Ex-broody personality change

[tlpounds]

I had one of my Silkies, Ella, go broody in the middle of December. She stayed broody for 3 months and I was really getting concerned about her. I ordered some eggs (we don't have any roos) and put some in the incubator. The day they were set to hatch she got up off the nest & quit being broody. Ever since then she is loud all the time and acts like she's lost her chick or something. I know she lost her place in the pecking order and the other hens keep reminding her of this, but she's really skittish now & not the sweet chick she used to be. Anyone else dealt with this? Anything that can help her?

 

[SoftBoiled]

I was going to post an identical post to yours with very similar issues. I am sorry that I don't have any solutions for you, except to say you are not alone!

This is Mrs Stumpy. Mrs Stumpy used to be a reasonable chicken - no awards for sweetness, but generally a reasonable chicken. In December she went broody and I put some fertile eggs under her. She hatched one (Mrs Stumpy is my avatar with the chick), but 3 weeks later the chick died (I think a cat or a crow). She went through several days looking for the chick, and calling for it, especially at feeding time. Then she started to really go mental - she went through a molt (she only got her name recently when she lost all her tail feathers and looked like a football on legs, so I started calling her Mrs Stumpy). After a while, say a month, her appetite got better and her feathers started to grow back, so I thought she was "getting over it". However, recently she has started to seriously persecute the other chickens and has drawn blood a couple of times. Then she started to get really loud with this continual goose-honk noise all the time. honk-honk-honk-honk-honk-honk-honk ...loud and incessant.

As I write this she's in a crate in the spare bedroom for a "time-out" so that I, the neighborhood, and the rest of the flock can have some peace for a little while. Then I came on here to look for answers and found tlpounds' post with a similar problem.

So, if anyone can assist tlpounds and her silky and me with Mrs Stumpy, with ex-broody horomonally mental chicken issues, we would be very grateful!

btw, Mrs Stumpy is some spanish cross, if breed has any bearing

 

[tlpounds]

Softboiled, that's the same type of noise Ella's making (she got her name because she reminded me of Horton the Who, who stayed on the nest no matter what). I swear it's like she lost her mind! I'd give her some of the chicks I'm hatching in the incubator if she wasn't being so loud and obnoxious. Although the neighbor has annoying dogs, Ella's beginning to rank right up there with them.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[SoftBoiled]

Well I have peace ... sort of

This is Mrs Stumpy sleeping peacefully next to her favourite persecution target.


I think she was just worn out.... because, earlier in the day we fitted her with pinless peepers:



I thought that a miracle had happened. However, later on in the day after she had got used to the peepers and had worked out some alternative navigation, she resumed some of her "mental" behaviours, but not nearly at the same level. She still tries to attack, but now she has to work out her navigation before she moves, so it does give the intended victim some response time.

The honk-honk-honk-honk-honk is much less as well, I have only heard one short episode of it after the peepers were applied. We still have to negotiate roost politics this evening, which were very unhappy last night, but I am hopeful.

 

[centrarchid]

The loud insestint "honking" call is likely an attempt to get the attention of a rooster. I keep chickens under a range of social arrangements. The loudest hens by far are those kept isolated from a rooster.

 

[tlpounds]

Well, Ella has calmed down a little. She's not being as loud, but is now wanting to be petting a lot & gets down in a mating stance, so she's really wanting to mate. We don't have a rooster.... HMMMM - guess we better hurry & get some land or the girls need to find something to take their minds off the guys.

 

[SoftBoiled]

I'm so glad to have an update and that Ella has calmed down, but she definitely has mothering on her mind - do you know anyone with a silky roo that she could go visit? Like a chicken week-end fling holiday? Otherwise, better ring a couple of real estate agents and start researching coop designs!

CAN YOU POST A PICTURE OF ELLA? I'd love to see her.

The peepers helped calm Mrs Stumpy right down, but it was the rooster that she was after the most - not to mate with, but to rip to shreds, which is why I couldn't quite agree with centrarchid's suggestion above. However, my rooster is a sweet, gentle cochin and not very old, so he almost doesn't count as a rooster.

 

[tlpounds]

I'm so glad to have an update and that Ella has calmed down, but she definitely has mothering on her mind - do you know anyone with a silky roo that she could go visit? Like a chicken week-end fling holiday? Otherwise, better ring a couple of real estate agents and start researching coop designs!

CAN YOU POST A PICTURE OF ELLA? I'd love to see her.

The peepers helped calm Mrs Stumpy right down, but it was the rooster that she was after the most - not to mate with, but to rip to shreds, which is why I couldn't quite agree with centrarchid's suggestion above. However, my rooster is a sweet, gentle cochin and not very old, so he almost doesn't count as a rooster.

We have been actively looking for a house with land (yes, now I'm truly addicted to the chickens!) so that we can have roosters. I'm thinking I may need to find chicken sex movies or something until then!

She keeps backing up to me & wanting to be petted under the wings & treating me like I'm a roo. EEEK! I've got some babies that are growing up & am sure some of them will be roos. We'll have a house in the country by the time the roos come of age & since they'll have been raised with Elle *maybe* she won't tear them up. They're far too cute for anyone to be mean to. LOL.

This is Elle - not a great picture, but she''s a sweetie!

 

[tlpounds]

And we now have found a house with acreage so I will get to keep roos with my "needy" girls. Woo HOOOO!

 

[SoftBoiled]

Keep me updated. Mrs Stumpy has settled down and is back to normal after her rampages, a moult and 1 month in peepers. I am planning to take the peepers off this weekend. Maybe some things just take time to sort themselves out.