I live in Los Angeles and when I left for work a week ago, there was a fully grown hen on my front porch - clipped wings, clipped beak, fairly freaked out. I've never kept chickens before...but I'm besotted with her. Our grassed yard is fully fenced @ 6-7' so she's free range during the day and in the coop from dusk to dawn.
She was really stressed the first day but for a week now she's been calm, very sociable, relaxed and mellow but quite active. During the day, she's definitely happy - eating bugs, grooming, eating scratch, drinking water, lots and lots of energy and follows me around...when I go inside she runs after me and clucks till I come outside again. All weekend she poked around in the dirt companionably while we gardened.
At dusk every night I put her in the coop. She seems fairly agitated at first and if I walk away she pecks unhappily at the wires. I stay there and talk to her until she scratches out a little nest in the hay, closes her eyes and goes to sleep peacefully.
MY QUESTION: Sometimes I hear a little cluck from the coop late at night, and when I check on her she's awake - cosy in her nest, but she looks like she's trying to crow...about every 30 seconds she cranes her neck out with her beak open, and strains forward. She did this the first day, but now it's only nocturnal. Each morning she's up and ready to go, eating, pecking, drinking, exploring.
I've been horribly worried. I don't know if she spends the whole night like this, or whether she only does it when I come out to check on her...
It's about 65 at night, and about 80 during the day. Her tractor coop is 3'x3' and the back nest is raised up about 6 inches from the floor and walled on three sides. She has scratch and water. The nest is made of alfalfa, timothy grass, and hay.
She was really stressed the first day but for a week now she's been calm, very sociable, relaxed and mellow but quite active. During the day, she's definitely happy - eating bugs, grooming, eating scratch, drinking water, lots and lots of energy and follows me around...when I go inside she runs after me and clucks till I come outside again. All weekend she poked around in the dirt companionably while we gardened.
At dusk every night I put her in the coop. She seems fairly agitated at first and if I walk away she pecks unhappily at the wires. I stay there and talk to her until she scratches out a little nest in the hay, closes her eyes and goes to sleep peacefully.
MY QUESTION: Sometimes I hear a little cluck from the coop late at night, and when I check on her she's awake - cosy in her nest, but she looks like she's trying to crow...about every 30 seconds she cranes her neck out with her beak open, and strains forward. She did this the first day, but now it's only nocturnal. Each morning she's up and ready to go, eating, pecking, drinking, exploring.
I've been horribly worried. I don't know if she spends the whole night like this, or whether she only does it when I come out to check on her...
It's about 65 at night, and about 80 during the day. Her tractor coop is 3'x3' and the back nest is raised up about 6 inches from the floor and walled on three sides. She has scratch and water. The nest is made of alfalfa, timothy grass, and hay.
