Those island red going broody?

[LisaChick1]

I have a young Rhode Island Red who just started laying about 1 month ago. It is going into the cold season here and whenever I go down to the nesting boxes and she is in there she screeches like crazy fluffs her feathers and snaps at me if I reach near her... Is this just normal behavior for some hens when they lay (I've never had one with such a temper before) or could it be that she is going broody already? Seems like a strange time in the year to do so and she is so young... I have never had a hen go broody out of my whole flock so I am not very educated on the signs and behavior.
Any info would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[sourland]

She may be going broody, although it seems a bit early if she has only being laying for a month, or she may simply not like being disturbed while laying. If she starts staying in the nest over night, she is broody.

 

[LisaChick1]

Thank you for your response there's about 5 eggs in the box from my other hens that she is sitting on at the moment that I was hoping to collect when I first noticed this behavior yesterday and she is now on them again. I'll keep an eye. Apologies for the title... It's supposed to say Rhode Island, not those island...

Thanks again

 

[sourland]

I knew what you meant.

 

[cantarroso]

Interesting - I have a seven month old Rhode Island that also will not leave the nest - 2 days now but she did switch boxes so I grabbed the two eggs left. No roosters five hens - so all we have are unfertilized eggs right?. Should I do anything.

 

[aart]

They can go broody that young

Keep taking the eggs every day, unless they are fertile and you want her to incubate them.
If you don't want her to hatch eggs, best to break her broodiness sooner rather than later.


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 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:



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