That little chicken is Nero. We got her last February, along with two other pullets. Her breed is nero, which is quite a small breed, but not as small as a bantam. She is such a character! She doesn't like being touched but loves to follow me around the garden. In May last year she got hen-pecked very very badly. She had a huge bald bum and to make matters worse, she got lice. Now, as a first time chicken keeper I was practically helpless, so onto BYC I came! I read lots of articles on how to get rid the little critters, then took a trip to the local pet store. I bought some lice powder for direct use on the bird, and spray for inside the house. Whilst I was there I bought anti-peck spray which for the record, was foul smelling.
So after sticking to a weekly routine for about two months, these lice are proving to be impossible to get rid of. But the pecking had stopped, now we just had to wait for the new feathers to grow in.
So in July, things got bad, real bad. One morning I went down with spaghetti ( a chicken favourite ) and Nero didn't eat. She just sat. So i immediately knew something was wrong. That night she was silent and her wattles were iced cold. Not good. I was worried she wouldn't make the night. She did, but had deteriorated significantly. She would sit hunched up In the corner eyes shut, I felt her crop it was hard, I feared an impacted crop. I read a cure would be to feed the poor girl maggots as they would eat the gunk in the crop. So off to the fishing store I went. I bought a big box of maggots but I read you can only feed chickens the white/cream coloured ones as the coloured ones were poisonous. So I was hand feeding her maggots making sure she got maybe 5 an hour.
We'll she clearly liked the maggots and started clucking REALLY loud at the house. I thought this was a good sign and therefore kept up the routine.
Two days later I had a semi-healthy hen who loved maggots
But one day later she was fine but still noisy with all her clucking.
Now she is still fighting lice but has lots of feathers.
Thanks for reading about Nero