Lethargic hen not eating or drinking, new to chicken keeping!

[Bigbuffygirl23]

Here's the background; We are new to keeping chickens. We have 16 hens, 1 rooster and 7 female ducks. The chickens were all purchased together and are 16 weeks old and not vaccinated. We keep the ducks and chickens together in a coop that is 8'x10' with an additional duck house that of course no one uses and the ducks want to sleep under the chickens. It has a cement floor (shed conversion to coop) with about 6 inches of pine shavings for bedding. We do have good ventilation throughout, but I have noticed the bedding to be damp at the bottom when I mix it up every so often. (Planning to clean it all out tomorrow if there are any other suggestions for bedding please share). The coop has an auto door that opens to the run which is very large and when we get up we let everyone out to free range. (We just started free ranging about 2 weeks ago). There are multiple water containers that we replace fresh daily and a couple of food stations.

One of my birds, a black Australorp, (16 weeks old) started acting strange yesterday (2 days ago now) and I'm hoping someone here can help!

I got home from work at 8am and went to let everyone out to free range and she was just sitting on the ground and didn't get up while everyone was running around her. I tapped her with my hand a couple of times and she didn't get up. I don't handle my chickens that often, they normally take a minute to warm up to me, so this was very unusual behavior. She was holding her head up, eyes open, just didn't react to me. I picked her up and she put her legs out and I set her down onto her legs and then I pet her once, she didn't flinch, and then suddenly she spooked and took off, ran right into the fence and then went and sat in the corner of the run. I let her be for a few minutes and when I returned she had ventured out with the others to free range around the yard. When I mentioned this to my husband he said she was on the ground in the coop last night when everyone else was on the roost, which was odd, but then after a few minutes he said she did hop up onto the roost bars. When I woke up later in the day I sat and observed all the chickens for awhile. She was hanging with everyone else but not foraging, in fact I never saw her eat or drink anything even when I refilled the feeders and water. She walked right by them multiple times.

She has been holding her tail feathers down mostly, kind of almost in a hunched position. And panting. It almost appears to me like she can't see me, or her eyes just seem glossed over or something. I will say she perked up and I had to chase her around the yard to catch her. I did separate her from the flock but I feel bad that might be adding a lot to her stress. I have not seen any odd behaviors from any other birds. I have never seen any bullying in the flock. She has no sores or signs of trauma, vent was clean, poop was normal (soft, dark green with a little white). Her crop feels flat and empty. Her comb is bright red and unchanged. I wouldn't say she feels exceptionally skinny.

I'm currently feeding Purina flock raiser to both the chickens and ducks, they do free range during the day with access to their feed still. I do occasionally feed them raw scraps of fruit and vegetables but I haven't lately because they've been getting into my fruit and vegetable gardens. They do get some meal worms and seeds sprinkled around sometimes too. Our property is 20 acres with a mix of fields and woods in the area the chickens tend to frequent. I have 4 cats and a dog, therefore dead rodents or cat/dog poop are possible things a chicken could come across.

Temperature here in Michigan has been 60's-80's

All I've really done is separate her and observe her and give food and water. Which I haven't observed her eat or drink anything yet but I plan to check in the morning to see if she has.

I'd like to treat at home if possible, I'd like to know if I should be keeping her away from everyone else or if that will make things worse, she seems very stressed about it. I do have a farm vet nearby if necessary.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, sorry for the length but hopefully the details are helpful.

 

[ksbkeys]

It sounds like you are being thorough...so hard to know...perhaps she ate something that has made her sick while free-ranging. Maybe it even effected her vision. I had a chicken get temporarily paralyzed 2 times from eating mushrooms while free ranging. As far as not getting on the roost, sometimes when the pecking order is being established, the other hens will not permit a hen to get on the roost. Finally, they can sneak up onto it. This may or may not be the case. I sure hope your little hen will be ok.

 

[LaFleche]

As you have already noticed, the coop bedding will be wet with ducks kept in.
Chickens don't do well sharing the same coop with ducks, they need fresh and dry bedding to stay healthy or else their lungs and air sacs could get easily infected by fungal spores.

Observe your flock closely, the cockerel might have started to mount the pullets although they are still too young to deal with it and often show signs of shock afterwards.
Females need 2-3 more months than males to mature. They should not be harassed and mounted until they start to lay eggs.

