There is something quietly reassuring about a few hens working over the lawn while a robin watches from the fence. That daily rhythm, though, is exactly what makes trouble easy to miss. Hens are prey animals, and an unwell hen will often act normal until she simply cannot keep it up. Reading the early signals — a dip in appetite, a droop in the tail, a change in droppings — is the most useful skill a back garden keeper can develop.

Make The Daily Once-Over A Habit

Five minutes twice a day tells you more than a weekly inspection. The best times are first thing, when you unbolt the pop hole, and at roost, when the birds are settled and easy to handle. Work through the same checks each time.

• Crop: full and soft at bedtime, flat and empty by morning. A crop still full at dawn, or doughy and sour-smelling, needs attention.
• Comb and wattles: bright red and plump. A pale, dry or shrivelled comb, or one with a bluish tinge, is a genuine red flag.
• Eyes and nostrils: clear and dry. Bubbles, discharge or a swollen face are not things to wait on.
• Vent: clean, moist and pink. Pasted feathers suggest diarrhoea or an egg problem.
• Breast and keel: run a hand along the breastbone. A sharp, prominent keel means she has been losing weight for a while.
• Legs and feet: smooth, flat scales. Crusty, raised scales are scaly leg mite.

Check perch ends and coop crevices with a torch as well. Red mite emerge at night and drain a hen quietly over weeks, so grey dust on your fingers is worth acting on at once.

Appetite And Drinking

A hen who greets the feed bowl with enthusiasm usually has nothing much wrong. Watch for the bird who hangs back, picks at the edges or leaves the best bits. Hens will happily fill up on treats while ignoring their pellets, so check what is left in the feeder at the end of the day — rising leftovers are one of the earliest signs you will get.

Water matters even more. A hen who stops drinking can go downhill within hours, especially in summer. Check drinker levels at the same time daily, and notice birds crowding the drinker or standing with their beaks open. Panting on a hot afternoon is normal; panting on a cool morning, or a hen sitting fluffed up beside the drinker, is not.

Behaviour And Bearing

Healthy hens are nosy, forward and busy. Illness usually looks like withdrawal from the flock.

• Posture: a drooping tail, hunched shoulders, or a penguin-like upright stance can all point to abdominal discomfort.
• Mobility: limping, reluctance to hop onto the perch, or an unsteady walk.
• Feathers: fluffed up and held away from the body in mild weather often means pain or fever.
• Laying: a sudden stop, soft shells, or oddly shaped eggs with rough, chalky patches.

Keep a small notebook of dates, eggs and anything odd. Patterns emerge over weeks that are invisible day to day.

Reading The Droppings

Normal droppings are brown and firm with a white cap of urates. Hens also pass caecal droppings several times a day: loose, dark and frankly smelly. That is perfectly normal. It is the loose, off-colour dropping that keeps coming which matters.

• Watery and green: often heat, stress or a change of diet — but if it persists beyond a day or two, investigate.
• Blood or mucus: never normal in any bird. Act quickly.
• Pale and chalky: can suggest kidney or reproductive trouble.
• Yellow and frothy: worth a vet's opinion, particularly alongside a swollen abdomen.

If something looks wrong, photograph it on a sheet of paper. It helps enormously if you end up speaking to a vet.

Breathing, Heads And The Wild Bird Connection

The odd sneeze in dusty bedding is common enough, but bubbling eyes, a runny nose, a swollen face, or any wheeze, gurgle or clicking sound means a respiratory infection. A hen breathing with her beak open at rest, or stretching her neck forward to breathe, needs prompt attention. Listen at roost: these noises are far easier to hear when the birds are quiet and close to you.

Your garden birds are part of the picture. Wild birds can carry infections that pass to poultry, so keep feeders and bird baths well away from the hen run, do not let hens scratch beneath them, and clean feeders regularly. If the finches at your feeder look dull, fluffed up and unusually tame, take extra care and keep footwear clean between the two areas. Keepers in Great Britain must now register their flock whatever its size, which also means you will receive official disease alerts.

When To Act, And How

Act the same day for a purple or very pale comb, open-mouthed breathing at rest, blood in the droppings, a hen who cannot stand, or a bird who has stopped eating and drinking altogether.

For anything vaguer, move her to a quiet, dimly lit crate with food and water close by, somewhere she can still hear the flock — hens are social, and a lonely hen will often make herself worse. Check her crop morning and evening, and tempt her with wet mash or a little scrambled egg. If there is no improvement within 24 hours, or she deteriorates, ring your vet. Find a poultry-friendly practice before you need one.

Above all, trust your instincts. You know your hens better than anyone, and if something feels off, it usually is.