Crazy Cream Legbar Behavior

[RagJar]

We have a 1 year old Cream Legbar who over the last month has started to squawk excessively and keep on going into and out off her hutch and nest box and try to dig her way through the floor, we have tried to find information regarding this habit as it is disrupting the remaining flock from going into the nest box to lay. Can anybody shed any information or ideas on this behavior and suggestions on how to calm her back down. Thanks.

 

[aart]

How many chicken?
How big is coop?
How many nests? Might need an additional nest.
Is she laying?
Any changes or attacks that might be a stress factor?

 

[RagJar]

There are 7 chickens in the flock, the coop is 6 foot x 4 foot with 3 nest boxes and she is laying on most days. To our knowledge there has not been any attacks or anything that might have caused her any of the flock stress.

 

[enola]

That is a small coop! Will she even let the other hens in the coop?

 

[RagJar]

The hutch/hen house she runs into is 6 foot x 4 foot she is free range for the remainder of the day and she has no say with the other hens going in and out of the hutch.

 

[azygous]

If your roosting bar is six feet long, you've just got barely enough room for seven chickens to roost. This suggests to me you may be verging on over-crowding, and that can start a stress effect in the flock.

It would naturally manifest itself by the pecking order re-ordering itself to try to relieve some of the stress. Your Cream Legbar may be challenging the others, thus her disruptive behavior.

I would begin by figuring out how to increase their coop space. Three nests for seven hens is not necessary. You could get along with two.

I would watch them carefully at roosting time to see if there are any conflicts. Observe who is bullying whom. You just might find out that roosting time isn't as peaceful as you think.

If there is a lot of squabbling going on, you need to figure out how to introduce more perch space. I solved this problem myself by removing two unused nest boxes and building an additional perch. I've found that the more perches there are, the less conflict you'll have. It's far more important to have too much roosting space than too many nest boxes.

 

[Back2Roots]

Quote:
One possibility: have there been any changes to the setup in the coop lately? What about difference lighting due to seasonal changes? Is the sun shining in on her nest box? I'm asking because if the nest box is brighter than it was in the past, she may no longer find it a safe place to lay. Chickens don't generally like brightly lit places to lay. She may be trying dig out a spot that feels safer to her to lay her eggs?