Need help with weird chicken behavior

[Anotherday@thefunnyfarm]

We currently have 3 bantam cochin - not quite a year old yet... all have laid... and currently should be laying - I've already had 2 go broody - got them fertilized eggs and they hatched and went back to normal - one has returned to broody state but that's a gripe for another day.

My biggest problem is... I have one that spends her entire day & night most times - on the very top roost inside the coop - she's not laying... she does come down to eat and then returns back to the roost. This behavior has been going on for months now... and I'm really starting to wonder if I just got an emo chicken or something...

Is there something wrong with her? She appears fine - no problems walking... eating.. gripping at the younger chicks (we have 11 - we're waiting to see who's a girl to decide how many we actually keep - we have neighbors and would like to keep them happy.. i'm thinking roosters would NOT make them happy). So what do I do? We let her spend the night outside - in hopes of breaking her from her weird anti-social behavior... and we take her down from the roost all the time - but she just goes right back up (after yelling at us for a few minutes).

So what's the deal?? Shouldn't she be laying an egg - I can't remember the last time we got one from her? Is she broken? Did we get a defective chicken? Help!!!

 

[luvzmychickens]

try taking her out of the coop and interesting her in somthing else... like a bucket of scraps, im new to the hole broody but one of my Australorps Kimber has gone broody and this is wat i do. i now it can B anoing at times but keep on trying!!!

 

[drumstick diva]

I think she is trying to go broody and hasn't worked out the details in her mind yet. Is it possible to close the coop door so she'd have to be outside with the others. Maybe if you got her to sit on an egg in the nest box, or even a golf ball - you could see if she stays and wants to brood. If so get her more eggs and let her work for her keep that way.

 

[Anotherday@thefunnyfarm]

we really aren't interested in hatching anymore eggs... (i know broody is what most BYC'ers would love - but not so much for us). We didn't really have a great way to separate them - other than putting them in our yard wagon - that wasn't that much fun.

I could get the hubs to close the door in the morning - but that would close them off from the nest box - so that really won't work either.

Sigh... LOL - anyone near Tallahassee, Fl - needs a weird kinda sorta broody hen?