Chicken living in nesting box, and, being bullied by flock.

[Johnnyfly41]

I have a flock of 26 mix breed hens. They are about 8 months old, have all been laying, very well behaved, life has been good. They have a roomy comfy coop with attached run, lots of roosting poles, feeders waterers and they are regularly out to graze. For the past week, I have noticed one easter egger that is sitting on a nest constantly. She is not laying. she is calm and when I put her on the floor, she eats and drinks, then goes back to the nesting box. When around the other hens, I have noticed they behave aggresively towards her, all of them do. So, they sense something is wrong with her. Pretty sure if I did not get her off the nest, she would not eat or drink. I will say, today I had her in the run, all alone... she ate and seemed pretty perky. She dropped a poop that boggled my mind, it was like a labrador retriever came in to the run and went. Could she have been bound up or is this a symptom of limited diet and no activity ? I don't know what to do. She looks fine, seems fine except she lives in a nest and is not active.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Sounds like she is broody. Other hens will routinely fight with broody hens when they are off the nest.

Broody hens will get off once a day in general to eat, drink, poop, and dust bath.

If you have no plans to hatch with her I would break her by putting her in a wide bottom crate slightly elevated off the ground for 3-5 days.

 

[Chelseyb123]

Agreed broody hen!

 

[ThenNotSoChickenMaster]

Get ready to expand that flock of 26 chickens. (if you want)

 

[ChickenGirl555]

All signs show broody. They don’t eat or drink much, they defend their nest sometimes, and don’t poop on their eggs so when they get up they make that giant poop you talked about. She stopped laying because if she had fertile eggs, she wouldn’t want them to all hatch on different days. Nothing is wrong.

 

[chickens really]

Sounds like she is broody. Other hens will routinely fight with broody hens when they are off the nest.

Broody hens will get off once a day in general to eat, drink, poop, and dust bath.

If you have no plans to hatch with her I would break her by putting her in a wide bottom crate slightly elevated off the ground for 3-5 days.

Your killing the posts...Awesome!.......

 

[Johnnyfly41]

Thanks for all your excellent responses. I think today I am going to lock her in the run alone while the other chickens are out grazing and prevent her from returning to the coop. maybe that will turn her. Oh, I have no roosters, so, no chance of expanding my flock. Thanks so much, you folks on this forum are awesome !

 

[ChickenGirl555]

here's an article on how to break the broody, and we said expanding flock because some people buy fertilized eggs and slip them under the broody

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/how-to-break-a-broody-hen.65588/