Stupid question on age

[debai83494]

I have adopted our neighbor's hen. They put down their small flock in 2/06 and she was the last to go. When they opened the door, she fled and has been on her own every since. She has taken to my yard, eats under the birdfeeders and is currently roosting in my garage. No one knows how old she is but last spring she laid eggs for about a month. She is at it again this spring but the last several days she has taken to sitting in the hay box and only getting out to lay gigantic poop balls. I don't know how long chickens live to and could use some insight because I am worried about her apparent constipation problem. I'm telling you those poop balls are larger than her small eggs.

 

[M.J]

No need to worry about her poo it is normal to have some huge ones i have this hen and you'd think she was trying to creat a mind feild with gigantic poo's. also chickens can live for a very long time of 15-20 years if nothing happens like illness or preditors. have fun with your new hen:cd

 

[wren]

Is she broody? Maybe she has eggs under her?

 

[debai83494]

Well when the neighbor found about 8 eggs in the empty coop he took them away cause we didn't know how long they had been there. Since she was roosting on my car and laying in the coop we took straw and put in in a wooden box to try to get her to roost there (no poop on the car now). The next day she comes into the box and is having a fit, so I tried to give her water and feed but she just stood there clucking away. Then she left and went to the coop and this continued for about three more visits then it hit me she was upset about the eggs. I went to the garden and took one of the old ones, marked it with a sharpie and put it in the box. When she came back and saw it she quited down. Now we kept that egg in there and she would lay her eggs in the box nest but then get right off and go out till the night came and she went back to the box.

I was cleaning the box one day and accidently dropped her egg so I got one of my wooden eggs from the house. She has laid a few eggs with the wooden one but has slowed down and is now sitting in the box all day. She is not clucking much, just shrieking when she gets out to poop. Will be outside the garage for about an hour then its back to the box.

I sure hope she hasn't gotten it in her head to try and hatch that wooden egg. She is not eating much right now but she will drink water and I do put feed in the box for her and in the morning the food is gone so she is eating and drinking. She is not even fussing when the cats get up on the shelf to look at her.