Depressed Chickens?

[kdelorme2005]

Hi-

I have 2 chickens that seem to be depressed. they are staying in the coop all day. I am not even sure if they leave to get food and water. They are in their nesting boxes. They aren't laying any eggs but sitting in the boxes as if they did. Not sure what I should do. Should I force them out of the box or just leave them be? This has been going on for about a month now.

thanks in advance!

 

[luvourchicks]

HI,
Are they broody? How old are they? My first chicken went broody at about a year old. She was an Australorp. After 4 days of staying in her nest, we figured she was pretty committed to laying eggs. The only problem was we didn't have a rooster, so we had no fertilized eggs. She really did stay in her box all day, and only got up maybe once a day to poop and get back in the box. We got some from a neighbor, threw 8 eggs under her, and 20 days later 3 hatched.
If this has been going on for 20 days, though, with no eggs, you probably need to break their broodiness. There are threads to read about how to do that.

 

[kdelorme2005]

Not sure if they are broody or not. Both girls are 2, one is a Buff Brahma and the other a RI red. It started w. the Buff and now recently the RI red is now not leaving the box. I am not thinking they are broody, but not sure what to do. We had a rooster but we have to get rid of him after multiple attacks on us and our dogs.

Should I find someone who has fertilized eggs? or just force them out of the box?

 

[luvourchicks]

are they sitting on any eggs at all? Since you had a rooster, they may be sitting on fertilized eggs, even one or two.
You can "candle" them at night- take one out at a time, using a bright light (or cell phone light) in the dark of the coop, you should be able to see if there is life inside each one. Quickly put each one back under her if they have something dark and growing inside. It will almost be see-through if not. Throw those out. If they have been sitting for 20 days or more, you should have chicks by now. Otherwise, you should probably break their broodiness this time since they have gone so long without food and to no avail. Again, read up on how to break broodiness. I haven't had to do it- I was able to catch mine sitting there for only 4 days straight so we put the eggs under her right away.

Broodiness can be a wonderful thing. Folks have actually prevented chickens from sitting and hatching for so long that that many chickens don't do it anymore. But we sure loved our experiment, and decided if she was willing to sit there and be committed that she deserved to see it through. She was a wonderful adoptive mama, very protective, and we never needed to separate the chicks because she was so vigilant.