My wonderful hen, Hilda, is acting funny today. I have been thinking she is going to start laying eggs any day. My brood is supposed to start laying sometime in Sept. or Oct. but this one has had a bright red comb and waddle for a few weeks, and I think she may be a bit older than the others.
Hilda is a Columbia Rock. My first chicks were hatched Easter weekend, then a couple of weeks later I went back and got two more. Hilda was one of them, and she was more fully feathered than the others. She was the dominant hen for quite a while, then earlier this summer the others caught up to her and she was overshadowed by Goldie, my Araucana, who was the biggest one of the original group.
So today I came home and only 4 hens ran up to great me (I have 5). Hilda was missing. I found her in the garden, dust bathing in dirt under an eggplant stalk. She did not get up when I went over to her, she just kind of said, "Errrrrrrrrp." I looked her over and she seemed okay. I picked her up and she complained because I was bothering her. I looked her over good, and did not see anything strange. She fussed at me when I set her down and she went back to her dirt bath and laid down there again, just making those little throaty hen sounds.
Otherwise, she has been running up to me immediately whenever she sees me. Even if she sees me through my kitchen window, she comes running over. She just stands there and talks to me. They have feed in their dish and I also put out scraps for them, and they have leftovers. I don't think it is due to hunger.
So tonight I go to close them in their hen house and when I entered, she climbed down from her perch and came over and started talking to me again. Unfortunately, I don't speak fluent hen and am having a really hard time understanding, but it seems like she is trying to communicate something to me.
She let me pick her up (she is usually friendly, but not eager to be handled). She did not try to escape or complain very much. I sat down with her and looked her over. She looks fine and I don't see anything amiss.
I am wondering if there is like a hen PMS. LIke maybe it feels weird to lay your first egg and she doesn't know what to do. Or she is just getting flooded with hormones.
What could it be? All the others are acting pretty normal. Any thoughts?
Hilda is a Columbia Rock. My first chicks were hatched Easter weekend, then a couple of weeks later I went back and got two more. Hilda was one of them, and she was more fully feathered than the others. She was the dominant hen for quite a while, then earlier this summer the others caught up to her and she was overshadowed by Goldie, my Araucana, who was the biggest one of the original group.
So today I came home and only 4 hens ran up to great me (I have 5). Hilda was missing. I found her in the garden, dust bathing in dirt under an eggplant stalk. She did not get up when I went over to her, she just kind of said, "Errrrrrrrrp." I looked her over and she seemed okay. I picked her up and she complained because I was bothering her. I looked her over good, and did not see anything strange. She fussed at me when I set her down and she went back to her dirt bath and laid down there again, just making those little throaty hen sounds.
Otherwise, she has been running up to me immediately whenever she sees me. Even if she sees me through my kitchen window, she comes running over. She just stands there and talks to me. They have feed in their dish and I also put out scraps for them, and they have leftovers. I don't think it is due to hunger.
So tonight I go to close them in their hen house and when I entered, she climbed down from her perch and came over and started talking to me again. Unfortunately, I don't speak fluent hen and am having a really hard time understanding, but it seems like she is trying to communicate something to me.
She let me pick her up (she is usually friendly, but not eager to be handled). She did not try to escape or complain very much. I sat down with her and looked her over. She looks fine and I don't see anything amiss.
I am wondering if there is like a hen PMS. LIke maybe it feels weird to lay your first egg and she doesn't know what to do. Or she is just getting flooded with hormones.
What could it be? All the others are acting pretty normal. Any thoughts?
