my silkie pullet is not herself..

[silkiemama22]

Hi everyone my name is Sabrina and I'm a brand new member and I have a dilemma,
I have a 6+ month old silkie pullet named Lilly and we rescued her from a meat farm. She was smaller then the rest of the bunch so I think thats why they decided to let her go. We are not sure on the beginning details of her life-we were told she was 4 months old when we got her at the end of march but the next month in mid april she started to lay eggs so she is obviously older then 4 months. We keep her in a pen with newspaper and recycled newspaper bedding for small animals and birds while we are working on our outside coop. So she is indoors for now although I put her outside alot so she can get to free-range and do her "chicken things" like dust bathing and scratching in the garden. She is currently on leyena crumbles which I just switched her over to the end of may.She gets hi-calcium grit as well (with whatever bugs and vegetation she eats outside)

I know that alot of people say bantams are not prolific layers but so far she has layed an egg pretty much everyday. Up until last week when she stopped laying and just sat there pretty much all day. She used to pace after she layed her egg and tell me she wanted to go out but there are no eggs and she sits puffed up and everytime I pet her she grunts at me. She really hasn't eaten anything or really drank either. We had alot of hot days in a row so I thought it had something to do with that and then I read up that she could be eggbound but I checked her for that as well and I felt nothing. She seems alot thinner as well. I checked her for lice and mites and still nothing. No worms in her poo either but lately I have been giving her yogurt with some fresh fruit and she picks at it but thats all I see her touch.I come back to check on her a few hours later and the yogurt/fruit is gone. I sometimes have to force her to drink a few sips of water multiple times a day because of the fear of dehydration.

I started to put her outside in the morning just to see how she'd act and in the beginning she would go and make a huge poo and it was normal so far (normal being regular droppings that are huge after laying an egg) but now she has these big and small liquidy poos because of the yogurt mixture I think, but then we noticed that she had a bare spot that developed last week on her underside along her breastbone. so the next thing is-is Lilly molting? She seems too young to be molting but I really don't know,is there such thing as partial/pre molting or could it be stress induced? Also outside she does dust bathe and preens but then she kinda runs in this erratic fashion and then eventually goes inside when she's ready and goes right back to her pen to sit and not touch her water or feed atleast when Im looking in on her.
There are no local avian vets in my area of ny after calling every supposed "avian vet" so that option is out.

I am really worried about her,What should I can/should I do? I don't want to wake up and find her not.

I appreciate your time to read my post,sorry it was so long

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Is she broody?

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

She sounds broody!

She wants to be a mama.

 

[Cackling Hen]

You have a broody for sure .....So do you have fertile eggs???????/

 

[silkiemama22]

I don't think she went broody but Im not sure either,I have no fertile eggs but I do have 3-3 week old chicks and she doesn't like them much when I semi-introduced them. She tried to peck/squak at them but they were just out of reach. She has stopped laying as of last week and currently has no eggs under her, as I have collected them everyday when she was laying. I was beginning to think because she was raised for meat that the broody gene may have been bred out of that particular group but I have no idea if that is possible or not.

Currently its warmed up dramatically over the past week so we installed the AC and she seems content but she exhibits the same behavior from the previous week.
Its been so hot and I haven't been able to put her outside due to air quality/heat advisories and temps feeling like 100 degrees.

I started carrying her around with me a bit more,she seems to kinda perk up but she still seems a bit off.

can chickens become jealous?

I don't know what to do if she keeps the behavior up,I guess I'll just have to keep monitoring her,they say not to intervene if they aren't sick but also sick animals hide their illness well from us people.

am I being too much of a "mother hen"?

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

Honestly, all of this info leads me to believe that she is broody. Of course she doesn't like the few-week old babies-no broody hen ever 'adopts' older chicks just like that. She does not see the as her own, and they are more of a threat to her. My broodies always treated my foreign chicks badly when I introduced the babies to the group. And for what it's worth, my Silkies don't give a darn if they have eggs or not-if they really want to brood-they'll do it on 'invisible' eggs.

The Silkies' broodiness dates back to many, many years ago. That said, even the occassional bird bred for meat will have this instinct in there somewhere, just like how some commercial laying breeds (leghorns) are less prone to broodiness but may choose to on their own. My birds also tend to go broody more in hot weather. I always think that's how they deal with the stress of the weather. I even have a Silkie who will put on a broody act when I'm getting ready to bring her to a show. My theory is that some of this is stress related...

I don't see anything that sounds terrible or fishy in regards to your girl's symptoms...Just broody! If you're truly worried about her welfare, you can try and break her habit. I hardly have the time for breaking broodies anymore, but when I did, it worked well, until they decided to try again.

It's good that you care so much. Don't lose that quality.

 

[kelar]

x2 to the above post. Every symptom you describe is that of a broody silkie

 

[Pele]

Aw, she sounds adorable, and bless you for taking her in.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending how you look at it), silkies are infamous for going broody. Some folks barely get any eggs out of their silkies because they have motherhood on the brain. But that's ok, because most people get silkies with the intention of having them be a mommy. It's what they're good at (and being adorable).

If you have a hen refusing to move, who fluffs at you, and who growls, you have a broody. Broodies rarely get off the nest, so she may only eat/drink/poop once in the entire day. If she was sitting on eggs, that would be a good thing as they'd never be in danger of cooling off.

Just pick her up off the nest and set her near food and water once a day, and she should be fine. Eventually she'll snap out of it (if only for a little while).

 

[seminolewind]

Broody. Put food and water where she can reach it. If you have any fertile eggs of any breed, she will hatch them and raise them!