Poorly chicken

[austele_1]

Right, just need a little bit of help. I have three pekin bantams, two hens (nearly 3) and a cockerel (nearly 1) and they all get along very well. Unfortunately one of my hens has been displaying signs of illness, she's been tucked up and keeps closing her eyes and basically it doesn't look good for her. As harsh as it may seem I need a replacement, but I'm unsure if I just bring in one new hen or two and round about what age bearing in mind the age of the other two?

 

Any advice would be very appreciated, never felt to confused!

[williamspencer98]

Definatley don't just add one, I did that, and woke up the first morning and it'd died!

[austele_1]

Oh blimey, poor thing! Did you have a cockerel as well because I'm not sure how he'd react? Oh this chicken keeping business isn't as easy as it seems. They die to easily...

[Mollie333]

Sorry to hear about that... Not nice when one of the girls' aren't well.

 

Firstly, I'd try and find out why she's not looking good. Have you wormed them recently? Has got any more symptoms? I wouldn't be inclined to introduce more birds just yet, until you have a rough idea, as the others could be carriers..

 

Secondly, if you do decide to introduce more, I would go with two minimum. The cockerel DOES make a difference in the pecking order, so you may find things go a lot more smoothy than they would If you just had hens. That's a good thing about cockerels.

[austele_1]

I wormed them at the start of April I think, so not so long ago. She went broody and has only just snapped out of it on Saturday so I'm kind of hoping it's something relating to her egg production kicking back in. Worried she's egg bound but she isn't straining to get any eggs out. Haven't really been home today but she has been eating and she popped out the hen house quite fast. Oh I don't know what's up with her!