Hen acting strange

[FC16]

I have an approximately 1 year old hen, she’s a hybrid, who is acting strange.
She’s always slept on the roosts in the coop but recently she’s been sleeping in the nest boxes. Her voice has gone very deep out of no where, she occasionally squats onto the floor. And will randomly attack one of the younger chickens out of no where (which she has never done before)
She’s still eating and drinking and scratching about, but seems to be doing everything quite slowly.
Does any body know what’s wrong with her?

 

[azygous]

It took me a minute to place the "deep voice" change in my worn out memory. Put that with the other symptoms, and it screams BROODY!


You have a hen that is ready to sit on some eggs and incubate if you choose to take advantage of her services.

 

[SilverBirds]

Sounds like she is or going broody!

 

[aart]

Might be broody.
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?
If so, then she is probably broody and you'll have to decide how to manage it.


If that's not it, this is what I do when a bird is acting 'off'....
I isolate bird in a wire cage within the coop for a day or two....so I can closely monitor:
-their intake of food and water,
-crop function(checking at night and in morning before providing more feed),
-and their poops.
Feel their abdomen, from below vent to between legs, for squishy or hard swelling.
Check for external parasites or any other abnormalities.

Best to put crate right in coop or run so bird is still 'with' the flock.
I like to use a fold-able wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller mesh(1x2) on bottom of crate under tray.
Then you can put tray underneath crate to better observe droppings without it being stepped in. If smaller mesh is carefully installed, tray can still be used inside crate.

​

 

[FC16]

Might be broody.
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?
If so, then she is probably broody and you'll have to decide how to manage it.


If that's not it, this is what I do when a bird is acting 'off'....
I isolate bird in a wire cage within the coop for a day or two....so I can closely monitor:
-their intake of food and water,
-crop function(checking at night and in morning before providing more feed),
-and their poops.
Feel their abdomen, from below vent to between legs, for squishy or hard swelling.
Check for external parasites or any other abnormalities.

Best to put crate right in coop or run so bird is still 'with' the flock.
I like to use a fold-able wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller mesh(1x2) on bottom of crate under tray.
Then you can put tray underneath crate to better observe droppings without it being stepped in. If smaller mesh is carefully installed, tray can still be used inside crate.

​

Yeah so she isn’t actually sitting on the nest at all, she doesn’t appear fluffed up or screeching. But she is doing the repetitive cluck thing. I feel like she isn’t broody but she has some sort of issue.
I’ve been out all day but I’m going to assess her behaviour when I get home

 

[azygous]

Different hens approach going broody at different rates of speed. Some are barely any different in behavior until their hormones reach the tipping point of sitting a nest to the exclusion of all other normal activity. Others drag out the pre-broody stage but stopping short of sitting the nest until all of a sudden you find them adhered to the nest like a barnacle on a ship's hull.

And then there are the teasers that appear to be in the pre-broody stage for weeks and they never go the rest of the way and sit a nest. I have one of these currently. She's doing everything your hen is doing. She can be heard muttering her broody clucks under her breath most of the day. I will see her fluffed up and angry for no reason. When it comes time to lay an egg, she commandeers the nest in the ferocious fashion of a 100% broody. But she eventually deposits her egg in the nest and leaves, never to return until next time she needs to lay.

If she ever gets around to going all the way broody, refusing to leave the nest, I will utilize a broody cage to break her. Incubating chicks in my flock that carries the leucosis virus results in a high percentage of mortality of chick embryos. It's best not to try.

 

[FC16]

Different hens approach going broody at different rates of speed. Some are barely any different in behavior until their hormones reach the tipping point of sitting a nest to the exclusion of all other normal activity. Others drag out the pre-broody stage but stopping short of sitting the nest until all of a sudden you find them adhered to the nest like a barnacle on a ship's hull.

And then there are the teasers that appear to be in the pre-broody stage for weeks and they never go the rest of the way and sit a nest. I have one of these currently. She's doing everything your hen is doing. She can be heard muttering her broody clucks under her breath most of the day. I will see her fluffed up and angry for no reason. When it comes time to lay an egg, she commandeers the nest in the ferocious fashion of a 100% broody. But she eventually deposits her egg in the nest and leaves, never to return until next time she needs to lay.

If she ever gets around to going all the way broody, refusing to leave the nest, I will utilize a broody cage to break her. Incubating chicks in my flock that carries the leucosis virus results in a high percentage of mortality of chick embryos. It's best not to try.

She also does the same when laying an egg, she screeches a bit, and tucks any loose eggs underneath her.
It’s strange she’s been sleeping in the nest boxes though as she’s always loved being top of the pecking order and sleeping high up above the others

 

[FC16]

Tonight she was no where to be seen in the coop when I went to lock them away
Found her trying to sleep in some random bush
This is very strange behaviour does anyone know if she might be dying?

 

[azygous]

All broody behavior. Very typical. No, she isn't dying. If you want it to stop, we can tell you how to set up the broody breaking cage.

 

[NanaK]

Tonight she was no where to be seen in the coop when I went to lock them away
Found her trying to sleep in some random bush
This is very strange behaviour does anyone know if she might be dying?

Next time she decides to hide away to sit, she will find a new spot. They usually move around till you can't find them. If I was going to break her I'd probably do it now. She's just being a healthy young hen doing what they do!
Good luck!