hikaribug
In the Brooder
- Apr 23, 2015
- 12
- 0
- 22
Hi all,
Am new to the forum and chicken keeping - have been keeping three hens for a few days
I'm in the UK, have a Columbian Blacktail, and Amber Star and a Light Sussex. They were purchased as point of lay hens but haven't started laying yet - hopefully soon! They're being kept in a walk-in run in the garden.
I just have a query about a strange behaviour my Blacktail (Rosa) has started doing today. She has been obsessively pecking her beak into the drinker over and over again for long periods of time. It looks like she's drinking but she doesn't tilt her head back afterwards, just keeps pecking and pecking into the water. I went out to take a video of her doing this a while ago and she'd been at it so long the feathers on her head were wet from the drops of water flying around!
If I go to the coop and disturb her (the hens came from a farm where they were fairly used to people being around but not at close quarters, so they are slightly wary still) she'll wander off and behave normally, eating pellets, digging at the grass etc. except that she will use her back foot to scratch at her wattle/beak/face (can't tell which) several times. This might just be because she's got her face wet and it's annoying, though!
I took a video of her doing this:
(apologies for the shaky camera in the first few seconds!)
Every time I look out of the window she is doing this and seems to have been doing it continually for most of the afternoon.
Perhaps she might forget about it overnight while she's in the coop and stop doing it tomorrow. I've tried taking away the drinker, rinsing it out, and putting fresh water in it, but she started pecking it again once I took it back outside a few minutes later.
She seems to be eating fine (in her breaks from pecking!), I can't see anything obvious wrong with her, or her poop (but of course I am a newbie to chicken care), she's been behaving normally up to this point, so I am not too worried for now - just wondered if anyone else had seen something like this?
Am new to the forum and chicken keeping - have been keeping three hens for a few days
I'm in the UK, have a Columbian Blacktail, and Amber Star and a Light Sussex. They were purchased as point of lay hens but haven't started laying yet - hopefully soon! They're being kept in a walk-in run in the garden.
I just have a query about a strange behaviour my Blacktail (Rosa) has started doing today. She has been obsessively pecking her beak into the drinker over and over again for long periods of time. It looks like she's drinking but she doesn't tilt her head back afterwards, just keeps pecking and pecking into the water. I went out to take a video of her doing this a while ago and she'd been at it so long the feathers on her head were wet from the drops of water flying around!
If I go to the coop and disturb her (the hens came from a farm where they were fairly used to people being around but not at close quarters, so they are slightly wary still) she'll wander off and behave normally, eating pellets, digging at the grass etc. except that she will use her back foot to scratch at her wattle/beak/face (can't tell which) several times. This might just be because she's got her face wet and it's annoying, though!
I took a video of her doing this:
Every time I look out of the window she is doing this and seems to have been doing it continually for most of the afternoon.
Perhaps she might forget about it overnight while she's in the coop and stop doing it tomorrow. I've tried taking away the drinker, rinsing it out, and putting fresh water in it, but she started pecking it again once I took it back outside a few minutes later.
She seems to be eating fine (in her breaks from pecking!), I can't see anything obvious wrong with her, or her poop (but of course I am a newbie to chicken care), she's been behaving normally up to this point, so I am not too worried for now - just wondered if anyone else had seen something like this?
