Stressed hen needed to lay her egg

[jonezjollyfarm]

So yesterday I took advantage of the end of my vacation to deep clean my coop before it gets cold. Everything in my coop is free standing so I had to work fast to get the nesting boxes back in. After I got everything back in one of my hens was confused or something. She almost went into a panicked state. She would go in the coop and walk around then run along the fence and try to fly out. When they first started to lay her any my other 2 ee's would act similar but they were trying to get to the rooster who hadn't been integrated into the flock just yet. After I put him in that behavior stopped. I wasn't really sure how to help her, I tried herding her into the coop and into a nesting box. I was reallygetting concerned because I know being stressed out like that is bad for them. I finally decided she's acting like a new layer I should probably treat her like a new layer and ran and got a clutch of eggs and put them in a box and showed her. She jumped right in that box and laid an egg.

Any idea why she acted like that? I put everything back exactly the way it was. The only change was fresh litter.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Had they dug out nest in the previse litter? I use hay and they make little nest out of it that might be why she was freaked out maybe?

 

[jonezjollyfarm]

No I use pine shavings because it's less expensive. We have like a hay/ straw shortage in our area so it's gotten quite expensive. I have 4 jumbo nesting boxes that 2 hens can fit comfortably in. I'm at a loss for her behavior.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Chickens can be weird honestly i have girls that follow me around knowing they wont get a treat and others that wont come near me and then some who try to come in the house but all have different additudes you might just have a chicken who is really does not like change even the slightest.

 

[aart]

She was probably just thrown for a loop over all the activity, especially if she needed to lay and the nest was gone, she'll get over it pretty quick.

Putting the clutch of eggs in the nest was good move, helped her get back on track.

I've found that just changing out the shavings can make them a bit nervous at first.
They can get nervous about any little thing changing even just for an hour or so.

 

[jonezjollyfarm]

None of them were thrilled I was cleaning house. I think they were curious to know what I was doing more than anything. They also know I go in and take the eggs which they don't like. That one hen in particular was just super ticked off.

 

[aart]

Some are more tolerant of my presence than others, the more time I spend out there the more tolerant they seem.

 

[jonezjollyfarm]

Oh I spend more time out there than I do anywhere else. Heck if my coop was bigger id probably sleep out there. I even built a enclosure for my house cat out there so he would stop being so jealous of me spending so much time out with the chickens.