Teenage chickens?

[ChicksInSB]

Hello to everyone, I have been getting information from this forum for a while, but this is my first post.

I need help, my wife and I live in the city and we thought it would be a great experience for our two sons to have "pet chickens". We bought 3 chicks during the summer: a Bantam, a Golden Laced Polish, and a Bard Rock.

So far so good, Bantam and Bard Rock are laying perfect eggs and behave wonderfully. BUT, the GLP is like the teenage child from hell. Not laying eggs, doesn't obey any rules, wakes everyone up in the morning calling at the top of her lungs (she doesn't recognize her own gender), and is very skittish around us all.

The only real problem we have is the LOUD calling. We have tried everything, taking her out of the coup and petting her to calm her down, squirting her with a water bottle, throwing extra feed, etc.

Is this normal? The local feed store says she is a teenager and to wait and see. It seems to be something else, but we are very new to this.

ANY ADVICE WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

 

[rosyposyosy]

If she's (maybe a HE?) is loud, she will probably be loud the rest of her life. When in the summer did you get the chicks? My Barred Rock is 24 weeks, and still not laying.

EDIT: What color eggs are you getting? Maybe she IS laying. Polish lay small white eggs. What kind of bantam do you have? That would also help on figuring out who is laying.

 

[ChicksInSB]

Thanks for the reply. We got them in late June and they were 2 weeks old (so approx 27 weeks). We are getting little white eggs (Bantam), and large tan eggs (Bard Rock). We have actually seen those two laying, but not the GLP.

 

[silkiechicken]

Large tan? BR should have brown.

 

[SpottedCrow]

What kind is the Bantam?

Bantam is just a size of a breed sort of like Miniature, Toy and Standard Poodles.

 

[Catalina]

Do you have any pictures?

 

[ChicksInSB]

Ok, our Bantam is an old English Game Bantam and she is laying the tan eggs. Our Barred Rock is laying brown eggs (my husband who did the earlier postings was a little off in his colors

).

I will post some photos tomorrow. In the meantime I think I came up with an idea as to why our Golden Laced Polish is so noisy. It seems to be consistent with her food; they always have food available in their feeder, but if it is not FULL at the base she is noisy. Also, it's been raining here and so we put the food inside the henhouse last night. I don't think she likes the food inside the henhouse.

Since the food wasn't outside this morning when she walked out of the henhouse, I think that's why she was 'calling' us. After many trips outside to see what could be wrong, I let them out of the coop gate and moved the food from the henhouse to the coop and then all was quiet.

When it started raining again, my 10 year old went and put the food back inside the henhouse.....and....she started making noise again!

If anyone has had similar behavior regarding picky hens and their food I'd love to hear from you. I hope the noise is only because she has active hormones right now and will stop as soon as she starts laying.....our feed store told us this can be very typical until they lay. I'd hate to have to deal with this her whole life

Thanks for all your replies so far!

 

[Wildsky]

Quote:
I've never heard of that before....

 

[SpottedCrow]

Polish, like Leghorns and Anconas are light breeds which means that they can be absolute lunatics and catch them is nearly impossible without help! My Leghorn raps on the window if the feedbowl is empty and bikbikbikbikBIKBIK!! until you come and fill it.

 

[fivebigreds]

As with any 2 year old she is demanding your time and attention.