Are you absolutely sure that all ducks sre females?

 

[Ragfrey]

I am extremely new to the chicken scene…but I have been reading/researching extensively for the last 6months.

One thing I learned and noticed from multiple post is it’s not good to mix the chickens and ducks. Among the different sicknesses ducks can bring to chickens, they will also aggressively mount chickens and hurt the hens. I had no idea about this let alone how easy it is to cause a hen to go into shock.

Good luck.

 

[Bigbuffygirl23]

As you have already noticed, the coop bedding will be wet with ducks kept in.
Chickens don't do well sharing the same coop with ducks, they need fresh and dry bedding to stay healthy or else their lungs and air sacs could get easily infected by fungal spores.

Observe your flock closely, the cockerel might have started to mount the pullets although they are still too young to deal with it and often show signs of shock afterwards.
Females need 2-3 more months than males to mature. They should not be harassed and mounted until they start to lay eggs.

Are you absolutely sure that all ducks sre females?

I'll clean the coop today and see if the bedding is wet underneath, now that they are free tanging they are never in the coop during the day. Before they would nap in there to get out of the sun and so it was getting wet after they would swim. We don't keep any food or water in the coop. If it's wet I'll move the ducks.

Our cockerel has been mounting our hens, one or two per night for many weeks now, he started doing it when he was only 10 weeks old. The hens used to get more upset about it but they seem fine now. Everyone seems to get along, I have seen barely any conflict between hens, way less than I expected considering I've heard establishing pecking orders can be pretty aggressive.

As far as the ducks, they are 14 weeks old, as of right now no I'm not sure that they are all females. I ordered them sexed but I know that's not a guarantee. I have not seen any of them be aggressive or try to mount each other. Sometimes when there are snacks they might chase a chicken off so they can have it. They've all lived together for about 10 weeks now and they hang out and sleep together in the yard. Again, I've seen very little to no aggression.

I don't handle the birds a lot but I am around them a lot and I haven't seen any behaviors that concerned me. The cockerel mounting was concerning but then I read it was normal as long as he wasn't being overly aggressive.

We allowed her back with the group today because I don't want to cause more issues by separating her. The rooster was on top of the garage trying to find her because she was freaking out. She trashed her overnight set up that I put her in. I'm going to spend the day outside observing her. My husband said she went back with the rest of the flock and everyone was doing fine but she wasn't foraging when he left.

 

[Bigbuffygirl23]

I am extremely new to the chicken scene…but I have been reading/researching extensively for the last 6months.

One thing I learned and noticed from multiple post is it’s not good to mix the chickens and ducks. Among the different sicknesses ducks can bring to chickens, they will also aggressively mount chickens and hurt the hens. I had no idea about this let alone how easy it is to cause a hen to go into shock.

Good luck.

Yeah I read that also, I've read that even the female ducks will do it. At this point I'm pretty sure that all the ducks are female. I've never seen one attempt to mount another and they all seem to get along fine. The ducks and the chickens sleep together in the yard etc. but the hen being in shock thing is interesting and I'm going to read a bit more about it.

 

[LaFleche]

Maybe take a look for yourself:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/duck-mated-chicken-chicken-injured.1455528/post-24233884

 

[JennieLamb]

As you have already noticed, the coop bedding will be wet with ducks kept in.
Chickens don't do well sharing the same coop with ducks, they need fresh and dry bedding to stay healthy or else their lungs and air sacs could get easily infected by fungal spores.

Observe your flock closely, the cockerel might have started to mount the pullets although they are still too young to deal with it and often show signs of shock afterwards.
Females need 2-3 more months than males to mature. They should not be harassed and mounted until they start to lay eggs.

Are you absolutely sure that all ducks sre females?

Oh dear... Ummm so I'm just perusing some of the threads as I'm new here... Ummm well I guess thinking about it makes my coop situation a little bizarre with the exception of the 11 bourbon red turkeys, our four guineas, two ducks one broad breasted turkey, and 31 chickens.... all live together in one VERY large coop. It's actually an old garden shed was a single garage door on it that's big enough to keep full size car in. The ducks aren't messy... I'm not under the impression this is super abnormal.