Broody, egg bound or poorly?! Help!

[Monsweet]

Hope some one can help!

I have a 29 week white star, she's one of four older birds along with 4 9 weeks olds in a seperate area.

Since yesterday, she will not voluntary come out of her nest box! This morning I went to check on her and she was sitting on a soft egg. So I removed it and I went to work, at lunch time I come home to find her sitting on 2 eggs which weren't hers, but they all share the same box. I picked her up and bought her out, she didn't do much, very quiet and just stayed on one spot for about half an hour before she went back to the nest.
A couple of hours later I went back again and repeated it all and she went back her box again. Her feathers look fluffed up on top above her bottom.

Iv just been out now and got her out, put some food by her with water, she didn't eat but drank a little, did a poo (white and black, quite slimey) and she's gone back the nest box!

What's wrong with my girl?

 

[GitaBooks]

Here are the symptoms of most broodies: Staying on the neck, fluffing up and "growling" when you approach them, returning to the same nest over and over, only getting up to eat and drink and use the bathroom once a day for a few minutes, pale comb (since they aren't laying), and a bare patch on their belly (the broody patch).

Egg bound: Straining, liquid coming from the vent, trouble walking, fluffed feathers, sitting in a nest box for a long amount of time. You can feel the egg in the vent.


I hope this helps!

 

[Monsweet]

Ok, well he vent seems to be pulsating a bit, she seems fine walking and couldn't feel an egg but since this is the first time we've ever experienced this, maybe we need to check again!
Her poo's seems slimey and quite big at times and when we bring her out her wings are dropped and she just looks pee'd off and miserable, doesn't come running to us like she normally does, even when we took them their daily treat she stayed well away

It's dark here now and the rest of the hens have gone to bed and joined her. So will have to sort her out when i finish work at lunch time tomorrow.

Her soft egg looked odd this morning, as if it had a tail!

 

[GitaBooks]

Broody hens warn roosters they are not ready to be bred (I'm assuming even if there aren't roosters around) by holding their wings down, fluffing up their feathers, and making a funny sound like they are calling to chicks.
Also, broody hens have very special, very huge, very smelly broody poops!

 

[Owlgirl7]

Sounds like she's broody. Sometimes I will have to remove my bantam and standard hens from the nest boxes because they will spend most of their time in the nest box. Some of the signs are her constantly staying in the nest box, sitting on eggs for a long period of time, growling when you or another chicken gets too close, hunched and irritated posture when taken out of the nest, and pecking your hand or other belligerent measures to get you to leave.

If you don't want her to be broody, I suggest that you take her out of the box and close that particular nest box for a day or two. Distract her by feeding her a little grain and keep her from the nest box. She'll most likely snap out of it! This has what has always happened in my experience anyway.

 

[Monsweet]

Ah well hoping she's just broody, I just got her off the perch (not nesting) and had a look at her belly....along the middle up to her tummy seems a little bare, like a line of no feathers....which is all crusty with the soft egg that spilt this morning that she was sitting on. I couldn't feel anything hard around her vent, just seems spongy!
She does seem all skin and bone though but I'm not sure how chickens normally feel!
Her chest is super spongy too! She was demolishing all her food up until yesterday too! Can the heat turn a hen broody? I'm not sure where you live but we're in the middle of a heatwave here, hottest day today in 9 years! The heat has been unbareable and Iv noticed all the chickens have been suffering too! So I bought them a gazebo and paddling pool yesterday.
There was a Cockeral chick, well 9 weeks old that went to his new home yesterday.

 

[Owlgirl7]

Hmm... I'm not sure if there's a coordination between broodiness and heat. But that's an interesting thought! If you discover anything please let us know. As for the heat, it is a stressful time for them. So it might make them display certain behaviors that are unusually for them. You might want to consider that you're looking at heat stress too.

For heat, I always supply them with fresh water every few hours, feed them fresh watermelon and/or sweet corn, let the hose in their cage or as a sprinkler. My chickens hate getting wet but it does make them temporarily cooler and their panting diminishes. Chickens of course can't sweat so they shed heat through their feet, wattles, comb, and panting. If you spray those areas down than you can help cool the birds.

Hope this is beneficial!

Stay Cool!

 

[Monsweet]

Yes I will keep you posted! Just hope she's ok! I gave them all watermelon today and put frozen bottles of water around the garden hoping that the chickens will use them to keep cool! But Betty our white star wasn't interested in either.
All the other chickens seem fine apart from runny water poo....but Iv read that's due to heat and a way of cooling down!
The weather is due to be cooler tomorrow so will see if she's behaving any different!

 

[Monsweet]

Update!!

Unlike yesterday morning Betty (white star) came out of the coop with the others this morning, her feathers are no longer fluffed and her wings aren't dropped!
She's drank and ate loads and hasnt gone back to nest! She even came to great me!

So maybe after all this it could have been heat stress!

 

[GitaBooks]

I'm glad she's doing better!