Hen Anatomy

Healthy chickens...

• When fully grown the chicken should sport a nice firm comb
• The comb will be bright red when the chicken is in lay.
• The eyes should be beady and bright.
• A healthy chicken will be perky, lean and active.
• Scales on the legs and feet should be smooth and not lifting.
• The colour of the legs is a good indicator of whether the chicken is laying. If they are very yellow then she is probably not laying eggs yet. If they are pale almost white then she probably is, similar to the photo.
• When you pick your chicken up her body should be plump and firm, but with no flabbyness.
• You can examine your chickens eyes and nose to check there are no discharges.
• The vent (the chickens all-purpose exit point) should be moist and white, with no lumps, crustiness, bleeding etc.

Help my chicken is ill!

I recommend these books...

The three best resources I have found for chicken ailments are...
Factors affecting egg production in backyard flocks (from Uni of Florida)
http://www.surrey.ac.uk/~cus1fb/fowl/Ailments.html

Egg Production

Chickens have one exit hole for urine and poops, called the "vent". They do not have a bladder because their urine is not a fluid. It's teh white bit of their poo and is called "urates". The cloaca is where the intestine, ureters and oviduct come together into a common chamber. This is obviously pretty dirty, although eggs come out clean whebn laid.

The hen turns part of the cloaca and the last segment of the oviduct inside out, "like a glove." The egg emerges far outside, at the end of the bulge and so doesn't go anywhere near the "pooey" bit (cloacca). The emerging egg keep the bowels shut, so it the egg can't get contaminated. That is why eggs are always clean when they are laid. They get dirty because the hen stomps around and makes a mess, before you get there!

Egg Bound

A hen is "egg bound" when she fails to lay her egg. This is a common condition, and may result from inflammation of the oviduct, a malformed or double yolker egg, or a too large egg in a young pullet.
Some of the symptoms are...

• The bird seems very restless
• She will drink little and eat little
• She will tend to stand all hunched up
• She visits the nest regularly in an attempt to lay her egg
• Her oviduct may end up protrude due to excessive pushing by her to eject the egg; internal haemorrhage or exhaustion may occur and the fowl may die
• She may smell badly
• Her vent will look quite red and protrude
• She may have faecal matter that has built up behind the egg, if you see white liquid that will be her urates trying to pass.

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