Strange behavior

[HDchicks]

Hello All! We have a flock of 7 BO's they ae around 24 weeks old. Wehave been collecting most days 6 eggs. So we figure we have 1 gurl not laying yet.?.?.?.?. This afternoon we found our largest and what we think our most mature hen staying in the nesting boxeven when run was opened for free range she remained in the box. My wife picked her up from out of the bix and placed her on the ground where she layed puffed up and p.o.'ed for a minute. She then stood up and start to scratch and eat some. Then all of the suddened she started cackling real load and flapped her wings a couple times then proceeds to go backni. The run up the ramp and into the coop and immediately into a box...........have never seen this behavior out of our gurls and just wondering what yall think is going on with her?????

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Sounds like she might be going broody.

 

[member 373180]

X2. Yup, that's a broody. It's like they're suddenly possessed, isn't it? Is she growling at you yet?

 

[HDchicks]

Will a hen that age go broody?? We are very new to chicken farming. Lol

 

[HDchicks]

WV hasn't growled but man can she bite!

 

[Little Fuzzy]

Differently Broody. She wants to hatch some eggs. Do you have a rooster? I have been fighting broodiness in my one year old Wyandotte for three months. I'm pretty new to this so I thought I would see if she just worked herself out of it. No way she sat on the nest for a month and a half, lost a lot of weight. I finally bought the cage and put her in it for two nights. She had enough of that and started coming out into the yard again. She never started laying again though, and when my Silkie went broody the Wyandotte also went broody. She is back in the chicken jail. Read up on Broodiness.

 

[Elemes]

You have any intention on hatching some chicks??! Sounds like she does.

 

[HDchicks]

No rooster lol

 

[aart]

BO's are known for being broody.
The 6 eggs out of 7 pullets is often because not all birds lay every day.


You'll need to decide if you want her to hatch out some chicks, and how you will 'manage' it.
Do you have, or can you get, some fertile eggs?
Do you have the space needed? She may need to be separated by wire from the rest of the flock.
Do you have a plan on what to do with the inevitable males? Rehome, butcher, keep in separate 'bachelor pad'?
If you decide to let her hatch out some fertile eggs, this is a great thread for reference and to ask questions.
It a long one but just start reading the first few pages, then browse thru some more at random.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/496101/broody-hen-thread

If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, best to break her broodiness promptly.
My experience went like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest, I put her in a wire dog crate with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop and I would feed her some crumble a couple times a day.

I let her out a couple times a day(you don't have to) and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two.
Water nipple bottle added after pic was taken.

 

[HDchicks]

aart, thanks we will try the wire pen strategy not wanting any babies at this time......