Is she injured or sick--**Update**

[ShelleyN]

My sweet 10 month old wyandotte didn't make it into the coop before the door went down last night. We found her hunkered down under the blackberry bushes at 9:30pm. This morning she didn't come down off the roost. She's in full molt mode and acting pitiful. I brought her some sunflower chips and she did eat and drink, but she's not acting right. I put her on the floor and she slowly walked out of the coop into the run, but she's acting like a frail old lady. She had one very runny poop this morning, but that's the only one I see under the roost (I only have 3 chickens). What's standard operating procedure for this type of thing? Bring her into the warmth of the house in a box? Let her be?

**Update** - Well it's December 11 and she is bright eyed, not quite bushy tailed as her tail feathers aren't 100% out yet--and she laid her first egg since starting her molt! I thought she had gone broody this morning, but she was just probably having a slow go of it starting everything back up. IMHO--the molt is more the reason she stopped laying than day length seeing as she's started laying on one of the shortest days of the year. Lulu, her sister, stopped laying on the day the first feather came out for her molt as well. She seems to be recovering quicker than the Wyandotte. I'll try to see if she returns to laying in the same amount of time.

Thanks everyone for your support.

 

[GoldDogsMom]

I assume you checked her over for injuries?

 

[ShelleyN]

No blood or wounds. She has nestled down in the strawberry patch and is moving with the spot of sun as it moves. She's preening when her sisters come over and rouse her. I just checked her over again, and she has pin feathers in her arm pits! She's like the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree when I touch her--except she sprinkles feathers. I wonder if she just hurts enough all over to be acting this way.

 

[Ksane]

Mine are all molting and they feel like pin cushions, it's got to hurt. But I would think if she were acting that way you'd have noticed before the 1 night she happened to have not made it into the coop.