Check Chicken Health

How a Healthy Chicken Looks

A healthy chicken is a happy chicken, that speaks for itself. But how do you know whether you’ve got healthy chickens or not?

Since I am no vet, I won’t bother you with symptoms and disease I know nothing about. What I can tell you, is how a healthy chicken looks and behaves. Here’s a simple check list of things to look at in a healthy chicken.

1. Eyes: If your chicken has ‘bright’ and alert eyes, it’s all looking good. But if she has hazy, foggy eyes or a film over her eyes, go see the vet.
2. Noise: A noisy chicken is a happy chicken. If your hen is a talkative bird it is a good sign. They are social animals and need to cackle a lot.
3. Struggling: A good sign, the chicken still has the power and will to fight back when caught. Usually ,hens do not like being picked up. If they’re docile they are either well tamed, but mostly it is a sign of a weak bird.
4. Check the combs: If your hen has a warm and soft comb it is good. When it is hard/swollen there could be trouble. Although it is no tell-tale sign.
5. Skin color: Normally a healthy chicken should have yellowish skin color. Of course every breed has its specific taint, but generally a yellow color is a good sign. Just push the feathers apart and you’ll see the chicken’s skin.
6. Look in the bird’s beak. This is a bit hard to do. I get pecked a lot  when I try to do this, but the color of the tongue tells a lot about how your chicken is doing. The tongue should have a light pink color.
7. The feet: If the feet are swollen, they probably have some kind of mite or vermin.
8. Droppings: The chicken poop should be a thick, black and white substance. If it’s very watery and/or yellowish there is something wrong.

When you have a sick bird, separate it from the rest of the flock and clean out the pen thoroughly to prevent disease from spreading.

click here for more information on chicken health and diseases.