Puffed Up Hen

[Mozer]

Please help. My 8 month old Welsummer hen is acting strange. For the past two days she has been sitting in one of the nesting boxes. She has her feathers all fluffed up and is making a lil chirping noise. She still continues to lay but she spends all her time in the box. She is normally quite vocal and active. She doesn't seem to have any other symptoms. She comes out to eat, but not for long, then right back into the box. Any ideas what is going on? The other 3 hens are behaving normally.

 

[iwiw60]

Well, it sounds to me like you have a broody on your hands! How many eggs are under her?

 

[Mozer]

She lays daily and I collect them from her daily. Normally she moves when I come to collect but the last two days she hasn't moved, I kinda have to move her butt to get to the egg.

 

[KayTee]

You've got yourself a broody hen - no question!

 

[iwiw60]

She lays daily and I collect them from her daily. Normally she moves when I come to collect but the last two days she hasn't moved, I kinda have to move her butt to get to the egg.

I forgot to ask in my first reply.....do you have a rooster that is fertilizing her eggs??? If so, I'd leave her alone and let her do her "broody thing". If not and she's just being broody and you want to break her of it here's a page with great help:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/search?q=broody+breaker

 

[KayTee]

Even if you don't have fertilised eggs to put under her, you can still get your broody to raise chicks if you feel like increasing your flock.

I have successfully bought day old chicks from a local breeder and put them under a broody hen, and she has accepted them and raised them to adulthood without any problem at all. You need to leave her being broody for two to three weeks, with a couple of fake (or real) eggs under her (three weeks is the normal length of time that eggs take to hatch). It makes certain that she is really broody, and more likely to accept the chicks when you introduce them. When you are ready, place the chicks in a box near to the nest so that she can hear them cheeping for an hour or two. Then carefully place one chick underneath your broody, and see what happens. If she accepts it and tucks it under her then you can add the others one at a time.

Although my broody always accepted the chicks I gave her, you have to be prepared for the eventuality that she just might reject the chicks. If this does happen then you would have to have a brooder (heat lamp etc) and enough space to be able to raise the chicks yourself for at least a couple of months until they are old enought to be integrated with the rest of the flock.

 

[Miyashi]

Broody broody broody.

 

[Mozer]

Thank you all so much for the help. I am a new chicken owner so I had never experienced this before. I was worried that she was ill. Thanks for the link too!!

 

[KayTee]

We all have to start somewhere, Mozer.

Don't worry - pretty soon you'll find that everything you worried about at first becomes perfectly normal!

As a bit of introductory reading, here is a link to an absolutely fantastic article by madwomn, with "10 things no-one ever told you about chicken keeping". We've all experienced one (or many more) of these things, and thought "what on earth...?" then immediately rushed to the internet to check if what's happening is normal for chickens. That's what is so great about BYC - no matter what you are going through with your girls, someone has gone through it before you, and has more than likely posted about it.

(That's also why it is so important to update your posts with a final outcome - nothing is more frustrating than finding a post by someone whose chicken had exactly the same symptoms as your own, only to find that they never posted an update to say what the problem was, or whether the chicken got better or worse with the treatment they gave.)


Welcome to the wonderful world of chicken keeping - you are in for a whole lot of fun!

 

[Mozer]

Thanks for the encouragement and the link KayTee. After reading the links about broody hens I am certain that is what we have!! We bought a large bird cage last night and set up our 'Broody Breaker'. I will keep her in there for the next few days then I'll try introducing her back to the rest of the flock. She sure doesn't seem pleased about being in this cage, so hopefully it will break her of the broodiness soon. I'll be sure to let y'all know if it worked. I'm just happy to know that she isn't ill!! Keeping hens has been a very exciting, challenging and rewarding experience!!