I know this question sounds weird but stay with me 
I have 3.5 week old chicks and am in the process of hand training them - on about day 5. It’s going well and they are settled and happy running around out of the brooder and jumping all over me, but I have one that will do a full on pol squat the first time she is picked up. I’m talking squat down, bum up, wings out, neck back and two shakes squat. I have honestly never seen anything like it before and I have raised many. She will do it again a few times if touched on the hip, but not the same as the first one. She is not scared, nor submitting (there is no panic to the squat like my other hens when they start doing it) - it’s just a normal squat that a mature hen would do with a lot of peeping.
I am curious to hear if anyone has had this happen before, I always thought that behaviour stated when the laying hormones kicked in. My daughter has seen it and agrees that she what it is and is now imagining tiny little baby eggs in the brooder lol. I have a video of the follow up squats, but not one of the first one - that is the one you need to see to be convinced, I will try again to get it tomorrow.
I have 3.5 week old chicks and am in the process of hand training them - on about day 5. It’s going well and they are settled and happy running around out of the brooder and jumping all over me, but I have one that will do a full on pol squat the first time she is picked up. I’m talking squat down, bum up, wings out, neck back and two shakes squat. I have honestly never seen anything like it before and I have raised many. She will do it again a few times if touched on the hip, but not the same as the first one. She is not scared, nor submitting (there is no panic to the squat like my other hens when they start doing it) - it’s just a normal squat that a mature hen would do with a lot of peeping.I am curious to hear if anyone has had this happen before, I always thought that behaviour stated when the laying hormones kicked in. My daughter has seen it and agrees that she what it is and is now imagining tiny little baby eggs in the brooder lol. I have a video of the follow up squats, but not one of the first one - that is the one you need to see to be convinced, I will try again to get it tomorrow.
