Hope you don’t mind but I have a chicken question. Have been keeping chickens for ten years (and quail). For the first time one of the hens went broody. She was in a coop without a rooster, but I have a rooster and free range hens also. I wasn’t sure she was really broody, so I only placed one fertilized egg under her and removed her eggs. Well, wonder of wonders she hatched the egg and is now “raising” the chick. The question is this — her tail is pointed downward and there is a corresponding hump in her back, just like she was when sitting on the nest, presumably to keep all drafts away from the nest. The chick is three weeks old and her tail is still down and her back slightly hunched — is this normal?
I believe this is normal behavior from a hen who is "advertising" to a rooster that she's not available for mating since she's busy raising chicks. We've had a lot of mama hens who stay fluffed up when they hatch chicks, and the roosters leave them alone as a result.
Got that right!
ReplyDeleteTook me a minute - but say it all
ReplyDeleteThat is absolutely hilarious!
ReplyDeleteTsk.. tsk.. tsk..
ReplyDeleteI saw it a couple of weeks back not quite ROFL, but more than a wry grin...
Hope you don’t mind but I have a chicken question. Have been keeping chickens for ten years (and quail). For the first time one of the hens went broody. She was in a coop without a rooster, but I have a rooster and free range hens also. I wasn’t sure she was really broody, so I only placed one fertilized egg under her and removed her eggs. Well, wonder of wonders she hatched the egg and is now “raising” the chick.
ReplyDeleteThe question is this — her tail is pointed downward and there is a corresponding hump in her back, just like she was when sitting on the nest, presumably to keep all drafts away from the nest. The chick is three weeks old and her tail is still down and her back slightly hunched — is this normal?
I believe this is normal behavior from a hen who is "advertising" to a rooster that she's not available for mating since she's busy raising chicks. We've had a lot of mama hens who stay fluffed up when they hatch chicks, and the roosters leave them alone as a result.
Delete- Patrice