Ok. I have 6 birds. 3 RIR and 3 BR.
All are just over 21 weeks old - not laying yet, but I hope any day.
The RIR were the first to really develop the full, red, combs and waddles(sp?)
2 of the 3 BR have really developed over the past 4-5 days and now have larger bright red combs and waddles.
Here's the problem / worry - the 3rd BRs Comb and Waddle have not changed or developed over the past week like the others, and she is acting very depressed.
She sits in the door of the coop looking out, or inside the coop, and is not her active self. Up until just a few days ago, everything was fine with her.
This AM I brought her her own little bowl of water to make sure she was drinking(hard for me to monitor) and she had a healthy drink. Not sure how much she is eating.
She is either in a huge funk, or sick. Any ideas? Need any more details?
Love to hear if anyone else has experienced anything like this at this stage.
UPDATE: Went home at lunch to give the girl a once over. Checked vent - looked fine. Felt crop-have no idea what I am feeling for. No signs of mites that I can see. Took her out of the coop and on to the lawn. She seemed 'OK' still mellow, but began eating the grass, scratching and pecking at some dirt and scraping her beak some. I put her back in the run by the food. One of the RIR sort of corralled her and then pecked her hard in the head/eye area. She scrambled and ran in the coop. This combined with her behavior of sitting in the coop door and looking out makes me think maybe this is bullying? Is it normal for a runt to develop this late in the game 21+ weeks? There has been no obvious dominance or subservience displayed by anybody until now. She is acting like the runt of the flock... Ideas?
Thanks!
Steve
All are just over 21 weeks old - not laying yet, but I hope any day.
The RIR were the first to really develop the full, red, combs and waddles(sp?)
2 of the 3 BR have really developed over the past 4-5 days and now have larger bright red combs and waddles.
Here's the problem / worry - the 3rd BRs Comb and Waddle have not changed or developed over the past week like the others, and she is acting very depressed.
She sits in the door of the coop looking out, or inside the coop, and is not her active self. Up until just a few days ago, everything was fine with her.
This AM I brought her her own little bowl of water to make sure she was drinking(hard for me to monitor) and she had a healthy drink. Not sure how much she is eating.
She is either in a huge funk, or sick. Any ideas? Need any more details?
Love to hear if anyone else has experienced anything like this at this stage.
UPDATE: Went home at lunch to give the girl a once over. Checked vent - looked fine. Felt crop-have no idea what I am feeling for. No signs of mites that I can see. Took her out of the coop and on to the lawn. She seemed 'OK' still mellow, but began eating the grass, scratching and pecking at some dirt and scraping her beak some. I put her back in the run by the food. One of the RIR sort of corralled her and then pecked her hard in the head/eye area. She scrambled and ran in the coop. This combined with her behavior of sitting in the coop door and looking out makes me think maybe this is bullying? Is it normal for a runt to develop this late in the game 21+ weeks? There has been no obvious dominance or subservience displayed by anybody until now. She is acting like the runt of the flock... Ideas?
Thanks!
Steve
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