Today I noticed one of the chickens digging herself quite a hole for a dust bath. Even after I let the others out of the pen to wander around, she stayed in fluffing dust all over and then just sitting. She didn't seem keen on leaving it, though she did stand up for a bit when I came in to see her. Then she sat right back down.
I left and came back awhile later and the others had gone in due to rain; she was still sitting in that hole making a high pitched chirp, but she stopped when she saw me coming. I went in again and she got up but she was walking strange, with her hind end kind of dropped. I half expected an egg to pop out where she stood, the way she was waddling around. She laid down further under the coup where it's drier, and she couldn't seem to sit comfortably.
I went in to look this behavior up, didn't quite find anything. I went out again and she was walking perfectly normal and seemed as anxious to come back out as the rest of the girls.
Is this behaviour preperation for egg laying or was she in pain or what?
I left and came back awhile later and the others had gone in due to rain; she was still sitting in that hole making a high pitched chirp, but she stopped when she saw me coming. I went in again and she got up but she was walking strange, with her hind end kind of dropped. I half expected an egg to pop out where she stood, the way she was waddling around. She laid down further under the coup where it's drier, and she couldn't seem to sit comfortably.
I went in to look this behavior up, didn't quite find anything. I went out again and she was walking perfectly normal and seemed as anxious to come back out as the rest of the girls.
Is this behaviour preperation for egg laying or was she in pain or what?