All of a sudden she devils! What's up with weird attitudes????

[karri25]

THndrdncr has a post that's similar to this but I didn't want to steal her thread and have been wondering about this she devil. My she devil hen not Thndrdncr
So....I have a hen who is all of a sudden being a little witch!!!!! SHe is trying to peck everything and she bowed up on me this morning like a roo!!! SHe had her neck feathers all puffed up and her head down and was about to come at me until I chased her off. When I came back to my senses I tried to go get her so that I could carry her around for a while but she just kept running away and my real roo was getting upset. I couldn't watch my back and front at the same time so I gave up. Is it normal for full grown hens to turn mean all of a sudden? I have noticed an all around increase in attitude amongst my girls this past week. Is it their age or could it be b/c I have started adding vitamins to get rid of their colds???? Would the increase in nutrients cause high emotions like in horses????

 

[Farmer Kitty]

I don't know about the vitamins but, here due to the weather ours have been cooped up more and are getting restless and attitudes! Could this be a problem for your girls? I'm not sure on what kind of weather your having.

Good luck!

 

[ksacres]

They can cop an attitude when they are getting ready to lay. When you say your birds have colds, what exactly do you mean? Chickens generally don't get colds in the way that humans do, if you have a pussy discharge, you need some serious medication. You could have coryza or a variety of other things.

 

[karri25]

WE were having very cold weather for the area but since this past weekend it's more like early spring. I don't ever leave my chickens cooped up unless it's raining cats and dogs. I open the doors at 8 am at the latest and shut them when they put themselves to bed. Maybe the weather though??? Do you think being really cold would make them witchy??? And thanks for answering my post, I am really wondering what's up with them????

 

[karri25]

Quote:
I have heard a few of them sneeze. There is no discharge and I only heard one sound congested for 2 days. The congestion is gone BTW. I have been adding garlic and vitamins to their water. I read a few threads on here that say that they get sneezy sometimes and I'm hoping it's just because the weather has been so cold and I added De recently to their coop/run so it was dusty. Do you think I should be more worried????


What do you mean they get like that when they are about to lay? Do you mean like right before they lay an egg or do you mean at the beginning of their egg laying cycle? Mine have been laying continually. I have never had anyone act like this before so I'm stumped. Maybe she was about to lay?

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Quote:
Here we were a few days ago experiencing air temps below zero so a lot of us keep them in their coops to keep them warm. I know your weather is more moderate but, also know you can get extremes too. Even though you open the doors are they going out? Or are they not liking the weather and keeping themselves in when the weather is nastier?

I believe ksacres means when pullets are getting ready to start laying they can get an attitude.

 

[ksacres]

Yes, I have had girls that have absolutely no intention of being broody, but watch out when it's time to lay an egg. But the girls that were like this, were always like this.

Just double checking what you meant by a cold. I had visions of ucky dancing in my head.

 

[HenHaven]

If they are normally sweet, I would suspect broodiness. The puffed up look and a bad attitude around here would spell "broody". What breed(s) do you have? Some are just more prone to being broody than others. Are any making that deep "Cluck, Cluck, Cluck" noise?

That's the only help I can offer. Hope you figger it out!

 

[karri25]

It has been colder but they only go in the coop when it's raining heavily. So no they haven't been in there hanging out.

The ones in question are sex links and have never acted broody. When she devil attacked me I was squatting in the middle of the pen watching them. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary except pick up a banty roo. That's when she came at me. I didn't think about it but do you think she was attacking the banty roo instead of me???
Even if that's the case I still don't know why all of my normally sweet girls are starting to be more aggressive wit heach other and the banties.

 

[ksacres]

Maybe it was her boyfriend, and since he's small, she thought he needed protecting...

But really, that is a thought about her trying to attack him instead of you. I have had chickens that will try anything to gain rank, including taking advantage of a chicken that's being held down.