Lethargic Hen

[yellowchicks]

If she's on the ground, will she roll eggs under her if you place them in front of her?

-Kathy

Day 3, "Yellow" still sits in the nest box whenever she could. I took the mat out, put ice packs under the ramp, no effect. Others just laid eggs on top of her or around her, but she was not sitting on the eggs. I took her out, put the eggs in front of her, she just stared at them. Locked her out of the coop and she flew up to the roof trying to get back in.








All 4 of Leghorns had very little poop overnight, is it normal? The other 3 are very active.

 

[Eggcessive]

She does sound like she could be broody. I have had many breeds go broody who supposedly have had that bred out of them. They also will lay an egg for a day or two after going broody, then stop. To check one for broodiness, take her far away from her nest and put her down. She may just lie there for a few seconds. Then she may get up and start clucking with her tail feathers in an upside down V shape. She may have a huge greenish foul smelling dropping or go eat something. They sometimes will take a quick dust bath, but usually go running back to the same nest. As Kathy said they will usuallyroll any eggs under them. They tend to stare off in space while sitting.

 

[yellowchicks]

She does sound like she could be broody. I have had many breeds go broody who supposedly have had that bred out of them. They also will lay an egg for a day or two after going broody, then stop. To check one for broodiness, take her far away from her nest and put her down. She may just lie there for a few seconds. Then she may get up and start clucking with her tail feathers in an upside down V shape. She may have a huge greenish foul smelling dropping or go eat something. They sometimes will take a quick dust bath, but usually go running back to the same nest. As Kathy said they will usuallyroll any eggs under them. They tend to stare off in space while sitting.

Yup, I got a broody Leghorn. It sounds just like her except for rolling the eggs under her. She was sitting next to the infertile eggs doing the fruitless deed.

 

[yellowchicks]

Since 1 of our 4 Leghorns went broody last week, there were only 3 eggs per day for a couple of the days. Then dropped to 1 egg, and then only 2 eggs for yesterday and today. This is very unusual since these four have been very consistent daily layers.

Day 7 today, my broody Leghorns finally voluntarily came out of the nest box to join others in the run this morning, hopefully she is done with her broodiness. However, I found a large clear watery "poop" on the coop floor yesterday. Today, there was a what looked like an egg sag on the poop board among the 3 piles of poops. Based on where they roosted last night, this was not from Miss Broody.

What's this and what's going on? Is there a chicken being egg bind? I can't tell which one is having problem, all of them looked active, but we going got 2 eggs today after all four sang their egg songs. What should I do?