My Hen is acting strange lately

[IloveChickens3000]

I have 2 hens and 13 baby chicks (not the hens chicks). One of my hen is broody and the other is not. Lately I have noticed that my broody hen is sitting on random places a lot like my hens are free range and they hate staying inside their chicken run, but, my broody hen has been sitting in the chicken runs corner quietly. She also sometimes sits in the middle of my yard. I don't know If this is what a broody hen does since this is my first experience with chickens but I really need to know what is happening because she is very broody and sits on unfertilized eggs for hours. Also when I take the eggs away from my broody hen the ones she is sits on waiting for them to hatch then she does this weird monster thingy to me like she has her wings open and puffed up and does a weird noise but she does this to my 13 baby chicks too when they get too close, but luckily she doesn't hurt them so I need to know why she is acting like this.

 

[DevKY]

Idk for certain but it sounds like she's just broody. Its been different both times in our experience with mixing little ones with our one bigger hen. Once, she took right to the babies (weren't hers) teaching them and loving them..until they got bigger like closer to her size, then she started picking on them. The 2nd time she acted like your is towards the little ones, puffing her wings and making a crazy noise. I think it depends on if SHE is broody. I would just make sure she is eating, drinking, etc and not picking on the little ones. Maybe she feels threatened, like they're going to "take over" her territory? Just a thought, I'm definitely not an expert, but those were our experiences. Good luck!

 

[aart]

How old are the chicks?
Was the hen broody before you got them?
If so, did you try to graft the chicks to the broody?

My go to signs of a broody bird:
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?
If so, then she is probably broody and you'll have to decide how to manage it.

If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, IMO it's best to break her broodiness promptly.
My experience goes about like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest (or as soon as I know they are broody), I put her in a wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop or run with feed and water.

I used to let them out a couple times a day, but now just once a day in the evening(you don't have to) and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two. Or take her out of crate daily very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate.

Tho not necessary a chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken.

 

[IloveChickens3000]

Idk for certain but it sounds like she's just broody. Its been different both times in our experience with mixing little ones with our one bigger hen. Once, she took right to the babies (weren't hers) teaching them and loving them..until they got bigger like closer to her size, then she started picking on them. The 2nd time she acted like your is towards the little ones, puffing her wings and making a crazy noise. I think it depends on if SHE is broody. I would just make sure she is eating, drinking, etc and not picking on the little ones. Maybe she feels threatened, like they're going to "take over" her territory? Just a thought, I'm definitely not an expert, but those were our experiences. Good luck!

 

[IloveChickens3000]

thank you I was getting very worried

 

[IloveChickens3000]

How old are the chicks?
Was the hen broody before you got them?
If so, did you try to graft the chicks to the broody?

My go to signs of a broody bird:
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?
If so, then she is probably broody and you'll have to decide how to manage it.

If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, IMO it's best to break her broodiness promptly.
My experience goes about like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest (or as soon as I know they are broody), I put her in a wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop or run with feed and water.

I used to let them out a couple times a day, but now just once a day in the evening(you don't have to) and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two. Or take her out of crate daily very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate.

Tho not necessary a chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken.
View attachment 2105570

 

[IloveChickens3000]

thank you so much.
the chicks are 1 month old
My hens were 2 days old when I got them