A hen in trouble?

[Smiles Jr.]

I feel like a fool posting this because for many years we have had from 20 to 40 chickens and most of the time they were free ranged. Chickens were always just chickens. They were not pets. Now that I'm getting older we have allowed our flock to dwindle to 6 to 8 hens. And once in a while a rooster. But now that I have so few chickens I'm starting to get a little bit attached to them. I actually have feelings for them. Shhhh, don't tell anyone.

One one-year-old hen has been staying on the nest now for over a week. She has stopped laying entirely. She seems to be OK but when I open the nesting box to retrieve eggs each day she fluffs up her feathers and sticks her rear end up in the air. She also makes soft clucks and purrs while she's doing this. I have given her a thorough inspection twice now and I cannot see anything wrong. I'm sure she has not molted yet so maybe this is what she's doing but she has me worried as I have never seen a hen do this before. Could she just be getting broody? We do not have a roo at this time so none of our eggs are fertilized. Getting broody ain't gonna do her any good.

If she is really sick and infectious I wouldn't hesitate to chop her head off and bury her out in the field but I don't know. Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks.

 

[vfem]

She's just broody and prefers to hatch some babies and not lay eggs. This will pass in about a month, or give her eggs to hatch and she'll get over it when she actually has babies. Totally normal hen behavior!

 

[so lucky]

Oh, definitely get her some fertile eggs!

 

[ninnymary]

I have a buff orphington that goes broody on me every couple months. I separate her in the bottom of the coop with food and water. This keeps her away from the nest boxes. After a week there, she is "freed" and she goes back to being normal for awhile.
Mary

 

[so lucky]

I want so baaad for one of mine to go broody. I wanna get her some Marans eggs to hatch. I need dark brown eggs to go with the blue and tan!

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

yep! you have a broody on your hands! a couple of mine will get a little aggressive over protecting their eggs and will not hesitate to go for your hand if you try to touch them. usually they only give me a scratch. rarely a nip. mostly just growling at me. the moment you try to take them off the nest to move them and they will start the soft buc buc buc noise and start searching for their nest spot again.

you can get her a few rounded stones to sit on but if she's really trying to hatch she may not give them up until they 'hatch'. see if there are any locals that have fertile eggs in your area that you could either get or buy from them. if the girl is large fowl i wouldn't give her more than a dozen eggs. a bantam, depending on the breed might sit on about 6-8 depending on the egg size. my bantam cochins have tried hatching as many as they can try and pull under them. usually they can get a dozen bantam eggs under their fluff but the eggs won't all make it through to hatch because she can't fully cover unless she has learned the 'pancake' maneuver (tries to get as flat as she can over all the eggs).

 

[catjac1975]

Put food and water near her in the house so she doesn't starve herself sitting on real or imagined eggs.

I feel like a fool posting this because for many years we have had from 20 to 40 chickens and most of the time they were free ranged. Chickens were always just chickens. They were not pets. Now that I'm getting older we have allowed our flock to dwindle to 6 to 8 hens. And once in a while a rooster. But now that I have so few chickens I'm starting to get a little bit attached to them. I actually have feelings for them. Shhhh, don't tell anyone.

One one-year-old hen has been staying on the nest now for over a week. She has stopped laying entirely. She seems to be OK but when I open the nesting box to retrieve eggs each day she fluffs up her feathers and sticks her rear end up in the air. She also makes soft clucks and purrs while she's doing this. I have given her a thorough inspection twice now and I cannot see anything wrong. I'm sure she has not molted yet so maybe this is what she's doing but she has me worried as I have never seen a hen do this before. Could she just be getting broody? We do not have a roo at this time so none of our eggs are fertilized. Getting broody ain't gonna do her any good.

If she is really sick and infectious I wouldn't hesitate to chop her head off and bury her out in the field but I don't know. Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

OK and thanks for the replies. She's sitting on 3 golf balls now and I'm sure she's wondering why they are white and why they won't hatch. My neighbor always has fertile eggs so I'l get a handfull of them and see what happens. In all these years I have never paid much attention to chickens. They have always been DW's and the kids things. I'll let you knowhow things turn out. Maybe I'll feel like a new mom :/

 

[Ridgerunner]

Make sure you mark the eggs unless they are a color you can tell at a glance. I use a Sharpie and draw a circle around them so I can tell at a glance if they belong. Sometimes the other hens will lay an egg in the nest with her. As long as you check under her daily and remove those new eggs, they are still good to eat. Since they did not start incubation as the same time as the marked ones, they won't hatch even if you have a rooster.

Good luck with it.