chicken flinging twigs etc

[PuckPuck]

yesterday I observed one of my chickens (the dominant one) walking about and flinging twigs and bits of straw etc. over her shoulders in a seemingly obsessive manner - she kept it up for many minutes. what is she trying to do?

thanks for any feedback

 

[HEChicken]

Sounds like she's fixing to go broody.

 

[PuckPuck]

thanks HEchicken - can I nip this in the bud? I don't want her trying to hatch any eggs.

Puck Puck

 

[HEChicken]

Now THAT I can't help you with as I've been looking forward to having a hen go broody for years and it hasn't happened yet. I did have a red sexlink display this kind of behavior for a day once and got all excited only to have her forget all about it by the next day. However if I had one start now I'd be doing everything I could to encourage rather than discourage her. I've seen a lot of suggestions on here for breaking broodies so I'd suggest doing a search on "breaking broody" or something like that and see what kind of results you get. However some hens are so persistent that the methods you'll find work only temporarily. Good luck!