I inherited a flock of 6 mature hens of various unknown breeds and ages. One of the hens ("Blackie" because she's black) has been listless and off her feed in the last 3-5 days. She stands quietly in the sun and doesn't forage energetically like the rest of her free range sisters. She does eat but not much. In their house I have a mixture of scratch grains and layena crumbles w/ a bit of oyster shell. We have an automatic waterer so I don't know how much water she's drinking. I noticed tonight that her comb & wattles which are usually bright red like the others is a dull pink. All of her sisters are acting normal. She's had no traumatic injury. She does seem to have "diarrhea" in that there is some poo on her butt feathers. Not much. Just some. The other hens are clean. There is nothing that I have observed that I can think of that might be the cause. Nothing unusual has happened. Same Feed, Same Water, Same Free Range every day. I have administered no treatment at this point. I have just been observing. As with the hens we inherited their coop and house. It was disgusting. Wet, muddy and foul smelling. I cleaned it up, added diatomaceous earth and lots of straw bedding. We repaired the roof and fixed the nesting boxes. We also improved the walls so as not to let so much rain in. We live in Tracy where it gets hot so we left plenty of ventilation. The downside of that is that we have lots of rodents and wild birds. I'm sure this is a common illness I just don't know what it is. Any ideas? Thanks!!
