Natural Selection?

[justinwrites]

So I have a hen who I think is working on her first egg. Its hot here today, and she is insisting on being inside the hen house. But not where the hens usually lounge where it is semi cool and has water and such. NO! She has to sit as high up as she can get, admittedly higher than I expected and is facing the corner. It is hot up there and her wings are spread and she's panting. But she's been up there all day.

We had a close encounter with a hawk, could it be she's just scared? sigh.

 

[dewey]

I hope she's ok....have you been able to check her out all over for injury, illness, or eggbound (probably not eggbound but just in case)? She could be wary of going outside but staying up high on a roost all day in a hot corner seems much more than that, especially if the other hens didn't. In the meantime, if it's really too hot where she is perched I'd cool her down right away with water/misting at the least & offer her some sugar/honey water if nothing else is available & maybe some scrambled eggs & keep her in a cooler area for now and check her out all over to be sure she isn't injured or otherwise. Has she eaten or drank anything?

It's hard to say what might be going on or what advice to offer.

 

[justinwrites]

So far so good. She cooled off after the the heat of the day passed, but it really wasn't that hot yesterday. They weathered way hotter and will again today. I also have a second hen laying now, not sure which. Maybe that was what all the drama was lol. She did not seem injured, walking fine, fluttered down from the roost fine. My first inkling was that she was preparing to lay for the first time.