Not getting off the roost?

[meshelley53]

I bought two chickens at an auction and have had them for four days and not once have a caught them off the roost bar. Today I even open the door for them to free range and they stayed in all day and everytime I went to check on them they were in the same spot. The are adult hens and a little beat up. Once missing part of a beak the other one a lot of back feathers gone. Any suggestions on this odd behavior? No signs of sickness but I'm also wondering at this point how much they're eating and drinking.

I'll add I was hesitant to remove them from the coop and put them outside with the others because I do want him to return at night.

 

[Amina]

They may be avoiding your other chickens if the others are very aggressive with them. I've also had a hen before that just sulked when I got her and stayed mostly on the roost for about 2 weeks, so that's possible too. Either way it's going to take time. Feel their crops to get a sense of whether they are eating. You may need to offer them food and water away from the other chickens for a little while if this is the result of the flock being overly aggressive.

 

[Amina]

The missing back feathers sound like they were over mated by a rooster at their previous place. The broken beak could be from anything. I think it's fairly common for beaks to get chipped. Or do you mean missing more than that? If it looks like half the upper beak is gone, that hen may have been debeaked on purpose as a chick.

 

[cafarmgirl]

They are most likely just very stressed from the move to a new home. Hopefully that's all it is. It would have been best to quarantine these birds away from your existing flock for a couple of weeks. Auctions are really dangerous places as far as disease exposure. It's just really, really easy to bring home some nasty disease to your flock. It's also usually best to integrate slowly, letting your flock get acquainted with new birds through a fence for a week or so until everybody gets used to each other. Since these two are new they may be bullied and kept away from food and water. I'd separate them into their own pen next to your other birds, give them some time to settle in and then put them back in with the others.

 

[meshelley53]

So far they are alone in a fence coop so I could watch them and have my flock see them first. That's why I opened the door for them to free range together for the first time so if bullied they could get away but I didn't even get that far cause seriously staying on the bar. And not exploring which is why it's so puzzling to me.

It is the top part of the beak.

Guess I'll give them some time.