I have a golden comet that is one year old,everyday for the past week she has walked back and forth looking in the nesting boxes all day long,she takes a break every now then to go outside then she is back going back and forth and stretching her neck way out and looking inside the boxes and under them and then back and forth,do you suppose she feel off her roost and has brain damage?LOLShe also jumps in and out of the boxes,she is the only one that is doing that and I have 8 other hens.
Why is my hen acting this way?
Have you ever found broken eggs? Is she laying every day?
Think she is trying to go broody? Do golden comets ever go broody?? They say Barnevelders don't.. but they do!
Could be lots of things.. fun to watch and see.. as long as she is alright that is..
Yes I have found four broken eggs in the last four days,what does that mean?
This is here going back and forth,she is a sexlink and they are not suppose to go brooday
Here she is going the other way
I caught a hen doing that.. she was eating eggs.. Patrolling the nests and eating eggs.. My RIRs were watching and started to join in the feast.. I freaked!! Better get her out of there before any others get the idea!
I'm sorry to hear that.. you can't stop them when they start.
They can be broke from eating eggs, but it takes some doing. Build her a box about16x16 and just high enough fo stand up in. use hardware cloth on all four sides, top and bottom. use 2x2's for the frame. on the bottom using nips cut a 31/2x31/2 hole in one corner then bend the hardware cloth so it slopes sharply toward the hole so any eggs laid have to roll to the hole and onto soft shavings below. Keep her in this cage for about two weeks and after loosing all those eggs she will soon learn to forget the tastes and the availability of the eggs. I learned this from an old chicken farmer when I was a kid. My father had the problem of egg eaters and I remember what that old farmer told him. It made sense to me??? Remember one of the sides or top needs to open. Haystack
Thanks,I went on goggle and this fellow said his 100 year old grandmother told him to cure an egg eater was to get an egg blow out the inside and fill it with musturd and when the hen get a mouth full of musturd she will never egg another egg,he says he has used this method and it works
Make sure she is getting calcium, some chickens will start eating eggs if they need calcium. We had some that started to eat eggs so we added calcium and it stopped.
They also eat eggs if they are bored and don't have enough to peck or if they are overcrowded.
Not saying this is the case for you, just giving some of the reasons.
They are definitley not crowed there brandnew coop 12x16 and there run is 12x60 feet long,I filled up there oyster shell and they ate a lot of that,I had just grit in it before,hope this works.Told dh that we can not leave any eggs in the boxes anymore,we will have to check more often.I also put a head of cabbage in their run on a rope,they have a swing,a barrel with ahes in it and a big planter with sand dirt and ashes to dust bath in.Have any of you tried flock block?
Well, least it wasn't brain damage! LOL
I'm glad to hear these types of "cures"
Have you tried giving her a little added protein? Sometimes that helps.
Going to get some catfood today,that has potein in it,what else?
Chick starter has protein too. Sometimes you can get just a small bag of it. Don't use medicated though. You can also give them meat scraps. If you give them cat food make sure it is a better cat food otherwise they are getting a lot of junky ingredients.
They won't need too much, just a little and be sure they are getting the regular food they eat as well.
Our chickens love cat food. We have not given it to them, they find the cat bowl when they are out and about and chow down. We have had to make sure the cats food was all gone or hide the cat bowl. They love the stuff.
You can also put fake (ceramic or wood) eggs in the boxes that she can't break open and she will get tired of trying and learn that eggs aren't breakable (at least mine did...)
I took a spray bottle with water in it out to the coop this morning and everytime she started patroling I would squirt her,I got 5 eggs today and none broken,I went out every 20 minutes and she would be doing her patroling thing and I would squrit her and she would run outside mad as a wet hen,haha.I was out a little while ago and she was not doing that,I did get the cat food but noone wanted it.I`ll keep doing the squirt thing for a few days and see if this will stop her .I did put golf balls in some of the nests to.It was so funny one of the hens was in the nest with three golf balls tucking them all under her untill she layed her egg.
No broken eggs today so far!Spray seems to be working,I only caught her a few times today doing the back and forth thing.
Well that's great news!
After more research, Storey's books says to coat a few eggs with oil of ipecac from the pharmacy. The bird eats the eggs and throws up, it won't eat them anymore. Says that same technique can be used for feather picking.
I have wooden fake eggs.. but I had to gather more often, remove the culprit and it finally stopped.
I had nine eggs today out of nine hens,no broken ones and only caught her a few times doing the back and forth thing and squrted her.Great to know of all the things that I can try.Thnaks for all the info.
That's a great trick! I love it!