Hen bullied hiding out

[katplitt]

Yes we are making sure she eats and has water. She is getting somewhat aggressive in the nesting box. Broody?

 

[mustangrooster]

Yes we are making sure she eats and has water. She is getting somewhat aggressive in the nesting box. Broody?

Not necessarily. She may be though...has she got a bare belly? Has she been laying for you?

 

[mustangrooster]

This is terrible! Poor hen....

Reminds me of my situation with an older hen i had....

You see, this was my first ever hen that suddenly started getting bullied so bad i was worried for her. She was an old gal' and only laid once every blue moon...It was mainly all the roosters that were her bullies. She would refuse to mate with any of them apart from just one, which came with her a while back....the roosters didn't like this at all and started bullying her to the max, to the point where she would hide all day and all night and sometimes she would go without food or water for a whole day....

Ok so i let her free range, thinking my problems would be solved. Nope. The hens were also her bully, too. She became a mental mess, literally. She would run 100 miles per hour around the place untill she found somewhere to hide and she would stay there. For the whole day.

A hen that wont cooperate with the roosters is a danger to the flock, therefor they get rejected and cast out from the flock all together...were the hens and roosters will attack her at any given chance.

I ended up making a whole new pen for this gal' that i loved dearly. The very next day she passed away...rest in peace little girl.

There could be 100000 different reasons why your flock is acting like this towards your hen. When did you first notice this? She may not be cooperating with the flock, and wether you have roosters or not, it sounds like she has been rejected. Which can have 100 different reasons too.

 

[mustangrooster]

I've just read all the posts, silly me, she may be broody afterall!!

 

[Flock Master64]

Hahaha

 

[katplitt]

She hasn't laid for almost a week. She does have a bare bottom. I may try a bag of frozen veg in the nesting box. But so far today she came for breakfast but did not come to I put a little food in her box. Every time anyone goes near her her heckles go up, she puffs up and she pecks our gloved hand. I'm now guessing that she's broody. And will have figure out how to break her of that.

 

[mustangrooster]

Shes broody.

 

[mustangrooster]

Hahaha

Dont laugh at me

 

[Barbwire54]

One thing I haven't seen addressed is that if she was in the nest box night and day, she has been separated from the flock most of the time. I have a situation where one of my girls got out and went to a neighbors coop and was hanging out there for a couple of days. Since my daughter cares for the hens and didn't mention it, I didn't realize until I went out to increase tbeir pen size. When she was put back into tbe enlarged pen, the hens started jumping on her. So two potential causes, her being away from the flock and tbe tripling of the pen space. What do you think?

 

[katplitt]

Yup, I agree. Since she's been out of the social circle for a while she has to reintegrate. I'm assuming that's why she's being picked on.