Can anyone help me. I bought 5 copper black maran pullets about a month ago at about 15 weeks old. They settled in really well and found a place within the pecking order with my other hens. All eating fine, roosting at night and looking healthy. On Friday I found one of them dead, thought nothing of it other than bad luck. On Saturday morning another looked ill, her wings had gone limp and she found it hard balancing, very hunched up. We culled her and interestingly when my partner did the deed she didn't flap after at all. The other 3 were looking fine both on Saturday and yesterday. This morning 1 is looking like she's going down the same route, limp wings so I expect I will need to cull her before tonight. Another is walking round with her wings not tucked up as high as they would normally. The last one at the moment is looking ok.
The rest of my hens and cockerels are absolutely fine and (apart from the mud thanks to the rain these past few days) are happy and healthy. They are all over year hens and the roosters are 2/3 yrs old.
Could this be mareks? I have done nothing different with these pullets than any of my other hens. They were healthy and happy for 4 weeks and now I doubt I"ll have any left by the weekend if they carry on at this rate
If I was to cull any more is it worth us opening one up and seeing what's going on inside?