we have an bramha called jeffery (think about it), quite a beautiful bird but unfortunately not liked much by our other 9 pullets. we have 5 gold lines, a silkie, an australorp, a light sussex and a cochin/pekin and all bar the pekin seem to bully her, even the silkie stands up to her. i noticed that her tail feathers have now drooped and it worries me because although we are new to keeping chickens it seems obvious that she is a bit depressed. am i right to worry or will she perk up soon? we got them about a month ago after a friend of my wife couldn't commit the time to look after them. they all are a bit timid and get chased by the goldlines (who we had from 2 week old chicks) but seem ok most of the time, except the pekin but she's a robust little bugger, bless her. is there anything i can do to get her in a better mood or is it normal for the tail feathers to droop like this?
australorps tail feathers
- Thread starter ray von
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chickenfan
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Hello Ray von. Is Jeffery a male or female? Is he or she eating and drinking?
dinosaw
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Drooping feathers can be a sign of illness, normally accompanied by a hunched posture. On the other hand if she is being bullied it could be she has had the feathers pulled. Brahmas are big softies and are prone to being bullied in mixed flocks, all you can do is give her enough space to escape when attacked and give her a check for lice and make sure her crop isn't hard, without more info it's hard to give you more pointers I'm afraid, such as how is she moving, what is her poo like, does she sit down a lot etc.
she is eating fine, i haven't seen any alarmingly coloured poo, and she doesn't sit anymore than the rest of them. when you say her crop, do you mean her comb or wattles? to be honest she seems to be the same as the others but gets into more fights than the rest. i will check for lice in the morning (at work now) and post a photo if i can.
dinosaw
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The crop is where a chicken stores her food prior to digestion it is just below the neck and above the breast, after eating it is like a golf ball sized bulge. In some cases it can become blocked and cause problems, however if the poo is fine and not watery then this is unlikely to be the case, it is just one of those things you check if a chicken looks under the weather. If she is eating ok, poo is normal and she isn't hunched or static then it doesn't sound like you have anything to worry about. Just for info here is a diagram showing where the crop is. https://poultrykeeper.com/digestive-system-problems/ also if you bookmark the poultrykeeper.com site this is from then it is a mine of information you can come back to.
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When you got the new birds, did you immediately worm them with Flubenvet, Ray? They all really need doing every 4-5 months and if the previous owners hadn't got time for them it's highly possible that they all have quite a worm burden, which in itself would possibly account for the Brahma's feeling off colour. When a chicken goes around actually looking depressed she is usually feeling ill as they do hide illness from the others as much as possible because the others will always bully a bird who is showing signs of weakness. Worms are the first thing one thinks of, when a bird has symptoms such as these, though as Dinosaw says, Brahmas are soppy birds who are prone to being relegated to the bottom of a mixed flock of more dominant birds.
well..... my wife said she saw her mount another hen yesterday and i saw it happen again this morning while i was cleaning out their shed. i think he might be a rooster now! haven't wormed them yet so i will be on that this weekend. the last roo we had we had already called harry before we knew he was male, and looks like jeff is a male as well. i think i should stop giving them male names....