Sapphire OE very scared

[Silviaschicks]

Hi, I have a year-old Sapphire OE, and recently she's been really scared of everything. When my other girls or anyone in my family goes near here, she puffs up her feathers and tail and starts growling, like how she does when she's laying. She's also gotten super aggressive with my other two girls, and is constantly jumping on my BR and biting her. She's always jumping and flying around, and gets alarmed very easily. Yesterday, she was alarm-calling for no apparent reason. She's also constantly making this whimpery-clucking noise that she made when she broke her beak. Her strange behavior started two weeks ago, after the chickens attacked a rat in our yard. I got rid of the rat, and it was half dead, and I put rat poison in my yard, so I don't think there's another rat. Any ideas what's happening, and how I should fix it? Thanks for the help in advance!

 

[rosemarythyme]

She sounds like she might be going broody, actually. Does she sit in the nest boxes for extended periods of time?

 

[Silviaschicks]

Yes, she does, even after she's layed. I hope she's not broody, she's not even a year old. Do you have any tips on how to handle broody chickens? I've never had one before

 

[rosemarythyme]

Here's the behavior to look for. Does she puff up her feathers like a turkey, flatten down or growl if sitting on the nest, stay in the nest overnight, make a tik-tik-tik sound like a bomb, have bare patches on the chest/belly? If you see multiple of those signs, then she's broody/going broody and you need to decide if you want to hatch, or if you want to stop the behavior.

To break broodiness:
Broody jail: Put her in an isolation cage with some food and water, in sight of the others (in the coop if it's not too hot or in/near the run is ideal). A wire cage elevated to air flow under her would be the best option, however I've used everything from a brooder to a dog exercise pen.

Keep her in the cage around the clock for about 2 days. At that time, if she's shows fewer signs of broodiness (puffing up, flattening down and growling, tik tik tik noise) you can let her out to test her. If she runs back to the nest at any point (usually they don't do it immediately, but maybe after 15 minutes, maybe an hour) then she's not yet sufficiently broken and needs to go back to the cage for another 24 hours. Then let her out and test her again. Repeat until she's no longer going to the nest box.

IF the isolation cage is not safe for overnight stay (i.e. sits outside the run) then put her on the roost at night, and retrieve her from the nest box the next morning and put her back in the cage. It may take a little longer this way but better than letting a predator get to her.

 

[Silviaschicks]

ok. I have a wire cage that's 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide that's near the coop, is that too big?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Should work ok - one of my breakers is a dog exercise pen, 4'x4'.

 

[Silviaschicks]

Ok thank you!