One of my chickens has gone all - erm - puffy

[EnnisDelMar]

She's the littlest and started laying about 3 weeks ago, but hasn't for a couple of days.

It's very cold - I wonder if she is juts puffing out her feathers. But I went to feed them before locking them up, and she was already roosting, maybe she was just in first? I'm not sure. But she looked kind of like a big ball on legs, instead of her usual skinny self.

I wondered about egg binding so picked her up to much indignation, and had a feel - couldn't feel anything - but then I'm not sure what I'm looking for.

The others all had some food but she stood on one leg and watched them.

I hope she is Ok. Any thoughts? At least she wasn't passive about being touched - that's a really bad sign ime.

I would say that she's broody. Mine puff out their feathers and object strenously to being picked up. That's probably the reason she was in the house too and is no longer laying.

She's probably just cold, mine really puff out their feathers in this weather. I've personally never had a chicken go broody over winter before.

Oh, one of my finches was like this last week, sadly he has gone on to the great aviary in the sky. Although I'm not really sure you can scale the problem up! I know small birds puff up when they are unwell, mind you it's brassic at the moment and they puff up to keep warm as well....

Maybe I'm just lucky - I have 4 broody at the moment!

Oh dear - mixed response!! Maybe she is broody, though I'm not sure if she's too little?

Hopefully I'll check this morning and she won't be dead as a doornail...

I am not an expert, we've only been keeping them since April.

Thanks for your help guys!

She's still looking puffy, and is sitting still in a little mudbath away from the others (not actually bathing iyswim but she's made a little dip to sit in)

I walked towards the run and she got up quickly and ran away like the others - so at least she's still cross!

I do suspect she's broody, not entirely sure what to do about it though. She was eating and drinking a bit earlier.

Should I just leave her alone unless they pick on her? I have a spare ark, it needs fixing though so would rather leave her in the shed/run with the others if possible.