Red-faced, head-flicking Orpington

[KirstenJL]

I have a 13-week old buff Orpington pullet who has had a reddened face and has been constantly flicking her head and making a sort of low-pitched clucking growling noise for about a week. She seems otherwise healthy, is eating, drinking, preening and is just as active as her other 5 coopmates. Her face is evenly red (like an adult hen), but her comb and wattles are small--I don't think she's a surprise roo. I'm a newbie to keeping chickens; I live in north-central Ohio where it's been very cold since they've been put outside. They sleep huddled tight in a corner on the floor and I've let them do it because it's so cold. They have a 6 x 8 unheated, but well-insulated coop and don't act like they're cold, but they refuse to go outside in the snow so have been spending all their time in the coop. Any ideas?

 

[Tiramisu]

Redness is probably just from the hen maturing. And with the head shaking and the noise is probably it sneezing.

 

[KirstenJL]

I was thinking the same thing about the redness. And the vocalizations seem fairly normal to me too--just different from the rest of the birds (they're all the same age). She's definitely not sneezing. Watched for a long time this morning and thought it might be irritation from the cold, so I put some Vaseline on her. Of course now she's even more offended!