[Honey]

Hi, please help!!
We got our first chickens on Friday afternoon, five brown hens about 18-19 weeks old, we have put coloured leg rings on them so we can identify each one.  Whilst watching them yesterday in their run , Saffi (Blue band) was sick on the floor. It just looked like water with pellets in it, after that she was fine even pecking the pellets back up again along with the other hens. 10 or so minutes later Redd did the same thing. Ive picked them up and felt their crops which felt soft and squishy, they were both bigger crops than the other hens had, but both hens are bigger in size than the others all be it only slightly. Also I felt under their wings which felt warmish no warmer than any of the others anyway.

They were being fed layers mash but we couldnt get that just pellets so that is what they were eating yesterday for the first time. They had also been given some sweetcorn, spinich leaf and runner beans from our garden, along with some small snails which they had found in the run. We'd been in a little while before handling them all, which they are all fine with.
Is this natural behaviour or could they be sick? They dont act at all sick, Saffi/Blue even laid her first egg yesterday morning, Ginge (Yellow band) laid THE first egg yesterday morning and today we have had another from one over night.

Could it just be settling in to their new house, new food form? Should we try mashing the pellets up until we can get layers mash?
Could it be because they had been handled before hand?

Any advice would be much appreciated as like I said this is completely new to me.

I would just like to say this site is fantastic and has already been a great help in preparing me for the arrival of the girls, I can tell it will be a continued first point of any help and advice I need. Thankyou!

[compostqueen]

they will have been fed probably on layers mash only.  Layers pellets will be just fine for them and they'll soon get used to them.  Ease up on all the other stuff and just give them the layers pellets.  If they keep being sick there is something wrong.  If they look well enough they probably are. Make sure they have access to fresh, clean water at all times to keep them well supplied.

Once you're happy that they're quite well you can introduce other foods but not too much at once, or the run ends up very messy 

[hillfooter]

I've seen my hens do this and it's usually after drinking a lot of water particularly if the weather's very hot and they may have over drunk.   I don't think it's anything to worry about if there are no other symptoms I wouldn't think there's anything wrong.
I'd stick with the pellers if they are eating them then all's well and you want to get them off mash which is more trouble for small numbers of hens.

Regards