Hen behavior??

[Guest]

I have a hen who was injuried by my now ex-roo, three/four weeks ago. She could barely walk, used her wings to steady herself, could not get on the roost or into the nest box. After five days, she began acting and looking good/normal. She didn\'t lay eggs for several days, then laid several days of soft-shell eggs, then she has been laying 4-5eggs a week since. She seems fine --other than a hint of limp in the mornings when I turn them out of their coop. During the day when I check on them she is active, no problems. She eats well, her vent is the same as all the other hens,  no blood, runny poo, no breathing problems, NOTHING--BUT after she has free ranged for a few hours, she struggles to walk, she walks a few steps and sits down, she goes into the coop, I put her on the roost and the next morning, we start all over again.. On days they are not free ranged, she doesn\'t seem to have trouble.. IS she re-injuring her self? Something broken? Why does she hold her tail down like a duck, and waddle back to the coop?  I am at a loss.. She laid a beautiful, prefect egg today and yesterday. There is no blood on it or poo.

[Mike Gilbert]

Unless she is a very small hen and the rooster was comparatively very large, I doubt the rooster was the direct cause of her problem.   It sounds like she might be  experienceing mild symptoms of Marek\'s disease, and that could have been brought on by the stress of adding the rooster to your flock.   Oftentimes roosters are very aggressive at first, but then settle down after a time.  
She may get better on her own, or she may get worse and die.   In the meantime, just keep her as comfortable and stress free as possible.

[Anne Foley]

In our early chicken days, we had this happen with a hen.  Like Mike suggests, it was a big male and a smaller female.  One leg was damaged and she limped for a long time.  I remember that it took a couple months or even longer to completely heal.  I would not let her perch if possible, but otherwise let time take care of it.  At the risk of sounding like a \"backyarder\", you can add a bit of dairy product to her diet for high quality absorbable calcium.  If she is laying, that suggests to me that it is less likely to be Mareks.  

[Guest]

 Thanks for the replies. He was a large BUff Orpingtion roo. He actually killed another hen, while I was removing her from his path into a smaller cage, he started on this Ameraucana. The first one died that afternoon... I also think he was the cause of two more hens w/ neck injuries who died earlier.  He had the habit of mounting the hens and then grabbing their comb/necks NOT feathers and walking off/down their backs.. they would flip backwards and \'fight\' to get loose...

He is no longer w/us!  

Kept her confined today and  other than a tiny bit of limp, she is ok.. she laid three days in a row.. and she eats, drinks.. She was vacc. for Mareks. I know that\'s not fail proof but she was vacc. ..

[Mike Gilbert]

Wow!   Never have I seen anything like that in my 50 plus years with poultry.   Of course I breed bantams primarily, so that might explain it.   Sounds like you had the Frankenstein of all roosters.  

[Guest]

Well, he wasn\'t a Frankenstein but he wasn\'t a good boy by any means...

Still not sure if it was from an injury or Mareks but I am happy to report she is doing wonderfully! I penned her for several days, with no free range time. She is laying her beautiful eggs on her \'normal\' schedule and her limp is all but gone.. When I let them out to free range , yesterday...She did fine...she wasn\'t limping after 6hrs out and she was fine this morning..  I have also, noticed that many of the hens have started to grow tiny tuffs of feathers on their bald heads.. So, that answered my other question about \"how long or would they regrow their feathers, that he had pulled out\" ..
This is one decision I am so happy I made... Thanks everyone..

[cedarpondfarm]

I\'ve had a few roosters that were aggressive, more often to me than the hens.  Either way, they are much more \"tender\" after a couple hours of stewing.




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