Strange broody like behaviourfrom one of my hens

[Garona]

Hi guys!

Okay bear with me here...

I have a largish flock of ten hens and 7 chicks currently. The mommy hen and her chicks are in a seperate hutch and run inside the main run. I then have two other hutches - one in use and one empty. On top of this I have 4 seperate outdoor nest boxes in the main run on top of the broody hutch. They lay in the sleeping hutch and in the nest boxes.

The chicks will be moved to the empty hutch which is larger at around 4 weeks (they are meat birds). This will leave the broody hutch free.





Now, meet Rocky. Rocky is a medium sized hybrid between a Barred Rock and Speckledy. She is about 1 year old and has never gone broody before as far as we know. We purchased her at the beginning of this year and her previous owners (a chicken farm) promised she was pretty much guarenteed to go broody this year. I was skeptical because of the barred rock in her but still hopeful. She is one of our smaller breeds weighing at just 2025kg right now. But she has always held her own well against the others without trouble.

In this picture she is puffed up to quite a larger size than normal. She is in nest box number 4 sat on a large clutch of eggs. As you can see, shes given up on the last three but she has managed to get on top of most of them and is covering them well. I have seen a few breast feathers plucked out and she will squeal blue murder if you go near her.

Broody right? Nope.

She is continuing to lay eggs
and she gets off the nest as normal.
If i move her to a secure location where other chickens can't pester her off the nest in case that is the issue, she breaks immediately and goes into a full strop squealing until she is returned to the main run. Possibly because the only suitable place right now until the other chicks are moved is the empty hutch which is very far away from the other birds in chicken terms so clearly she doesn't like being alone.
I have added a pile of dummy eggs under her in case she just didnt have enough eggs yet. Nope. Not good enough.

Is she going broody or just suddenly a stroppy egg layer? Im totally confused! She seems ot behaving like a broody but she isnt broody. WTH lol.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Hi guys!

Okay bear with me here...

I have a largish flock of ten hens and 7 chicks currently. The mommy hen and her chicks are in a seperate hutch and run inside the main run. I then have two other hutches - one in use and one empty. On top of this I have 4 seperate outdoor nest boxes in the main run on top of the broody hutch. They lay in the sleeping hutch and in the nest boxes.

The chicks will be moved to the empty hutch which is larger at around 4 weeks (they are meat birds). This will leave the broody hutch free.





Now, meet Rocky. Rocky is a medium sized hybrid between a Barred Rock and Speckledy. She is about 1 year old and has never gone broody before as far as we know. We purchased her at the beginning of this year and her previous owners (a chicken farm) promised she was pretty much guarenteed to go broody this year. I was skeptical because of the barred rock in her but still hopeful. She is one of our smaller breeds weighing at just 2025kg right now. But she has always held her own well against the others without trouble.

In this picture she is puffed up to quite a larger size than normal. She is in nest box number 4 sat on a large clutch of eggs. As you can see, shes given up on the last three but she has managed to get on top of most of them and is covering them well. I have seen a few breast feathers plucked out and she will squeal blue murder if you go near her.

Broody right? Nope.

She is continuing to lay eggs
and she gets off the nest as normal.
If i move her to a secure location where other chickens can't pester her off the nest in case that is the issue, she breaks immediately and goes into a full strop squealing until she is returned to the main run. Possibly because the only suitable place right now until the other chicks are moved is the empty hutch which is very far away from the other birds in chicken terms so clearly she doesn't like being alone.
I have added a pile of dummy eggs under her in case she just didnt have enough eggs yet. Nope. Not good enough.

Is she going broody or just suddenly a stroppy egg layer? Im totally confused! She seems ot behaving like a broody but she isnt broody. WTH lol.

A hen who has begun to set will cease laying eggs, so I strongly suspect that another hen is laying in Rock's nest.

What is the use for a hen adding to a clutch of eggs if the new eggs will never hatch or become chicks? Egg laying beyond those that have a chance of hatching is a waste of resources to both Mother Nature and Rocky.

Brooding behavior will usually totally change a hens personality. They are very happy indeed to be sequestered while sitting, or removed from the flock dynamics. Everything being equal a hen will hatch more and better chicks on her own than she will if she has a dozen or two other hens helping her.

If you want chicks and Rocky is broody as it sounds like she is, how are you going to separate her from the nest location that she has already imprinted on? It is difficult after the fact to force a setting hen to give up her chosen nest location and persuade her to incubate in a spot of your choosing, a spot that is foreign to her. Hens are just pig headed that way.

 

[Garona]

I haven't had problems with choosing a new location for brooding than that of the hen before so that concept is a little alien to me but one I have considered.
Alas she is definitely still laying she is the only one of my chickens that lays brown eggs so she is quite distinctive!
I'm adopting all the rules I usually apply to a brood and she's having none of it.
I have removed her complete in box without disturbing her and put her in the empty hutch today for another attempt at keeping her broody. (The one handy thing about single modular nest boxes)
She has stayed sat on the eggs for now so far. She has also laid today I can see and she is sat on an egg from our RIR too. The rest are dummy eggs strategically placed in the boxes to encourage broodiness she has moved the eggs around a few times now and tucked them all in under under this time. Perhaps things just weren't "quite" right for her over the last few weeks and now she will set?

 

[Garona]

Funnily enough my current mother hen with 7 chicks was purchased while she was broody. We drove 45 minutes back and she right away chose a new nest and fought like hell for it too. So we had 3 separate sections one for old flock one for new flock and one for the broody and viola, chicks in a strange home lol she really was determined!

 

[Garona]

she is still not setting!

 

[Garona]

she is now back to normal with no brooding and still no clue why she was doing that

 

[sjturner79]

she is now back to normal with no brooding and still no clue why she was doing that

I don't know but some of Brodie's will only brood in a spefic spot and no where else.

 

[Garona]

I thought that might be it but when i left her be, i think the others kept kicking her off the nest, they all liked that one particular nest for a while.
It looks like i have that issue with one of my light sussex. I dont expect her to go hardcore broody being a sussex and all, but she has stopped laying... which i have chopped up to old age but now she refuses to go anywhere but the one nest i cant let her brood on. It's on a mezanine and currently being used by my last load of chicks and mummy hen. Le Sigh.