Hen copying rooster’s (clucking at finding feed)

[esme13]

Isolate her. Something is wrong, and it may have nothing to do with molting or nutritional status.

Could you show a picture of both her eyes up close? See if she flinches when you put your hand close to her face.

She doesn’t flinch or run away from us or her sisters. Her eyes look good and clear. Lots and lots of feathers loss.

 

[centrarchid]

She doesn’t flinch or run away from us or her sisters. Her eyes look good and clear. Lots and lots of feathers loss.

The behavior is not one I associate with feather loss after seeing many hens go through many molts. Something else is at play. Lack of flinching is what makes me think that at least part of problem is visual. Eyes can be clear and involve what I would be looking for. You described behaviors that are associated with impaired vision.

Sounds produced by friends (sisters in this case) differ markedly from foes (rooster or stranger). The friendly sounds can help you navigate while sounds produce by foes can cause panic if you can not see well.


I would isolate.

 

[esme13]

It’s the clucking behavior that’s has me stumped. It’s what the rooster does , clucks and points to the food for the ladies to see. She is copying the same thing and in place picking up the food and dropping it, but not eating it and clucking and looking for someone to come. She eats my garden goodies ( tomatoes , dark leafy greens ). She seems to be seeing fine and fallowed us and ate the tomatoes that were dropped near her. She is fine with the girls all around her. I don’t feel it’s blindness.

 

[esme13]

I will double check in the morning

 

[centrarchid]

It’s the clucking behavior that’s has me stumped. It’s what the rooster does , clucks and points to the food for the ladies to see. She is copying the same thing and in place picking up the food and dropping it, but not eating it and clucking and looking for someone to come. She eats my garden goodies ( tomatoes , dark leafy greens ). She seems to be seeing fine and fallowed us and ate the tomatoes that were dropped near her. She is fine with the girls all around her. I don’t feel it’s blindness.

The behavior you describe is best described as tidbitting. Roosters do it for hens and chicks. hens do it for their chicks. Chicks and juveniles will do it for siblings and even their mother. Clucking is a contact call a hen produces to communicate her presence to chicks and other things like pace, faster or slower. The cheeping sound chicks produce I think is same as clucking coming from a much smaller body making for a higher pitched sound.