Advice please - unusual pullet behaviour

[aart]

Yes gathering viable eggs could be an issue....but is your nest heater not keeping eggs from freezing?

And tho I've let a broody hatch in frigid weather, successfully, I wouldn't advise it.
Your under roost wall might have been put up just in time, eh?
Would be a great place to put a floor nest for her to incubate.

But think ahead about how to break her if she is broody.
You've probably seen this but I will post it again.
If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, best to break her broodiness promptly.

My experience goes about like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest (or as soon as I know they are broody), I put her in a wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop or run with feed and water.

I used to let them out a couple times a day, but now just once a day in the evening(you don't have to) and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two. Or take her out of crate daily very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate.

Chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken.

 

[Jedstar]

The behaviour started yesterday and she remained in the nest box overnight. She left the box this morning, went up onto the roost then to the food dispensers. Sister was only in for 5 minutes so will have to track her activities in the next days.

We do know that some eggs have "blastodiscs" so have been fertilized (Susan made hollandaise yesterday so separated yokes from whites and examined with a magnifying glass).

As to "managing" it we are quite prepared to hatch out more chicks and would prefer a natural process. We are concerned about our weather as we still get days of -20C or lower and worry about eggs freezing.

Much appreciate the comments on things to watch for as we had no idea.

 

[Ted Brown]

Yes gathering viable eggs could be an issue....but is your nest heater not keeping eggs from freezing?

And tho I've let a broody hatch in frigid weather, successfully, I wouldn't advise it.
Your under roost wall might have been put up just in time, eh?
Would be a great place to put a floor nest for her to incubate.


But think ahead about how to break her if she is broody.

The only time we have had eggs freeze is when they were left on the drop board or on top of the nest box. Those laid in the back corner floor never froze even in -20C weather. Inside the new nest boxes is warmer because of the heater but that outputs 21 watts so marginal.

The brooder wall is a patch job at the moment; I raised the drop boards by 12+inches and had to cover those openings up. Access is marginal but you are correct that it would make a good incubation area.

I will have to look at the forecasts and see what is ahead. March can be very nice or bloody awful. Both sister and I are excited at the prospect of a broody bird as we did not think an ISA would do so. However, the excitement is initial and probably a bit of self gloat that our overall bird keeping experience continues well. More practical considerations need to take priority.

 

[Ted Brown]

Update:

We have watched carefully including going out well after the birds have gone to roost. The pullet that stayed in the nest overnight then skipped two nights then slept in a different nest last night.

We have also noted a change in roosting habits. Until the past week our two groups have stayed together: ISAs on the left using both the front (3) and back (4) roost bars; Ameraucana mixes to the right of the ISAs again on both bars but with more variable distribution sometimes all strung out on the back bar sometime clustered on two bars.

The two groups have begun to mix together with 1 or 2 ISAs joining the Ameraucanas and next to one of the cockerels ( do not want to disturb them so do not know which of the 4 cockerels they are favouring or which of the pullets are relocating). Also, tonight when I went out I heard a repetitive soft cooing (?) from one of the pullets; have not heard this before.

 

[Ted Brown]

Update:

Our "may be" broody pullet continues her unusual behaviours but as yet no absolute consistency.

She has spent the night in the nest box twice and mixes in sleeping on the roosts on the alternating nights. She has also been active during the day.

Today she appears to be remaining in place but first she went under the drop board in a back corner and now has moved back into one of the nest boxes; total of three separate locations so far, today the first time that we have seen her remain in place during the day. I also noticed today that she will close her eyes (one?) for a bit then open them [repeat, repeat].

Normal behaviours for a pullet going broody?

 

[aart]

Hmmm...hard to say, she may be feeling broody, or picked on, or ill.
She might be trying to pass a softie, they can act kinda weird when they do that.
Might want to give her a good going over.

 

[Ted Brown]

@aart

We are still learning... Can you provide a link to a basic list of things to check for?

[PS Susan took the link you listed on how to determine who is laying, read it and watched the embedded Youtube then went out and figured out who of our youngsters was laying and getting close.]

 

[aart]

Well, I've got these notes in two different areas, not real succinct:

I isolate bird in a wire cage within the coop for a day or two....so I can closely monitor their intake of food and water, crop function(checking at night and in morning before providing more feed), and their poops. Feel their abdomen, from below vent to between legs, for squishy or hard swelling. Check for external parasites or any other abnormalities.


Have you checked them over real well for mites and/or lice?

Google images of lice/mites and their eggs before the inspection so you'll know what you're looking for.

Part the feathers right down to the skin around vent, head/neck and under wings.

Best done well after dark with a strong flashlight/headlight, easier to 'catch' bird and also to check for the mites that live in structure and only come out at night to feed off roosting birds.

Wipe a white paper towel along the underside of roost to look for red smears(smashed well fed mites).

Good post about mite ID by Lady McCamley:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/my-chicken-has-mites-now-what.1273674/page-2#post-20483008

 

[Ted Brown]

Today our temperatures are +7C and sister/BIL took the opportunity to closely examine Simone (our maybe broody ISA pullet, ~10 months old) and all of the other females for mites/lice and other abnormalities.

Sister did watch the videos that @aart linked above before she did the examinations; commented that they were excellent informative so she felt comfortable with what to look for. There is no sign of mites/lice that she could tell, will do another examination probably tomorrow. Tonight we will do the paper towel swipe under roost test as a double check.

On Simone she did find an raw red patch of broken skin in two locations totaling a "circle" perhaps 1/4" in size near the vent. No sign of tears or oozing blood etc. She has applied polysporin and will continue to do so daily for the next bit.

Simone is not behaving as described above for a broody hen. She does stay in a nest overnight on occasion but also roosts with the other birds on the other nights. She also roams during he day and also eats/drinks normally with the others. We see no signs of exclusion or dominance amongst any of the birds, Simone is one of our more assertive, we have seen her pull feathers out of another pullet.

 

[Naser]

Isa Browns are known to have this bad habit, they sleep in the nesting boxes and lay eggs outside, that is why I don't keep them. But any moulting hen tends to sleep in the nesting box.