Can Adding Younger Pullets Make Older Hens Broody/Lay?

[ticketism]

Hey BYC! I have an odd question, haha. So I have 2 adult hens, a light Sussex (Solar) and a white Orpington (Snow), who are both about 3.5/4-ish yrs old and have been a duo for the last couple of years, when a relationship breakup lead to having to split the flock. They both adjusted fine and were laying regularly for ages, then Solar went very 'roostery' and stopped laying. Snow has been laying semi-regularly up until a couple of months ago now it's coming into winter (barring molting and broody spells), but still not much at all and she even totally ignored the fake egg I put in the nesting box hoping to 'get the ball rolling' lol. I'm pretty sure Solar has done her dash with laying, since it's been roughly a year since she gave me an egg and she's happy and healthy, so, okay.

A few days ago I got two new POL pullets (buff Sussex - Fox, black Australorp - Arya), they're in their own private coop and closed off run adjacent to the other's run, see but not touch until they get used to each other, and they've all been very warily checking each other out. But the last two days Snow has been going up into the roost and nesting, rolling the fake egg under her, panting and pushing, puffed up tail raised and all, like she's laying. Even Solar has been going up and pretending to lay =/ So I guess my question is - Why are they doing this? I've added younger girls to existing flocks before and, while it does disrupt things for a while, it's never made older hens who don't seem to have any interest in laying suddenly start going through the motions all day. Arya kinda sounds like a young teen pullet, chirps and trills etc, is she like... Stoking Snow's hormonal broody instincts or something? I've seen her accept new chicks as her own when she's broody, but she's not currently broody and Arya isn't a chick, nor are they even in the same enclosure, so I wouldn't have thought she'd 'bond with her' like that in this situation. I mean, I'm happy if the youngens get the older gal's going again, but I've just never heard of that happening, haha. This probably sounds like a silly question, but Idk, it's just not the kind of 'strange behaviour' I expected or have ever seen before haha. Anyone have some insight?

Cheers!

 

[A_Fowl_Guy]

Never a such thing as a silly question! They probably won’t induce broodiness or laying in those chickens. At their age their production is going to be lower than a yearling and the one that acts roosterish might have a reproductive issue causing one ovary to shut down.

 

[ticketism]

Yeah their laying has definitely slowed right down, and as I mentioned I'm pretty sure Solar 'went rooster' a while back so won't lay again, which is fine as I mainly keep them for pets, I've figured that they're both about done with their reproductive cycles now, and at their age I think they've earned a happy retirement. It's just so strange that neither have been doing laying kinda behaviour for so long, not even sitting on the fake egg or going into the nesting box, and now they're both desperate to be in there, pretending to lay 'phantom eggs' lol xD Snow goes up into the box and Solar stands there honking like mad, so I closed off the roost and nesting box entry, got about 10mins of peace, crazy loud honking started again, went to check, and Snow was /so/ desperate to nest in there that she'd flipped up the cabin hook, slid the roost door open with her head, and broke in just to sit in there huffing and puffing and pushing for no reason at all When she's broody she just sits there and makes throaty eagle sounds, pecking at any incoming hands to protect her imaginary babies hahaha, but never huffs and puffs and has a pulsating vent like when she's laying. I've never seen this before and it's obviously a response to the new girls being here... Just, a really weird response haha. I'm hoping someone may have had this happen with their hens, mixing 'about to start' with 'probably/almost finished' layers, just to make some sense of what the behaviour means and maybe how best to handle it, making the integration as smooth as possible.

 

[ticketism]

Slight update: Closed off the whole coop from the big girls to stop the constant cycle of getting into the nesting box, the other one screaming, first one comes back down, other goes up, screaming commences again, rinse and repeat. It worked after a few futile tries from Snow, so she turned her attention to the new girls, getting right up against the aviary mesh divider, pacing back and forth, whining and clucking. Now /that's/ more what I'm used to! Lol. Whenever Arya came close Snow seemed a little more settled and made a lot of 'purring' type of clucks, almost like her broody sounds, but whenever Fox came close she started jumping at the divider and trying to get her beak underneath it, fluffing up defensively and making growling whiny clucks. I think she likes Arya more than Fox. Maybe she isn't as bothered by her because she's so much smaller and is so obviously younger, less of a perceived threat on the territory..? I had to duck out for a while so I opened the coop back up for them, and Snow made a beeline right for the nesting box again Wouldn't be surprised if she was still up there pretending to be a young fertile hen in her prime by the time I get back lol. Solar was standing on the ladder when I left, so maybe they'll both be up there like 'We're still young and spry, see?? Oh yeah we're toootally laying up in here, unlike those kids eating our grass!' hahaha. It's so weird I'd get it if they were just going up there because it's safe and familiar and reassuring, but genuinely pretending to lay is some weird chicken mind game I seriously don't understand lmao.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Interesting to say the least your two are not that old in chicken years are they the only other birds you have now ?

 

[ticketism]

Interesting to say the least your two are not that old in chicken years are they the only other birds you have now ?

Definitely interesting haha. Yeah, it's been just the two of them for a couple of years. My ex had the big coop we'd bought together so I figured it was easier to just take the two who were always kinda my favourites (loved all of them, but we all have our faves I'm sure) and build a smaller enclosure for them. I've noticed chooks tend to get pretty codependent when it's just two, so I've been wanting to add to my flock for a while but had to put it hold until I had the space to do so properly and safely. Took longer than expected haha. They're definitely not old enough to be 'post henopausal' on average, but since Solar took up the rooster position I figured it wasn't her age but rather her biology. Snow is slowing down naturally though; I'm not sure if she's fully stopped or just that she doesn't lay often anymore then add in a broody phase, a hard molt shortly after, and now coming into winter, no eggs for a while but she might still have a few to come. Eggs aren't the most important thing at all, but it's odd right? She's really making a show of it acting like she's laying - I can't figure out if she actually thinks she's laying or wth is going on in that little head!

 

[aart]

now it's coming into winter

You're south of the equator?

Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Here's how to add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, (laptop version shown), then it's always there!

 

[ticketism]

Cheers, yeah, I'm in Australia, QLD specifically, so I'm using the word winter pretty loosely hahaha. Climate is definitely a factor, and one I'm accounting for, but the behaviour is still pretty weird and not how they usually act with reproductive and climate cycles, so I figured it doesn't hurt to ask.

 

[ticketism]

Snow actually laid an egg today =/ Maybe it's just a weird coincidence and she had at least one more in her before winter fully hits, in the brief period between a hard molt and the onset of winter, that just happened to coincide with the arrival of some new young gals - I dunno, chickens always find a way to surprise me somehow even after years of keeping them hahaha. Or maybe it was stressed out of her with the new additions on her turf and she was trying to get it out asap haha. Weird timing, weird behaviour, but alright whatever, as long as they're all okay; happy and healthy and safe - She can do whatever weird chooky stuff she likes haha. She tried sitting on the egg and pecked at me desperately as I picked her up to find and take it, then she whined and whined for ages, stuffed right up against the wire mesh divider pacing back and forth following little Arya for as long as I cared to watch. Maybe it's a strange coincidence, I wish she could just tell me what she's up to, but hopefully this all might mean she'll be less fighty and aggressive when they do get gradually introduced in person (or, chicken, haha, face to face, y'all know what I mean xD ). A neighbour's cat came into the yard this morning too, which I only know coz Snow woke me up at like 5am by honking at the top of her lungs while circling the newbie's safe pen, staring down the cat until I came out in my boxers wondering wth was going on and it slinked away. I honestly think she's trying to protect Arya, as silly as that sounds. Better than trying to peck her eyes out!