Weird, spooked behavior by 2 y/o hen

[Tervuren]

My Bielefelder hen Nettie has been acting very strangely over the last week and has lost over a pound of weight since about August.

She acts like something is chasing her and runs around the run squawking, and then will cower behind the waterer before starting up again. The trigger appears to be my EE Ada, who was a massive bully this summer, but that was fixed with pinless peepers and as far as I can tell she hasn’t started up again and isn’t doing anything that causes Nettie to act terrified.

Nettie was acting so wild this morning I was afraid she’d break her neck running into something so she came inside to chill in a dog kennel. She immediately relaxed and drank lots of water.

I came home at lunch and let Nettie loose in the yard. Totally normal chicken behavior until I let the other two girls out. Nettie legit started trying to break in through my back door. Chill as a cucumber when I let her in. I ushered her back out and freak out! I shooed Ada one way and Nettie and Amelia another, and everything was copacetic.

I looked over Nettie after eating lunch. She’s in the middle of molting and everything looks good there. Healthy looking vent. Feet look good. She had a yellow scab on her chest, but healthy skin underneath when I removed it. She weighs 4lbs 11oz, which is down from just over 6 lbs this summer. I’m going to check the scale with a known weight tonight, but I doubt it’s off that much.

Has anyone seen behavior like this before? Not sure if the weight loss is related or not..

 

[azygous]

How many chickens in your flock? Just the three hens? How large is your run? Can you section off a small space?

No, I have not seen the exact behavior you describe, but I wonder if it may be related to the bullying and this is a version of internalizing the victim role. I do have considerable experience with that, and I can tell you how I treat it. I wrote this article about it. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/chicken-bully-chicken-victim-a-two-sided-issue.73923/

Your hen seems to be suffering from anxiety. Humans aren't the only ones to be afflicted with generalized fear. We know dogs certainly do. So why not chickens? The best place to begin to help your hen is by making her world smaller and more manageable. If you read my article, you'll see that I use a small safe pen withing the run where the patient spends the day time. She will be alone with no one to compete with for food and water and treats. No other chickens to cope with. She will roost at night with the others as usual.

This is a relaxing, safe environment. Read the article as it will help you understand how fear can affect a chicken and how a safe "vacation" from the stress of interacting with the others in the flock can heal the inner chicken. The change can be pretty dramatic.