Is this normal for a new bunch of girls?

[Phlimm]

So we had four chickens many years ago in AZ and they were quite lively and laid eggs all the time. When fed, we had to dodge out of the way lest we get pecked if we stood too close to the food. Any veggie left overs from our table would be devoured quickly. They would run around the yard and do all manner of hilarious chicken related things. There were some pecking order issues but nothing too extreme.

Fast forward to this week. A new state, and a new group of hens. One Lavender Orpington, one Ameraucana, one Cream Legbar, and one Black Copper Maran. A nice privately made coop about the size of an outhouse with three attached nesting boxes and a fully enclosed run that is 8' long, 6' wide and 3' high. Cut straw on the floor of the coop and in the three attached nesting boxes. The floor of the run is my backyard, so...grass. They have been here three days and two nights.

The situation:

• Got them from Craigslist from someone with lots of ads for a wide variety of birds. Seller claims they are all about 12 months old (can I verify this in any way?).
• The transaction took less than one minute because of covid concerns. She tossed them into the cage in the back of my car and I drove off.
• I did notice that her birds were in a linked plastic boxes about half the height of milk crates. Lots of them in the back of a pick up truck. Seemed a bit...eeewww.
• Upon getting home, I was taken aback because
  • All four have bald patches on their backs in varying sizes. Exposed bare skin with (I think) the start of feathers growing in.
  • One has upper beak damage - as in partly missing. She seems to be able to drink/eat.
  • Seller claims the bald spots were from roosters and that the feathers should grow back shortly.
  • Seller says she trims beaks so they don't peck each other due to the large number of birds she has. The other three do not appear to have been 'trimmed'.
  • The beak damaged one does not appear to be particularly in distress. But seeing her tongue flick around after eating/drinking is a bit off putting.
  • Seller claims she never had trouble eating/drinking and the beak will grow back in a couple of months.
• They not very energetic. All of them just stand around looking at each other or slowly meander to and fro and pick at the layer pellets and water and grass.
• I have not personally witnessed any pecking order behavior or bullying.
• They have not eaten as much as I would have expected them to. There is a largish round pan with layer pellets (enough to cover the bottom) always present.
• There is a three gallon watering jug always present. Have filled it once the day we got them. Maybe half to two thirds full now.
• It has been hot but also has rained pretty hard a couple times.
• Fresh Georgia peaches were picked at but only if they happened to walk past the pieces and noticed them.
• Lettuce leaves appear to have been ignored.
• First night:
  • Only one figured out how to get to the roosting rails in the coop.
  • Two slept basically on top of each other on the ground in the run.
  • The other one ended up roosting on the handle of the watering jug (after many attempts).
• Second night:
  • Two made it to the roosting rails.
  • The other two again slept on top of each other just inside the entrance to the coop.
• Zero eggs. When we got our chickens in AZ several years ago, one laid an egg in the car on the way to our house.

I am looking for any advice, ideas, theories, etc.

Thanks so much in advance.

 

[NatJ]

• They have not eaten as much as I would have expected them to. There is a largish round pan with layer pellets (enough to cover the bottom) always present.

An average chicken should eat about 1/4 pound or 3/4 cup of feed per day, so that would be three cups for four chickens. Source:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/figured-out-how-many-cups-of-feed-equals-one-pound.673097/

They might be eating less because of stress, or they might be eating but not scratching it out and wasting it like normal chickens do If you are concerned, you could either measure the feed, or look for visibly bulging crops, or catch them a few times to feel their crops. If they regularly have food in their crops during the day, they are probably fine.

• All four have bald patches on their backs in varying sizes. Exposed bare skin with (I think) the start of feathers growing in.
• Seller claims the bald spots were from roosters and that the feathers should grow back shortly.

The seller might well be right about that.

• First night:
  • Only one figured out how to get to the roosting rails in the coop.
  • Two slept basically on top of each other on the ground in the run.
  • The other one ended up roosting on the handle of the watering jug (after many attempts).
• Second night:
  • Two made it to the roosting rails.
  • The other two again slept on top of each other just inside the entrance to the coop.

Roosting might be a new thing for them--depends on how they were housed before, which of course you do not know.

A lot of what you've described matches what I've read of ex-battery hens or ex-commercial hens. Yours might be younger that most ex-commercial birds (if the seller was honest), but it seems likely that they were raised in commercial-type conditions. So they will need some time to adapt and to learn "chicken" skills (like eating new foods, scratching in the dirt, having room to run around, sleeping on a roost, and so forth).

