Wierd Hen

[CoopedChik]

I have hen who likes to hide in odd places. And she's scared of the other chickens. But the other chickens don't bother her and she is only randomly scared of them. Just kind of forgets she's scared of them goes on with her day then all of a sudden one walks past her and she screeches and takes off. Also she doesn't really groom herself. I think I'm going to have to give her a bath soon with the show birds because her feathers looks kind of grimy. I think she's just a little off mentally.

She also follows me every where all the time and she is extremely lovey to me. Then suddenly last night she acted like she didn't know me at all. never had such a weird little hen.

 

[nurse_turtle]

I agree that her basket is a few eggs short...

 

[dirtsaver]

We have had chickens like that before. In fact we have a Welsumer pullet(about 10 months old) that screeches if we pick her up,squalls and runs if another chicken gets within 5 feet of her and just goes beserk in general for no apparent reason.

 

[dandydoodle]

Hmmm, I have a bird that acts like that sometimes. I thought he was not so bright and then I realized he can't see very well. In fact he does all those things the hiding, the running and screaming and staying right next to me. He doesn't groom much either. I realized he couldn't see that well when I tried to feed him treats from my hands and he consistently missed. You should try this and see if she has trouble hitting her target. I wouldn't be surprised if she has really bad eye sight. Let me know how your little experiment goes. If she has really bad eye sight you might want to be careful with letting her free range and you might want to make sure to try to keep the food and stuff in the same spots. My roo with this problem seems to do better with younger birds. I think he would hide because, he was scared the others would pull his feathers and that is also why he would hide. They didn't really pick on him, they treated him the same way they treat each other but, he was just extra sensitive. Anyway he is doing good now that I know what is wrong with him. I didn't have to make that many adjustments for him. Let me know.

Good luck

 

[dirtsaver]

Quote:
Good point dandy! We had an Orpington that had a hard time seeing treats in our hand. She did ok for the most part but did follow us around(she wanted to be picked up and carried a lot)and you could tell she was at least partly blind.

 

[pgpoultry]

I think dandydoodle's theory is probably right.

We have a blind ram and it took a lot of head scratching as to why the biggest of the ewe's twins was not feeding, bleated pathetically and didn't move around. Having bought him indoors and bottle fed him as he was going to die in the field, it was clear that he couldn't see. At age 3 he is in a small field with food and water always in the same place and is absolutely fine.

 

[CoopedChik]

Quote:
You where right she keeps missing the treats and snags my hand instead, it took her 4 trys to pick up a piece of popcorn in my hand. Well I'm glad I posted this now I know whats wrong with her. Thank you.

 

[dandydoodle]

Thanks, yea I think there might be a big chance that this is what it is. My chicken acted just like this. Once I quit letting him free range and started keeping him with younger birds so that he didn't feel so threatened made him so much happier. He is very happy having his water bowl and food bowl at the same place. When I go to feed them I talk to him a lot. I know he can see me but, I am not sure if he can see more then shadows or not. So I talk to him a lot and you can tell he gets a lot of comfort in hearing my voice. When I put the food in the bowl I make sure to shake the food often and gently and he knows that is the sound of food. Anyway original poster please let me know what results you get from your experiment and if you want to talk to anyone about your chicken you can PM me.

 

[dandydoodle]

Thanks, you are welcome. Good luck. Don't feel bad it took me 4 or 5 months to figure out what was wrong with my bird. I felt so bad, I had just thought he was a little slow. I had already seperated him from the big birds before I realized exactly what was wrong. I couldn't believe it took me so long to figure it out. Don't worry she will be fine.

Good luck

Quote:
You where right she keeps missing the treats and snags my hand instead, it took her 4 trys to pick up a piece of popcorn in my hand. Well I'm glad I posted this now I know whats wrong with her. Thank you.

 

[CoopedChik]

Quote:
Unfortunately i can't separate her with the younger birds she pecks at them

but the other adults are not bothering her too much, And I think she can see a little better than just shadows because the feed pan get moves around a lot and she always runs up to it, but not until after the other birds do so I think the other birds help her a little. Any way I feel bad becuase I should have realized this earlier when I had to help her find the water bowl occasionally.