Momma chicken deliberately tipping the water bowl

[Mom2Chicken]

We have 9 chicks who are about three weeks old and who are being raised by their mother. We keep them in a chicken run with a coop for sleeping, although the momma is a complete free ranger and would rather not be cooped up at all. Whenever we give the chicks water in a bowl, the momma hen scratches at it until most of the water spills out.

I don't need to stop her from doing this per se. The chicks are growing well, and I make sure they get water all day long. I'm just curious as to why she is doing this. The only time won't tip the bowl is when I stay right by it.

 

[Ihavesomechickens]

We have 9 chicks who are about three weeks old and who are being raised by their mother. We keep them in a chicken run with a coop for sleeping, although the momma is a complete free ranger and would rather not be cooped up at all. Whenever we give the chicks water in a bowl, the momma hen scratches at it until most of the water spills out.

I don't need to stop her from doing this per se. The chicks are growing well, and I make sure they get water all day long. I'm just curious as to why she is doing this. The only time won't tip the bowl is when I stay right by it.

She is probably gotten baby brain and started trying to forage through the water.

 

[Oncoming Storm]

Perhaps she’s trying to give her chicks easy access to the water by knocking it over...?

 

[Willow2253]

My current mama broody scratches through everything. She’s certainly knocked over a waterer more than once. They go into forage overdrive when they’ve got babies to feed. She probably thinks she’ll find food if she scratches around in the water.

 

[centrarchid]

I see what you describe a lot.

She wants something she is not getting. She is free-range. Does she have access to a lot of greens? Are you giving her any actual feed?

 

[Mom2Chicken]

I see what you describe a lot.

She wants something she is not getting. She is free-range. Does she have access to a lot of greens? Are you giving her any actual feed?

We give her her normal chicken feed, and the chicks get their feed. Plus, the top of the run isn't covered, and she flies out of it a lot. She wanders around near the run during the day which is near trees, weeds, bugs, etc. She'll even fly over the backyard fence into our yard, so if there is something she wants to eat that she'd normally have eaten, she has access to it.

We don't let the chicks out of the run. Maybe it's the chicks who don't have access to certain things from her perspective?

 

[centrarchid]

We give her her normal chicken feed, and the chicks get their feed. Plus, the top of the run isn't covered, and she flies out of it a lot. She wanders around near the run during the day which is near trees, weeds, bugs, etc. She'll even fly over the backyard fence into our yard, so if there is something she wants to eat that she'd normally have eaten, she has access to it.

We don't let the chicks out of the run. Maybe it's the chicks who don't have access to certain things from her perspective?

This I know, the chicks can signal to mother they want something be it water or something different in their diet. When they do a lot of the extra peeping, my broody hens get downright aggressive in their efforts to find eats for the chicks. Sometimes every body get happy when able to access a different type of feed. Consider giving the chicks access to greens of some sort, or hay. My hens are not satisfied with feed from our coop.

 

[Mom2Chicken]

I decided to a couple of things:

• I got a bigger, sturdier water bowl that mamma hen can't tip over.
• I threw in a few shovels full of dried leaves and earthen matter from underneath a nearby tree so the chickens would have some stuff to forage in. I also hope this will increase the number of insects in the pen for their pecking pleasure.
• I threw in some weeds and dried grasses.

I really wish I could let them all all out of the pen to go exploring and foraging, but I do not trust the mamma hen to bring them home at night. (We already have to force her to come home every night to sleep with her chicks.) We also need to be able to give the chicks away in a few weeks when they are ready. I hope to keep one or two for ourselves, but we can't keep all 9.

 

[centrarchid]

Could you show a picture?

 

[Mom2Chicken]

Could you show a picture?

Sure! Here are a few pictures

1. Momma chicken trying to attack me because she thinks I'm the devil incarnate.
2. A baby chick eating some of the weeds I threw in the pen.
3. Momma and chicks by their new watering bowl.
4. Momma and chicks foraging in the old tree droppings I threw in the pen.