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

They sound like a confused batch of birds. They don't understand what happened. New home, New food, New surroundings. They also may not have been friendly to each other from where you got them. They need time to adjust.

 

[aart]

Yikes!
Buyer Beware.
Sounds like you got some 'well used' birds.
They may not lay again until near solstice, molting time is near.

Post some pics of your coop and run and the areas on the birds that concern you.
Pics of their heads and combs might give a clue to laying status.

 

[NatJ]

One Lavender Orpington, one Ameraucana, one Cream Legbar, and one Black Copper Maran.

The whole group together. Cream Legbar is the beakless one.

???

The Cream Legbar is in the back/middle of the picture, with a tuft of feathers on top of her head, and her beak looks fine to me.

The one on the far right, with extra feathers under her chin hiding the wattles, is the Ameraucana. I'm pretty sure she's the one with the short beak.

 

[NatJ]

Would adding another hen that is laying possible put the idea back into their heads?

It's not their heads that need to change. Just like you don't see a person with a baby, and pop out one of your own a week later.

Making an egg takes quite some time--the yolks get gradually bigger, then one is finally big enough and it needs a white and a shell and then it gets laid.

Once the hen's system is going, they lay another egg every day or so, because there's always another one coming along. But if there are no yolks ready, it can take weeks to get to that first egg.

Many things can make a hen take a break from laying. Yours apparently had bad conditions before you got them, probably had stress at the old home, definitely had stress from moving to an unfamiliar place (yes, it's better at your place--but it's new, and new is still stressful).

It's not surprising that yours are not laying now. They're pretty likely to start laying in the next few weeks, unless they just molt first. If they molt, they probably won't lay eggs until after they finish growing new feathers.

But adding another chicken won't change their hormones, and will increase stress yet again. So no, I don't think it will help.

 

[Hidrainja4]

SSSTTTRRREEEESSSSSSS
Check for mites, Give them two weeks to get use to the new home. I would give them extra vitamins like rooster booster or liquid. Beak trimming is awful I don't buy trimmed birds. But at least they got a good home with you and should be fine with good care.

 

[NatJ]

Also with regard to fake eggs in the nesting boxes to -ahem- make a suggestion, is a colored plastic Easter egg sufficient or should I get something more true to nature?

Plastic Easter eggs tend to be very light weight. Some people fill them with sand or gravel so they don't get accidentally scratched out of the nest.

Plastic eggs, wooden eggs, ceramic eggs, golf balls... They don't seem too fussy about the details.

 

[RainbowHen]

There is a second opening on the opposite side. It is a long narrow slot about the same height as the front door window. It is always open and the door to the run is always open.

Which leads me to my next question.

The girls...they LOVE to just stand around inside the coop. The leave the run where all the food and water and nice grass is and go inside. They just stand there looking at each other. They would do it all day long if I did not shoo them out into the run like a 1970's mom with her video game playing kids. GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!

So, is that something I should be doing? I am trying to reduce all their stress to get them to start laying and feel like they are safe here. I even opened the big door and waited to see what they would do. They walked up to the doorway and pecked happily at the grass but would not come outside.

This is they way they behave no matter if it is hot or rainy or just right.

So should I keep on shooing them out into the run? Or even try letting them run around the back yard or just wait for them to make that decision on their own? It's weird. The last chickens we had loved to run around, chase each other and take dirt baths, etc. All these girls seem interested in is staring at each other in the coop.

Sounds like the poor things have been, quite literally, cooped up their whole lives. Give them time. I'm sure they will come around. They have to learn what all this new stuff is.

 

[Sonya9]

Would adding another hen that is laying possible put the idea back into their heads? It's been over a week and they all are starting to look physically better (bald patches growing in, etc.), they do sort of walk around in the run on their own from time to time and three of them roost on their own every night. The Black Copper Maran does not seem to want to roost for some reason. I put her up there every night.

But no eggs yet from four hens. I have yet to even see them in the nesting boxes except to try to sleep there. We were thinking if we introduced a new hen and she was laying that this might...egg them along...

Personally I would NOT add another hen or make any other big changes. These birds do sound like traumatized retired battery hens. God only knows what sort of living conditions they were in but obviously the new environment and food is very very different than what they are used too.

A week is not long. She may also have sold them because they aren't producing as much due to poor health/stress. Give them more time with no big changes or new birds.

If they are not used to being outside in the sun then maybe some shade cloth or a tarp over their run will help, it will seems safer and less "scary outdoorsy". They will likely look absolutely beautiful in a few months when their new feathers come in and they will start laying just take it easy and give them some time.