Shakey, Quivering 5 week old chicken

[Manhen]

I have 27 5 week old chickens. Some have shaken or "rattled" their tails etc., but we have one, a buff orpington I think, that shakes and quivers. She likes the lamp and is nervous regardless. Any thoughts?

 

[Eggcessive]

Poultry NutriDrench or Poultry Cell is good to use as a boost when you are having a weak chick. Give a couple of drops daily plus water. Is it eating and drinking? How does the poop look? There is AE or avian encephalomyelitis virus that can cause quivering and tremors, but it is more likely something else.

 

[Manhen]

Update on Pickadilly, what I have named this shakey pullet. She is smaller than the other Buff Orpington that we have (named Marco Pollo), but the other, bigger one thinks she is a rooster. She seems terrified, if I pet her on the roost it takes awhile for her to stop quivering. She, with 27 birds that all seem to get on the top three roosts, always seems on the outside or bottom rung, and never on the top. Still she is alive at 10 weeks.

 

[Eggcessive]

Glad to hear that she is still alive. Does she eat and drink normally? Can you give her a little snack of some cooked egg or tuna, and add a little crushed vitamin B complex to give her a boost? 1/4 tablet daily is plenty, and any brand is good.

 

[Manhen]

Glad to hear that she is still alive. Does she eat and drink normally? Can you give her a little snack of some cooked egg or tuna, and add a little crushed vitamin B complex to give her a boost? 1/4 tablet daily is plenty, and any brand is good.
View attachment 1898195

Great advice! and economical. She now allows me to touch her in the yard, but the quivering continues. Perhaps abated a little. She stays on the roost till all the other 26 have left the coop.

So that group we (me and the chickspouse) call the "alphas", the second group "betas" and the last group the "gammas". Each group has a close-offable section in the coop, and the alphas have access to the yard through the lenai. Picadilly is the only one with troubles, and we have only lost 2 of the birds, from the betas 3 days after we got them, and from the gammas, the second died after one day. Pretty good record no?

Also have cut about 4 acres of overgrown hay (this week, whew) that was near the barn/coop to allow predator spotting and free range foraging.

 

[Manhen]

By the way. The quivering has abated

 

[Eggcessive]

Glad to hear that, and thanks for the update.

 

[Manhen]

AND she makes a matched pair of Buff Orpingtons. Maybe some more then... Can you mate just one hen if you distract the rooster's excessive attentions with other hens that you don't intend to hatch their eggs?