Mouth breathing and not laying eggs?

[Andi-N-drew]

We received some hens from a neighbor last Wednesday(so almost 1 week ago) one of them is I believe a silver laced Wyandotte I'm not positive but that seems to be the closest match I can find. She has not laid any eggs since she has been here. The Americana we received has laid a few. The Wyandotte spends alot of time "nesting" I guess you could call it, in the dirt. She will just move from place to place and make a small hole and sit in it. I noticed she is holding her mouth open alot. Which I found out is mouth breathing. I am brand new to raising chickens so I really have no idea what is normal or not. Should I be concerned for the chicken? Or is this normal and the lack of eggs is possibly just adjusting to a new place. I don't know how old either hen is, the neighbor wasn't sure. Could they possibly just be getting old? The Americana will lay one egg about every 3 days.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Hens stop laying due to stress. Going to a new home is stressful. Some hens don't lay daily or constantly.

Your hen is dust bathing. Which they do to rid themselves of external parasites. It's normal as well as laying in the sun like they are dead.

Open mouth breathing can be from stress or from them being hot. If it's a respiratory infection there will be sneezing and wheezing.

Chickens don't do well in the heat, so provide shade, and cold water during the warm months.

 

[Andi-N-drew]

Hens stop laying due to stress. Going to a new home is stressful. Some hens don't lay daily or constantly.

Your hen is dust bathing. Which they do to rid themselves of external parasites. It's normal as well as laying in the sun like they are dead.

Open mouth breathing can be from stress or from them being hot. If it's a respiratory infection there will be sneezing and wheezing.

Chickens don't do well in the heat, so provide shade, and cold water during the warm months.

Thank you! We live in Florida so it is definitely hot. Record breaking for this time of year right now. Their run is pretty much full shade until evening, the coop is in the sun for alot of the day ( it's the only way it would really fit) but they spend most of the day outside anyways. The door to the coop is large and there is a window on adjacent to it so it seems well ventilated to me. I haven't noticed any sneezing or anything else out of the norm, or at least what seems to be normal to me. As I said they are knew to us and I'm knew to them. The people who had them before us had them separated because the Wyandot would peck the Americana, we gave it a shot putting them together and there hasn't been any pecking. A little bit here and there when it comes to fighting over food but that's really it. That is the only real difference I guess that I have seen. And by food I mean treats they really like. There isn't a problem with feed shortage. I just thought I would make that clear so it didn't seem like they didn't have enough food.