somebody please help me! my normally perfectly healthy sipan hen developed a tennis ball sized lump on her right breast literally overnight! her only contact is with a shamo rooster. i moved them from a chicken tractor to a new pen about 1/4 acre yesterday when she was fine. does anytone know what this could be? a tumor? PLEASE HELP ME!

Sounds like her crop is FULL, and maybe the exit is plugged. She may have just had such fun in her new pen, she overate on something. Because of the breast bone, an overfull crop will be on one side or the other. It may well be moved through by tomorrow, but if it isn't, someone will have to explain to you several ways to try to empty it (one is to surgically open it--I can't lead you through that one, but it isn't impossible). Watch her and withhold food until tomorrow. CJR

thanks - i will definitely do that. she's roosting right now, but i will put her in a seperate cage tomorrow - NO FOOD!!! - and see what happens. i appreciate your response! i am fairly new at this chicken thing, but i have become attatched to the little critters. interesting about the crop - i have never seen anything like it before!

Alexis, How is your Saipan hen? Did her crop empty okay? CJR

well, kinda. it DID empty that very next day...and then it filled up again the day after that. then emptied the next and filled up the next. today when i got up it was empty, so i threw out some food for them-
a little leftover rice (about 1/2 cup's worth) and a little lettuce. i swear it was only about 30 seconds until the lump was back. should i just NEVER feed her anything except scratch ever again? or do you think it's something other than her crop? like i said, though, it DID empty out the very next day and has been continuing to do so. whatever it is definitely has not affected the little pig's appetite! - nor has appeared to affect any other aspect of her life.

Alexis, I think it may be just her shape. Is she getting free choice crumbles (grow or lay)as her basic food? Rice isn't much nutrition for poultry. And go light on the scratch if you want her to lay. As long as it goes down, she is normal--most chickens go to bed with a full crop. Perhaps, NOT TO WORRY! CJR

i have a 50 gallon drum full of food i mixed containing corn scratch, black oil sunflower seeds, and laying mash. i throw this out every few days. the chickens (all 2 of them) have been eating all of our leftovers, including produce, pasta, and rice (nothing other than those 3 things) which is given to them every 2 or 3 days as well. i have had these 2 chickens for almost a year now and had only kept them in a 'chicken tractor' setup until i moved them to the larger pen - when i posted my first question. i have been feeding them like this since i got them and i had never seen the hen's crop look like that until we moved her. i suppose it is possible that i just hadn't been looking at the right time. she doesn't have any problem laying eggs - she juts never sits on them. i think i may try my hand at building an incubator, but i need to build her a laying box before i get too into it. are you a vet or have you just had a lot of experience with chickens? you are obviously very knowledgable - and very helpful!!