Traumatized hen

[RCRanchGirl]

My husband had to cull a few chickens today unfortunately. We tried to separate the hens we were keeping from the others. One of my chickens - little foot- is very hard to catch. I couldn’t get her separated so she saw everything. One of the chickens that’s now gone was her best friend. Little foot has since been in the coop since breathing heavily with her beak open. Our main flock went down from 5 down to 2 today not including the chicks I’ll be integrating later on.

Should I be doing anything for little foot? I’m kinda nervous I’ll be down to one hen. If that happens how do I approach having only 1 hen for now?

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

You can give her some sugar water with electrolytes in it to treat her for shock. I don’t think she’ll die, she just needs some time to adjust.

 

[nuthatched]

She's not in trauma from the culling, but she maybe over heated.

 

[Bawkbok]

To go from five chickens to two in one day is a pretty big change. She is definitely stressed out. It sounds like she may be over heating if it's hot where you are if she is open mouth breathing and her wings are out from her side. Where do you live? Ensure they have shade, cool clean water and I would avoid treats right now, just their feed and maybe some scrambled egg. If you have electrolytes, rooster booster / poultry cell, you can offer this to help. It will take a week or two for the remaining chickens to adjust to their loss (they grieve) and the two of them will need to establish their own new pecking order.

You mentioned adding new chicks, I would wait a few weeks to do this until they have resettled into their new structure. For introductions, it is recommended to use the see no touch method where they are in a separate pen from the others where they can see them but not interact for three weeks, then supervised interactions for a couple hours and then separate again. You didn't mention how old hour chickens are, if there is a huge difference in age / size, you may want to wait until the littles are bigger / older.

 

[RCRanchGirl]

To go from five chickens to two in one day is a pretty big change. She is definitely stressed out. It sounds like she may be over heating if it's hot where you are if she is open mouth breathing and her wings are out from her side. Where do you live? Ensure they have shade, cool clean water and I would avoid treats right now, just their feed and maybe some scrambled egg. If you have electrolytes, rooster booster / poultry cell, you can offer this to help. It will take a week or two for the remaining chickens to adjust to their loss (they grieve) and the two of them will need to establish their own new pecking order.

You mentioned adding new chicks, I would wait a few weeks to do this until they have resettled into their new structure. For introductions, it is recommended to use the see no touch method where they are in a separate pen from the others where they can see them but not interact for three weeks, then supervised interactions for a couple hours and then separate again. You didn't mention how old hour chickens are, if there is a huge difference in age / size, you may want to wait until the littles are bigger / older.

To go from five chickens to two in one day is a pretty big change. She is definitely stressed out. It sounds like she may be over heating if it's hot where you are if she is open mouth breathing and her wings are out from her side. Where do you live? Ensure they have shade, cool clean water and I would avoid treats right now, just their feed and maybe some scrambled egg. If you have electrolytes, rooster booster / poultry cell, you can offer this to help. It will take a week or two for the remaining chickens to adjust to their loss (they grieve) and the two of them will need to establish their own new pecking order.

You mentioned adding new chicks, I would wait a few weeks to do this until they have resettled into their new structure. For introductions, it is recommended to use the see no touch method where they are in a separate pen from the others where they can see them but not interact for three weeks, then supervised interactions for a couple hours and then separate again. You didn't mention how old hour chickens are, if there is a huge difference in age / size, you may want to wait until the littles are bigger / older.

She was fine until my husband culled the others. I’m in Utah. It’s been 70s-80s. The whole run is shaded. I don’t let them out when there’s not shade in the yard. 5 down to 2 definitely is a change not one we saw coming either.

I figured it introductions will have to be on hold for a while now. The chicks are now about 8-9 weeks old they are about half the size of my older hens. Maybe a bit bigger. They have been in a pen in the coop for a few weeks now they see each other. I was planning on attempting mixing flocks this week but plans sure do change quick sometimes.