egg-bound?

[max13077]

I have a BO hen that is acting strange. I'm not really sure what's wrong with her, so I thought I'd ask.

Two or three days ago she started staying in the next box. She frills her feathers up when you come near, but then again, so does everybody else. I pull her out of the box and she fluffs her feathers and hops right back up in.

I thought she might be egg-bound because she(sorry, it's the only way I can explain it) flexes her butt like she's trying to lay an egg. But nothing comes out. I got brave the other night and inserted my finger into her behind and felt around. Except for some poo, I found nothing. I massaged her abdomen trying to feel if there was an egg, nothing.

I'm stumped. Any idea? I did find a huge egg in the nest under her this evening when I collected. But I think it was from one of the RIR's instead of her. I've seen two of them at once get into a box together. Or maybe she got out for a second.

Thoughts?

 

[Daycare Mom]

Sounds to me like she is broody.

 

[max13077]

I was thinking that too! But she's never been mated and I take the eggs every night. Will they still do that?

 

[DuckLady]

She is broody from the sounds of it.
She doesn't need to lay eggs or be mated for the instinctive behavior of broodyness to set in.

 

[redoak]

My BO Edna acts the same way, you'd think she was dying from the sounds she makes.

 

[ZooMummzy]

Strangely enough, one of my RIR's is acting just like that too! I tried to see if she had an egg under her the other day and she gave me the evil chicken eyes!

 

[JennsPeeps]

Broody!

Do a search on how to break a broody to find out what to do.