Broody 7 months old in November??

[SAHMof2]

I have a few GLW's and one is acting strange. Since its been cold and my flower beds are done I've been letting them free range. One morning I went to let them out to find a hen had been out all night. (I bess do a better head count at night). She roams around distraught and different then the others while groaning and clucking. I followed her out of the pen to see what she was up to and found her nestling and scratching into a burrow she found under some uncut wheat.

I'll go have a look with dh before dark but thought I'd come here.

Can such a young hen be working on a brood?

Also I have 8 of these girls and 6 RSL. All the same age. I get roughly 5 eggs a day. Could it be that the GLW's haven't quiet started their daily constitutional for me?

 

[Judy]

Yup, it's definitely possible your girl has gone broody -- also that some have not started laying yet. I just read about one that started at 30 weeks, and have heard of them (hopefully this is rare) not starting for a year.

 

[jacobkelly15]

sounds stressed or posibly sick?

 

[elmo]

Broody behavior is when a hen starts to set on a nest and incubate eggs (if there are any there). If a hen sits on a nest continuously all day and all night, and puffs up and growls/hisses at you if you disturb her, those are signs that you've got a broody.

What you describe sounds to me like a hen looking for a place to lay an egg.

 

[SAHMof2]

Yes. So I suppose I have't allowed them to get broody because I keep taking them away. Not a good time of year. However a few days later my count at night showed I was missing a hen. The next a.m. (minus 30 with -40 windchill) I went looking for my hencicle. Found blood and feathers and tracks. Something as far as I can tell dragged her out of her nest in the fallen barley. Poor poor girl. darn it though now what ever it was knows where the next meal can be found. Two years and not a daytime preditor around. Now I am too afraid to let them free range.