Chicken behavior.

[springchicken66]

I bought five copper black Maran chicks. Put them under one of my broody girls and she did a wonderful job of mothering and raising them. They are now 10 months old and started laying beautiful eggs. One of them started kicking the nesting material out of the nesting boxes and refusing to let the other hens in. They are all shaken and some stopped laying and others are laying in corners on the floor. Another Maran is flying up and over the 6 ft. fence. We clipped her wings, yet somehow she is still managing to get up off the ground in spite of being off balance. They are both acting wound up and unhinged. They screech at the other girls. Never seen anything like this before in my coop and run. We have separated them both in another area and some of the `girls seem to be settling down a little. Although four of the Buff Orpingtons have still not resumed laying. Any ideas ? I am perplexed.

 

[azygous]

It sounds like something is seriously stressing these hens.

You will need to play Sherlock Holmes. Begin at night after dark. With a flashlight, inspect the roosting perches for mites. Run a damp paper towel over the surface. If it comes back with red smears, you have mites, and they can make chickens absolutely miserable.

Next, if your run and coop doesn't have a sandy substrate that easily shows rodent prints, you might lay some cookie tins in strategic spots with some flour in them to capture foot prints. Do this after the chickens have roosted so they don't eat the bait. You may have rats, and that can seriously freak out chickens.

You could also have a snake visiting you coop at night. Snakes freak us out, but they can send chickens into orbit.

 

[springchicken66]

Thank you Azygous. All good suggestions. Never thought about rats etc. Just thought i have a crazy group.

 

[aart]

One of them started kicking the nesting material out of the nesting boxes and refusing to let the other hens in.

This sounds a lot like new layer behavior.

Crowding may be part of the issue too?
Knowing....
-your flock size(numbers, ages, genders),

-your coop(size in feet by feet with pics),

-number of nests,

-and what and how exactly you are feeding,

....might offer clues to if there is a solvable problem.