of her own inside my garage. I have not had the chance to take her outside yet due to weather, but I do have a sun lamp in there for her. She has had what I would call diarrhea or extremely watery poop since bringing her home. It worried me as I have NEVER seen something like this come out of my Turkens. I did just check out the "poop" page and according to that I guess I don't have much to worry about(it looks exactly like the pic labeled "watery") but as I said, my turkens do not poop anything like this. Is it normal for it to be almost projectile pooping ....I mean I could actually hear this girl from across the garage!!!
At first I thought she could be dehydrated. I was worried she was not drinking. I tried a few different dishes in a few different places and then finally caught her drinking, but now she seems to be using the water to throw in the feed dish (Nutrena) and make paste??? Then after that she started throwing water on the floor (I have cardboard liner under the hay so she wasn't right on the concrete) and uses it to help her peel up strips of cardboard. I thought she was doing this to make a nest ...maybe she didn't care for the nest box I had in there??
But then I found her eating the cardboard!! She doesn't let me near her so I can feed her collards and such as I feed my others. She even scares when I try to toss scratch in. She runs to one corner of the coop. She will eventually come out for a grape if I toss it in after she runs from it. She obviously was never handled. I'm hoping this will get better once she can be around Ethyl and see how much Ethyl loves me.
I will say she has warmed up a tiny bit. She did eat freely today no matter how many times I was in and out of the garage. She doesn't appear sick or underweight and does seem to be eating plenty of feed and drinking now, but should I be worried about the diarrhea and the weird cardboard issues??? And why no eggs??? Is there anything special I SHOULD be doing for her??? And I did see her sneeze 1 time and actually thought I saw something come out ....something else I have never witnessed from the Turkens. But that only happened once. I bring my dogs and Ethyl in and out of the garage and now I'm wondering should I not even be doing that. (Ethyl, my Turken hen comes in to help me do laundry sometimes
so she doesn't get lonely waiting for her new friend Lucy) I did read where someone said not to let them even breathe the same airspace.
Sorry for the long post...just wanted you to have all the info on this new Hen Lucy and my sweet girl Ethyl. Any thoughts or info would be appreciated.
Thanks and Merry Christmas!
The BR whom I have named Lucy is in Quarantine in a nice large coop of her own inside my garage. I have not had the chance to take her outside yet due to weather, but I do have a sun lamp in there for her. She has had what I would call diarrhea or extremely watery poop since bringing her home. It worried me as I have NEVER seen something like this come out of my Turkens. I did just check out the "poop" page and according to that I guess I don't have much to worry about(it looks exactly like the pic labeled "watery") but as I said, my turkens do not poop anything like this. Is it normal for it to be almost projectile pooping ....I mean I could actually hear this girl from across the garage!!!
At first I thought she could be dehydrated. I was worried she was not drinking. I tried a few different dishes in a few different places and then finally caught her drinking, but now she seems to be using the water to throw in the feed dish (Nutrena) and make paste??? Then after that she started throwing water on the floor (I have cardboard liner under the hay so she wasn't right on the concrete) and uses it to help her peel up strips of cardboard. I thought she was doing this to make a nest ...maybe she didn't care for the nest box I had in there??
I will say she has warmed up a tiny bit. She did eat freely today no matter how many times I was in and out of the garage. She doesn't appear sick or underweight and does seem to be eating plenty of feed and drinking now, but should I be worried about the diarrhea and the weird cardboard issues??? And why no eggs??? Is there anything special I SHOULD be doing for her??? And I did see her sneeze 1 time and actually thought I saw something come out ....something else I have never witnessed from the Turkens. But that only happened once. I bring my dogs and Ethyl in and out of the garage and now I'm wondering should I not even be doing that. (Ethyl, my Turken hen comes in to help me do laundry sometimes
Sorry for the long post...just wanted you to have all the info on this new Hen Lucy and my sweet girl Ethyl. Any thoughts or info would be appreciated.
Thanks and Merry Christmas!
