Odd Rhodie hen behavior

[TrystInn]

I live up on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound, so while it's fairly cold (around freezing at night at the coldest) it's not too cold. Nonetheless, our Rhodie Scarlett has decided she'd rather not lay in the coop most mornings, so she waits until I either open up the slot door to the pen or open the coop door, then she sort of squats down near my foot while expanding her wings a bit outwards and does a sort of odd chicken dance while grumblilng the whole while. Then she runs to one of the house's foundation vents and lays there.

If hubby lets her out and doesn't check the vent, she sits atop it and screeches until I come running outside to get it. Once I do, she calms down and runs off to forage with our ducks. (Scarlett really hates it when you don't find her eggs)

You know how it is - you spend hundreds of dollars building a lovely coop to spoil your gals - ours has loft nests (with their own feeder), two water sources, infared heat lamp and nests made from old drawers on the bottom level. All this and she prefers a rusty old foundation vent!

Granted, they are sharing the coop with 6 pullets and cockerels but the Rhodies have threatened them completely into submission, so I doubt it's a reaction to them. I even left them access to their old coop next to the new one to help them acclimate and feel familiar (Gods, am I ever trained, eh?) which the Rhodies love to perch on top of sometimes.

Any ideas? It's got to be the wierdest thing I've ever seen, but then I'm new to cheekins!

 

[farmin'chick]

She just wants to make SURE you know she's the one that laid that egg! I have some that will come and get me when they lay an egg, and will not rest until I collect it.

 

[gsim]

I have not heard of that before. I am a newbie too. Too cool that she calls for you to get her egg!

I have had two that jumped up on the flower-boxes of the coop to squawk at me while I am doing chores. Turned out that they had to lay an egg and I suppose they were telling me to let them come in to their nests! (I always keep them out during AM chores) As soon as I opened the pop doors, they muscled the others out of the way and went straight to the nests and laid eggs in front of me. I had that repeated a week later by another one. Never had one lay an egg in the run yet. Have had two on floor in corner, next to the two floor nests (that I put down just in case one could not get it thru her head to jump up to the nest box ledge).