Restless Chicken Question

[AlaskaEE]

I got two 3-4 month old Red Sexlink pullets last week. The person I got them from said they were 17 weeks, but my hunch is they were closer to 12-13 weeks due to size, light colored combs and wattles, etc. However, tonight one of them was acting odd. She dug into the dust bath, but then looked uncomfortable in it. Kept changing positions, moving from side to side, looked like she was using her abdominal muscles quite a bit. She then got up and tried snuggling with the other pullet (who was free-ranging and had no interested in snuggling), would lay down and get back up...generally restless. She also had about 5 bowel movements over an hour, hour-and-a-half period. Is this stress behavior or are the laying instincts starting to kick in?

 

[MommaHen2Many]

Sounds like you have a nice little flock. I think the red sexlinks usually lay anywhere from around 17-24 weeks....it varies from others posts I have seen here on BYC. If it were my chicken, I would eliminate other things it "could" be....is she other wise healthy? Check the crop (probably too late tonight if your in ak...maybe not it might still be light out)...then check it in the morning. should be full at night, and empty in the am. This will tell you if she is eating well, and then if its "moving" on through her system. Dose she have somewhere to have a dustbath? I have also noticed with my birds that sometimes too much of "one" thing can change their poo...do they look normal? somewhat firm, some white in it? When mine get on alot of fresh grass in the spring, its not pretty!! I know there are much more experience folks here on BYC than me, I'm hoping some of them will chime in.

 

[AlaskaEE]

Sounds like you have a nice little flock. I think the red sexlinks usually lay anywhere from around 17-24 weeks....it varies from others posts I have seen here on BYC. If it were my chicken, I would eliminate other things it "could" be....is she other wise healthy? Check the crop (probably too late tonight if your in ak...maybe not it might still be light out)...then check it in the morning. should be full at night, and empty in the am. This will tell you if she is eating well, and then if its "moving" on through her system. Dose she have somewhere to have a dustbath? I have also noticed with my birds that sometimes too much of "one" thing can change their poo...do they look normal? somewhat firm, some white in it? When mine get on alot of fresh grass in the spring, its not pretty!! I know there are much more experience folks here on BYC than me, I'm hoping some of them will chime in.

Thank you! No, its not too late - we have almost 24 hours of light this time of year! I'll go check her crop now. I appreciate your suggestions. I'm definitely in the thick of the learning curve!

 

[aart]

They do often roll around a lot in the dust bath.

Is it hot there?
If hot and they drink a lot of water they poop more often to shed heat from body and it's usually runny.

I wonder if/how the long daylight hours affect them.
Maybe @Alaskan knows?

Never got how days are longer that farther north than here.<scratcheshead>

 

[AlaskaEE]

They do often roll around a lot in the dust bath.

Is it hot there?
If hot and they drink a lot of water they poop more often to shed heat from body and it's usually runny.

I wonder if/how the long daylight hours affect them.
Maybe @Alaskan knows?

Never got how days are longer that farther north than here.<scratcheshead>

It's not too hot here - mid 60's is the hottest it has gotten so far. She seems to be okay today, so I'll just keep an eye on her and wait for an egg!

 

[Alaskan]

Aart, the long light does make it hard for young chickens to figure out when in the world they are supposed to sleep. The older ones do fine, and go to bed at a decent time.... .

Other than that though, the light shouldn't make her more restless.

Restless makes me think parasites. We actually have lots of mites and lice up here, they are carried about by the wild birds. I would check her very carefully for signs of pests.

 

[AlaskaEE]

Aart, the long light does make it hard for young chickens to figure out when in the world they are supposed to sleep. The older ones do fine, and go to bed at a decent time.... .

Other than that though, the light shouldn't make her more restless.

Restless makes me think parasites. We actually have lots of mites and lice up here, they are carried about by the wild birds. I would check her very carefully for signs of pests.

Thank you so, so much for your input. I will check her carefully tomorrow and head to Mill & Feed for DE. Do you have any other tricks or tips to get rid of pests here? I'm new to this and will gladly accept advice.

 

[Kiki]

DE will not get rid of pests.
Permethrin will.

 

[AlaskaEE]

DE will not get rid of pests.
Permethrin will.

Thank you! I'm not sure why I thought DE would do the trick. Thanks for setting me straight before I bought some!

 

[Kiki]

Thank you! I'm not sure why I thought DE would do the trick. Thanks for setting me straight before I bought some!

I'm sure you read that it did, what you didn't read though is all the many many posts of people complaining about how in the world could they be dealing with pest when they have always used DE.

I was just on my way to bed when I came upon your thread.
Here is just one thread mentioning it:Good DE advice| BackYard ChickensWhat I mean is if I wasn't on my way out I could point you to 20 threads with in the last week alone with this same complaint.