sureyeawhatever
Hatching
- Sep 19, 2018
- 6
- 5
- 6
**Edited the chaos of the repeating post**
So I got a 12 week old Buff Orphington pullet back in April. It only took her a couple weeks to start laying and quickly became the head hen of the flock. About a month ago, we went broody. But it started while my husband a I were away on vacation for about 2 weeks and the 'feather baby sitter' didn't know what was going on so it got pretty bad. When we got home, we had to do our best to correct the situation since we weren't planning on getting chicks anytime soon (our city has a hen limit according to the amount of property you have and ours is 6. We already have 4 hens and Tractor Supply and chicken breeders near us will only sell a 'starter flock' or 6 chicks at a time) and we also couldn't get a rooster (also not allowed). We did our best to close off the nesting boxes after the other hens have layed, separated her from the flock at night so she wouldn't sleep in the boxes, and when all that failed, we put her in chicken jail for about 3 days. This seemed to work but ws then immediately followed by what seems to be a moult. But it isn't typical moult...she's losing feathers like crazy but in no particular pattern similar to what you'd expect....she just looks, scroungy. Fearing it was mites, I added Sevin 5% to their dust baths as well as DE because I'm not here to F-around. That didn't seem to make a difference and she was still messing with her feathers and really moody, now attacking one hen in particular. She typically doesnt let people near her and often lets out a quick 'scream' when you try to pet her before she runs away but today, she kept coming up to me and even briefly let me pet her. About 2 hours ago, she started crowing - loud - and not the typical 'egg song' but like "PAY ATTENTION TO ME NOW" squawking. This went on for about 20 mins before another hen joined. Then another, until I finally had a full on hen accapella group for my poor neighbors to listen to. I put them all back in the coop where they continued, all huddled at the far end, with the Buff Orphington on the outside, leading/seemingly guarding them from some invisible danger.
Has anyone dealt with anything similar? Did I cause some kind of weird hormone shift when I broke her from being broody? Did I break my hen? Help!
So I got a 12 week old Buff Orphington pullet back in April. It only took her a couple weeks to start laying and quickly became the head hen of the flock. About a month ago, we went broody. But it started while my husband a I were away on vacation for about 2 weeks and the 'feather baby sitter' didn't know what was going on so it got pretty bad. When we got home, we had to do our best to correct the situation since we weren't planning on getting chicks anytime soon (our city has a hen limit according to the amount of property you have and ours is 6. We already have 4 hens and Tractor Supply and chicken breeders near us will only sell a 'starter flock' or 6 chicks at a time) and we also couldn't get a rooster (also not allowed). We did our best to close off the nesting boxes after the other hens have layed, separated her from the flock at night so she wouldn't sleep in the boxes, and when all that failed, we put her in chicken jail for about 3 days. This seemed to work but ws then immediately followed by what seems to be a moult. But it isn't typical moult...she's losing feathers like crazy but in no particular pattern similar to what you'd expect....she just looks, scroungy. Fearing it was mites, I added Sevin 5% to their dust baths as well as DE because I'm not here to F-around. That didn't seem to make a difference and she was still messing with her feathers and really moody, now attacking one hen in particular. She typically doesnt let people near her and often lets out a quick 'scream' when you try to pet her before she runs away but today, she kept coming up to me and even briefly let me pet her. About 2 hours ago, she started crowing - loud - and not the typical 'egg song' but like "PAY ATTENTION TO ME NOW" squawking. This went on for about 20 mins before another hen joined. Then another, until I finally had a full on hen accapella group for my poor neighbors to listen to. I put them all back in the coop where they continued, all huddled at the far end, with the Buff Orphington on the outside, leading/seemingly guarding them from some invisible danger.
Has anyone dealt with anything similar? Did I cause some kind of weird hormone shift when I broke her from being broody? Did I break my hen? Help!
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