Broody Pullet?

[austinclarksf]

Hey everyone,

There appears to be something abnormal with my 7-8 month old wyandotte/gamebird. She has not started laying yet, as far as I can tell. I've had her for two-three months. She's been quite the fiesty bird, won't let me near her, but is high up on the pecking order even though she's 6 months younger than most of my flock.

Early last week, she started spending a lot of time (afternoons mostly) in a nesting box. Now she spends all her free time in there. She comes out every couple of hours for 5-10 minutes to scratch, eat and drink water. She is cackling a lot and fluffs herself and flaps her wings frequently.

Her poo looks fine, her eyes/breathing is fine, and she is very energetic when I approach her in her box- she flips out and flees the coop, 'crowing' for 5 minutes very angrily at me. I have to disturb her because she sits on everyone else's eggs, but like I said, she is not laying yet.

I know broody-ness can be common. But with such a young bird? Should I just wait it out, and try a rabbit hutch if the behavior does not stop? Or, could something else be up?

 

[sumi]

It sounds like she may be ready to start laying finally. Hens do show a lot of interest in others' eggs and the nest boxes as they get close to laying themselves.

 

[austinclarksf]

I have been thinking that is the case, but it's been about a week since she's gone broody, and almost two weeks since she started exhibiting the behavior.

For the few chickens I have seen begin their cycle, it takes them 2-3 days, and they didn't behave much like this... then again I have only seen a few begin laying and this game bird is kind of an anomaly...

Thanks for the tip- hopefully I find a new egg in the coop sometime this week!

 

[sumi]

Apart from her behaviour here's 2 more things you can look for to see if she really is approaching lay:


A good sign of a pullet approaching lay is the colour of her comb. If her comb turns a bright red colour she's ready. The reason for the colour change is to show the rooster that she is ready to start laying fertile eggs. Her pelvis will be wider and if you look at her vent it will be moist and pink.
There is also a simple test you can do to check if your hen is laying/ready. Hold the hen firmly and turn her on her back. Find her vent area and feel for 2 bones sticking up. These are her pelvic bones. If you can fit only 1 finger upright between her pelvic bones she's still roughly 4 weeks off laying, 1 and 1/2 fingers means she's a little closer, 2/3 weeks and 2 or more fingers means she's either close or laying already.




This hen is laying. I could fit 2 fingers comfortably between her pelvic bones and note the colour of her vent.

 

[austinclarksf]

I am not very practiced in handling chickens, but I think I found the pelvic bones. The game bird is a small bird, but I can get very close to 2 fingers. The vent is pink. Her comb is a very red color. Thanks for the tips- I hope all these indicators point to an egg in the works.

But.... no eggs yet. It's been almost three weeks since she began her nest visits, and 2 weeks now since she's been spending most of her time in there. How long should she act like this? The only other two hens I watched mature into laying did not exhibit anything close to this kind of behavior. But, breeds are different.

Her poop is minimal and white. She is very noisy when outside the nesting box for her 5 minute appearances. Appetite and thirst remain normal, what gives?

 

[austinclarksf]

Been almost a month now since she starting acting this way. I've found her thrice now sitting in an empty nesting box while there's 3-4 eggs in one or two other boxes. Should I be worried?

 

[slordaz]

Feel the abdomen, make sure she isn't laying internally or egg bound would be my guess, strange she would practice this long