The gray has been acting strange lately. By strange I mean she’s spending a lot of time under the bird feeder by herself. It’s unusual for the hens not to stay together. Gray hen seems to be staying close to home, while the other two hens are pecking around the barn yard and in the front of the house.
Unusual behavior is the first sign that an animal may not be healthy. When a sheep wanders away from the flock or a hen changes her behavior, I start to pay close attention to them.
We’ll see what happens to the gray hen. One of the reasons we didn’t name the chickens is because I didn’t want to get too attached to them. Chickens die easily from illness and predators.
I’ve learned it’s better to put a suffering hen out of her misery rather than try to nurse them. I’ve never had a sick hen live long, no matter what I do for her.
So I’ll just keep a close eye on the gray hen. Maybe it’s just Spring Fever.
Maybe she is broody???? I don’t know about chickens…we didn’t keep them cause my brother was allergic to feathers. I hope she recovers.
She might be Rose, but there aren’t any eggs for her sit on.
HI Maria, have you checked her feet? I noticed on the video you posted on April 14th she was slower than the others to respond to your throwing down some treats and when she did run over was limping. I spotted it as 2 of our 4 chickens have had Bumblefoot which caused them to limp in a similar way, and sometimes seem reluctant to walk far, as the foot must be painful – they would also lift it up and peck at the base of their feet too, which is how I first noticed the black scab indicating bumblefoot.
We ended up doing the leg soaking in epsom salts, and cutting out the bad stuff, bandaging their feet, and keeping them confined for a week so the bandages would stay dry. Here’s a link explaining what it looks like
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2011/07/bumblefoot-causes-treatment-warning.html
I saw her limp too Hannah. I’ll check it out.
My mom has tried to nurse to health at least a half dozen of her hens. They always die no matter how much care, comfort and medicine she gives them. Now. After this last chicken, she doesn’t want to keep them anymore.
It looks like Grey Hen has a beautiful space to be at peace under near the tree. I wonder if chickens meditate in their own way, go deeper within when they are not feeling well or ready to leave us.