HEN is acting WEIRD

[cajunlizz]

I have one of my laying hens that is what I call a LOOSE FREE HEN . She started coming to our house about 4 months ago and has been laying in the yard . for the past 3 or 4 days , She has jumped on corner of our cage which has our baby chicks 10 weeks old and she refuses to come down to eat , or even drink water . SHE has not laid any eggs . SHE is laying there like she would be setting on eggs , BUT NO EGGS .


WE ONLY have hens , NO roosters at all . this is the 1st. time Any of them have done this . PLEASEEEEEEEE if anyone knows WHY please tell me .

We have put her food and water on top of cage , BUT she has NOT touched the pellets and hardly any water . WORRIED , its been 93º .

 

[lovethechickens]

sounds like shes broody and may think the chicks are hers. Put ice cubes on whatever corner you are talking about, and it should stop in about 4 days. Good luck!

 

[cajunlizz]

Why Ice cubes ?


these chicks are far from being baby chicks , they are 10- 12 weeks old .


and I have 3 other hens that are also laying and 2 days i pick up 3 eggs , the next 2 days I pick up 1 , whats with that ?

and YES , I am giving laying pellets .

 

[Chirpy]

It certainly does sound like she has gone broody. You don't need a rooster to have a hen go broody -- they just go broody.

You do need a rooster to have fertile eggs if you want her to hatch them. You have two options that I can think of. Let her go broody but pick her up and put her someplace safe and away from the other chickens. You would then need to get fertile eggs from someone (I just had a BYCer mail fertile eggs to me to put under my broody as I don't have a roo either.) and put them under her. Keep food and water close to her and let her sit on the eggs (takes roughly 21 days for them to hatch once they are put under her).

OR, you can encourage her to stop being broody. The one thing that seems to work the best from what I've heard here is to put her in a wire cage (like a dog kennel) with no nesting materials, only food and water. In a few days or a week or so she should snap out of it and then can be let out.

 

[d.k]

*In this kind of heat, water is crucial. If nothing else, if she won't drink, I would wet her down good with a spray from a spray bottle. As she preens, she'll get a little water and may then get a taste for more. I would also put some electrolytes in her water dish to help combat heat stress and the magnesium in them may help relax her broody behavior somewhat, as well.

 

[cajunlizz]

Quote:
AND what IF i do nothing AND just LET HER snap out OF IT HERSELF . man , SHE GETS ticked and all ruffled up when we try and touch her ........... Would putting her food and water on top of the cage do the trick ?

 

[Chirpy]

I have actually heard (on BYC) of broodies sitting for well over a month, even into two months because no eggs hatched under them. I think that's so sad and if there's a way to stop that from happening I'd give it a try if it were me.

Put good thick gloves on to move her, the pecks aren't so bad through the gloves.

Yes, you can certainly put the food and water next to her on top of the cage but that doesn't address the issue...

Do you want to get fertile eggs under her or get her to stop being broody?

 

[d.k]

*Maybe you can re-post to emergencies to get more advice on how to calm an extreme broody, but I think chicken electrolytes, esp. magnesium will really help.

 

[cajunlizz]

Quote:
I want to stop it

 

[Nichole77]

Wouldn't the fastest way to get her to stop being broody be to just stick a chick under her at night. If you have a feed store nearby.