I currently have two hens and a cockerel who free range in our garden. They are all the same age at just a year old. We also have another hen who is broody at the moment, so she only comes out for 10 minutes per day. Earlier this month we lost another hen to unknown causes.
So basically, the flock had gone from 4 hens plus a cockerel to 2 plus the cockerel.
I think one of our hens is stressed. She is a booted bantam (sablepoot), so quite small. She went from being second in the pecking order (when there was 4 hens) - to being lowest with just the 2! The other hen is a welbar bantam and I think she is a bit of a bully. She was always top of the pecking order, and rather than assert her top position with a glance or noise, it’s generally with a peck.
Anyway, the booted bantam is a fairly good layer, and we usually get 4 or 5 eggs from her per week. She has always been quite “mardy”, and makes a lot of fuss and noise before she lays. She has even taken to laying in a makeshift nesting box inside. This has been for several months.
However, she hasn’t laid for the last 3 days, but has made the fuss and nose each day where we expect an egg. We have put her in the makeshift nest box, and she has sat for an hour or more but no egg.
Today was the same so we put her in the nest. We went to check up and suspected she could be broody as she had pulled out about 15 or so chest feathers. We thought this might explain her not laying - so we put her back outside to try and break the broody!
Anyway, she carried on with the shrill noises, so I put a couple of plastic eggs in the outside nest box. She went straight in - so again we thought “broody”.
But, an hour or so later, she had laid an egg! So now we’re thinking “not broody”. The egg itself had quite a few dots of ‘shell’ resembling sand on the outside which I think can be a sign of stress.
Her behaviour also makes me think she could be stressed. Hard to pinpoint but she is spending more time alone. She sometimes gets over mated and has lost a few feathers on her back in front of her tail.
I realise that we don’t have a great ratio of hens to cockerel at the moment, which is why we are letting our broody hatch some more - but they won’t be ready to integrate for several weeks after they have hatched.
I am in the process of building a run for the cockerel to see if that helps. But does anyone have any other ideas? Are there any natural remedies for helping relieve stress? Or any suggestions for dealing with a bully hen if that could be a cause of a stress issue?
With so ‘few’ chickens, I’m actually not sure who to move/remove if we do have an issue.
Sorry for the long-winded post... wanted to try and capture everything.
So basically, the flock had gone from 4 hens plus a cockerel to 2 plus the cockerel.
I think one of our hens is stressed. She is a booted bantam (sablepoot), so quite small. She went from being second in the pecking order (when there was 4 hens) - to being lowest with just the 2! The other hen is a welbar bantam and I think she is a bit of a bully. She was always top of the pecking order, and rather than assert her top position with a glance or noise, it’s generally with a peck.
Anyway, the booted bantam is a fairly good layer, and we usually get 4 or 5 eggs from her per week. She has always been quite “mardy”, and makes a lot of fuss and noise before she lays. She has even taken to laying in a makeshift nesting box inside. This has been for several months.
However, she hasn’t laid for the last 3 days, but has made the fuss and nose each day where we expect an egg. We have put her in the makeshift nest box, and she has sat for an hour or more but no egg.
Today was the same so we put her in the nest. We went to check up and suspected she could be broody as she had pulled out about 15 or so chest feathers. We thought this might explain her not laying - so we put her back outside to try and break the broody!
Anyway, she carried on with the shrill noises, so I put a couple of plastic eggs in the outside nest box. She went straight in - so again we thought “broody”.
But, an hour or so later, she had laid an egg! So now we’re thinking “not broody”. The egg itself had quite a few dots of ‘shell’ resembling sand on the outside which I think can be a sign of stress.
Her behaviour also makes me think she could be stressed. Hard to pinpoint but she is spending more time alone. She sometimes gets over mated and has lost a few feathers on her back in front of her tail.
I realise that we don’t have a great ratio of hens to cockerel at the moment, which is why we are letting our broody hatch some more - but they won’t be ready to integrate for several weeks after they have hatched.
I am in the process of building a run for the cockerel to see if that helps. But does anyone have any other ideas? Are there any natural remedies for helping relieve stress? Or any suggestions for dealing with a bully hen if that could be a cause of a stress issue?
With so ‘few’ chickens, I’m actually not sure who to move/remove if we do have an issue.
Sorry for the long-winded post... wanted to try and capture everything.
