Puffed up hen

[teaton]

Just started today, I noticed one of my hens is puffing up and more vocal than usual I saw her kind of go after the other chickens like a rooster too. She's still walking eating ect just fine, she's not showing any other signs of an illness or injury and isnt puffed up all the time but does it alot,I'm wondering if this is the begging of an illness or if she's got an egg stuck or if she's going broody she's a production red and I know they're really not the broody type, and she's not sitting on any of her eggs so idk. How can you tell if an egg is stuck?

 

[sourland]

It sounds as if she is about to go broody.

 

[teaton]

So do I leave her eggs for the next few days, week?

 

[sourland]

If she is indeed broody, give her as many eggs as you want her to incubate. Make sure that other hens do not add to her clutch and in 21 days you will have chicks.

 

[teaton]

If she was sick or had an egg stuck she wouldn't be acting normal other than puffing up and being aggressive would she? I've never had a broody hen, she will be 1 in September and havent been broody yet so I'm kinda afraid this could be the onset of something eles

 

[battagliac]

Sounds like a broody hen and nothing else to worry about. When hens get sick they usually slow down, lose energy, and get lethargic. If she is broody, she'll want to spend hours, days, and even weeks sitting in the egg box. It's her instinct to sit on eggs and hatch a clutch of chicks. We have a separate cage (a wire dog cage elevated on an open frame, so with air on all sides) that we put broody hens in (with food and water of course), and they usually come out of the brood in about 3 days of not being able to keep their breasts warm (this triggers hormones which keeps them broody longer, so the cage helps. Others recommend putting ice under them, but that didn't work for us and was way too much work. Search this website for "broody hen" and you'll find past posts about this with a lot of good information. We were in your shoes about 4 years ago and now we're self-proclaimed experts

 

[junebuggena]

Give her the eggs you want her to hatch, all at one time. Mark them and check in the morning, when she gets up for food and water, for any that might have been added by other hens. This way, all the eggs will hatch within 48 hours of each other.
Gradually adding eggs is a good way to kill developing embryos. Once the first couple chicks are ready to leave the nest, she takes them to food and water and will not come back to sit on the remaining eggs.

 

[teaton]

What if I had already brought the eggs in and they sat on the counter for 4 hours? They aren't warm anymore, wouldn't the eggs be dead? Or can I put them back in and they'll be fine?

 

[junebuggena]

They will be fine. Eggs will stay viable for about two weeks. People have even hatched eggs that were refrigerated.

 

[junebuggena]

Wait till she is fully committed to sitting. After a hen has been on a nest for three days and nights, odds are pretty good that she will sit for the full 21 days that it takes to incubate chicks.