Polish hen stays in corner

[Jeff France]

Hello, I was given two beautiful Polish roosters, I bought a Polish hen last night with hopes of hatching her fertilized eggs, but she stays in the corner. How can I help her be more sociable?

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Hello, I was given two beautiful Polish roosters, I bought a Polish hen last night with hopes of hatching her fertilized eggs, but she stays in the corner. How can I help her be more sociable?

A few questions:
- did you have any other chickens before you were given the roosters? If so, how many, and what ages?
- how old are the boys? (cockerels = <1 year, roosters = 1 year and older)
- how old is the girl? (pullets = <1 year; hens are 1 year and older)
- are the boys trying to mate with her?

If she’s the only female, she might be completely terrified. 2 roos to 1 hen is a disaster, leading to overmating and perhaps death.

 

[Jeff France]

Yes, I have 7 pullets, less than a year old not laying yet, I believe the two Polish roosters are over a year old, the Polish hen, no idea her age, the boys are trying to mate with her, so she might be the only pullet of age? They don't seem to be mating with the other pullets. Are you thinking I need to put a couple of hens in with them?

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Is she penned alone with two roosters?

 

[Jeff France]

No, there are 7 pullets with them in the pen

 

[kattabelly]

Did she have time to see the other chickens before you put them all in together?

Can she actually see in general? She might need some feathers trimmed around her eyes.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It sounds like you may have another flock penned separately? If you do, how big is their area, how many chickens are in it, what age are they, and what sexes are they? Is that Polish female laying eggs yet? How much room do the two mature rosters, the polish female, and 7 pullets have? If you do have a different flock, why are those mature Polish roosters penned separately? Just trying to figure out what you are working with.

To me, whether or not that Polish female is laying eggs is a huge question. Their behaviors can change dramatically once they start to lay.

I personally do not believe that the ratio of males to females is that important. I've seen too many examples where ratios that freak some people out work great. I've seen where perfect ratios are horrible. Removing one of the boys might help, or it might not.

Adding more hens to the mix might help, or it might hurt. She would have to integrate with the girls. That might go very well or it might be pretty violent. You can always try it and observe. If you need to, be ready to separate them.

You want to hatch her eggs with her mated to a Polish male. It takes an egg an average of 25 hours to go through a hen's internal egg making factory. It can only be fertilized during the first few minutes of that journey. That means an egg cannot be fertile the day that a mating takes place. Say she was mated on a Saturday, Saturday's egg cannot be fertile from that mating. Sunday's egg might or might not be, depending on timing. Monday's egg will almost certainly be fertile from that mating.

A rooster does not necessarily mate with every hen in his flock every day. He doesn't have to. The sperm is stored in a special container inside the hen near where the egg starts its internal journey. That sperm can remain viable for between 9 days until more than 3 weeks, you don't know how long. This provides a possible solution and a potential problem. If that Polish female came from a flock with a rooster she may be carrying his sperm for another three or more weeks. You'll need to wait that long before you save any eggs to hatch to be sure it is one of your roosters. But if she came from a flock with no roosters you can separate her for a week after a mating and collect her eggs before needing to put her back for another mating. Just watch the timing.

I think you have a lot of options but I don't know which one will work best for you. Good luck!

 

[Altairsky]

Polish hens are often blind from their crest. Trim her crest until her eyes are clear from feathers and you're sure she can see around her.
I lost a polish hen because I didn't realize she was blind.

 

[Jeff France]

Thanks for the advice, it didn't occur to me that she may not be able to see, actually, I have a new pen ready, the pen they are in has plenty of room for the 10 total chicken I have in it, and I have a smaller pen with 2 older hens still laying and two other roosters, I'm thinking about moving the two other roosters to the new pen as well as the pullets, and moving her in with the other two hens, leaving the Polish roosters in a separate pen for now and later introducing them in. But even at the auction she seemed very shy and stuck her head down in the corner of the crate