[Casey76]

My two original ISA browns are starting to worry me.

Onion has been very quiet over the past few days, and I often find her on the wrong side of the fence roosting quietly on the scrap wood.

This morning both of them didn't come immediately out of the coop, and usually they are first out as they are joint top-hens.

They are both moulting at the moment and are looking a bit tatty, though no overall featherloss right now.

They have no visible nasties, and the coop is also free of nasties (apart from the odd spider... which *I* consider to be a nasty lol)

Onion feels very thin, compared to how she felt before; also I noticed on Monday her comb looked a little oedematous.

Other than that, they are bright eyed, no signs of sniffles and they were wormed with a long acting wormer in April this year (it's a once a year wormer)

Oh! they have ad lib access to layers pellets and fresh water during the day; they "free range" with my other 9 other chickens in a pen of approximately 140sqm.  I'm a meanie when it comes to treats, so the last treat they had was a honeydew melon on Saturday - but the ground is covered with windfall apples at the moment, though I don't know if the chickens actually bother eating them (they are falling faster than I can pick them up at the minute).

Of my 8 hens/pullets of laying age I am currently getting about 4 eggs a day, but as they all lay the same coloured egg approximately I don't know who is laying and who is not.

I'm just wondering if they are feeling miserable due to the moult, or if this is the decline as they will be approximately 2 years old.

[bantam novice]

Sorry to hear that your chooks are a bit down.  .  I know that mine look rather sorry for themselves while they are moulting and I wouldn't say that two years is old for a chicken, particularly free range.  There are some good people here that can give you more experienced advice; however I would say just keep an eye on them.  Good Luck!

[Jeanette]

Moulting does upset chickens, i would think that was the reason.
It is horrible when you know they are not right and you can't work out why so i would keep an eye on them. I hope they are back to normal very soon.

[8doubles]

If you are passing a pet shop get `em a tub of live mealworms and see if that livens them up a bit. The extra protein will do them good.

Had to google odematous. .......learning all the time!