Strange Behaviour

[frogga]

One of the girls has been behaving very strangely the last 3 days, she comes out as normal, then all day all she does is roam finding new places to sit and hide for hours. I've found her in the mower basket, a large flowerpot, hiding under a bush, quite happy. I only discovered this when I came across around a dozen eggs in amongst the bamboo canes when setting up wigwams for runner beans. Is she broody, or am I worrying over nothing.

Andrew

[Suechooks]

Sounds like she's getting a clutch of eggs together ready to go broody. When she is broody she'll sit tight all fluffed up and make sort of growly noises!

[chris]

Mine does that when I chuck her out of the coop. Searched high and low for her last night, thinking she must have got in a huff and escaped. Eventually found her crammed behind the coop (it's up against the side of my house).

[womble]

She's gone/going broody, start getting the broody cage ready.

[Feather]

Unless the eggs are fertile, ie you have a cockerel, and you want her to sit on them, you need to break her of the broodiness, as when she begins to sit she'll just stay there for days hardly eating or drinking and will lose a lot of weight and condition, not to speak of stopping laying. If you have a wire dog cage, or a small pen where she can't scrape out a hollow, put her in there with food (no treats) and drink, but no bedding or nesting material, for 2-3 days and by then she'll probably be back to normal. It's important that she can't make a cosy nest, as the lack of bedding will help to cool down the bare brood patch she'll have on her chest, and help her hormones to return to normal. Sounds a bit uncomfortable for her, but it's a quick and proven cure for a common problem which you shouldn't ignore.