Tail down on hen

[President Bartlet]

We have four bantams: a Wynadotte (queen of the roost), an Orpington and two Australorpes. All the chooks seem fine- pootling about, drinking and eating well, plus no bugs in coop/on hens, but for a while now one of the Aussies has been holding her tail kinda flat rather than up, she seems fine otherwise (except she's bottom of the pecking order). So question is- is she ok or is something up? I'd always undrerstood 'tail down' to be a bad sign- what do people think? All advice greatly appreciated.

[Millymollymandy]

Difficult one I think - is she otherwise acting as normal? Usually there would be other signs like listlessness and not interested in food and standing around which would go with a tail down if there was something really wrong. But I've had hens do that for a day or two then recover and get back to normal just as I was thinking they were at death's door. If she's standing around a bit looking puffed out with tail down she might be feeling the cold - I noticed that with one of my older hens at the start of winter one year but she was an older hen and she didn't last much longer after that, just died of old age. Normally they don't show signs of feeling cold cos if they are healthy I don't think that they do feel it!

Hopefully others will come along and give you some advice, I can only say what I've come across in my pretty limited experience. Hope she is/will be OK.

[daddymatty82]

could it be to do with a moult?