I have the odd little chicken out...thoughts?

[DawnB]

Hi all. When I've been putting the flock to bed the last few nights, I've noticed that I have one little hen that isn't roosting with the others. I have 15 chickens and plenty of roost space (ladder type roost with 2x4s). I know there's plenty of room left, but she's consistently either in the corner next to the egg boxes or on the egg boxes.

My concern is that she's most likely the bottom of the order. She's the smallest I've got and when we got the flock (adopted them a couple of months ago), she was the most naked and plucked over (I named her Godiva cuz she was SO naked compared to the others

). Her feathers are FINALLY starting to come back in. She was down so many she now looks a bit like a scrub brush.

Anyway, we get pretty cold up here (stretches of single digits and negative numbers) in the winter at night. Should I be concerned that she's not with the others? Or, when push comes to shove, if she gets cold, will she go roost with the others?

Thanks!

 

[chickabiddys]

Yes, I had three new silkie chicks, and one abnormally tall chick. Olive, the abnormally tall chick was commonly left out of "playtime" or was even last to eat. Unfortunately, Olive died about 2 weeks later, so be warned. Make sure you play with them equally and ensure that the other chickens understand she is just apart of the family as they are.

 

[DawnB]

Well, they're all a little older than 2yrs and well established together. I think she'll be OK, but our coop isn't insulated (but neither was their previous one). I'm doing deep littler, so hopefully that will help things. They have WAY more room in our setup than where they had been. I think that's why she was so plucked over...their coop/run was just SO small. And they had 5 more birds crammed in there. The 5 didn't make the moving trip to our place.

So, other than staying by herself at night, she's not mopey or anything. She eats/poops well, goes out to free-range with the others, etc. Now that she's getting her feathers back in, I'm not SO concerned about her getting a frostbit butt...

.

I just didn't know if I should put her on the roost with the others at night or not. Here's a pic of her (and her sprouting feathers)

 

[Den in Penn]

If she was roosting before she'll roost again when she is ready. They are sensitive the touch while the feathers are growing in.

 

[Smoochie]

If it's cold and she has no feathers she most definitely could be cold. I'd hang a heat lamp a few feet from the floor and see if she wants to go under it. Sometimes chickens don't roost because it is too dark but usually a chicken on the ground has something not right going on.

 

[DawnB]

Well...they were all on last night. So, everything must have worked out!

 

[theoldchick]

I was going to say, who wants to snuggle against a scrub brush? And once her feathers got past that 'poking' stage, she'd get to roost with her buddies again. So long as she is getting enough calories and is protected from wind, she should be fine. However, if you notice her losing color-pale comb- you can put some 'clothes' on her until she feathers out.