Broody??

[scalci]

hello,

I recently adopted 2 hens that are 10 months old. They are in a quarantine pen now with an egg crate nesting box.

One of the girls laid an egg on the ground next to the nesting box and is protective of it. She’s not sitting on it but she goes about her business until you go near the pen where the egg is. THen she runs over and tries to peck the crap out of you when you act like you’re gonna take it.

Is this broody? I only find info about chickens sitting on their eggs, nothing good like this. What should I do? She’s typically super friendly!

 

[Abriana]

Just sounds a bit egg obsessive. Not broody. Make sure she knows that you are the boss, not her, peck her with your finger when she tries to peck you from the egg. This isn’t mean, but you need to establish dominance over her. Don’t peck her hard, but enough that she knows what you mean!

 

[mgbantams]

Broody hens sit on their eggs for most of the day. It doesn't sound like she's broody to me. Perhaps she's just hostile, or maybe you are spooking her somehow?

 

[Ladybird CA]

What kind of hen is she? Was the egg laid today? Is this her first egg since you adopted her? If not, how did she behave with any eggs before?

 

[chicken4prez]

Just sounds a bit egg obsessive. Not broody. Make sure she knows that you are the boss, not her, peck her with your finger when she tries to peck you from the egg. This isn’t mean, but you need to establish dominance over her. Don’t peck her hard, but enough that she knows what you mean!

X2

 

[scalci]

What kind of hen is she? Was the egg laid today? Is this her first egg since you adopted her? If not, how did she behave with any eggs before?

I have 2 hens that I adopted from the same farm, they’re red sex links. They’re both together in the pen and I have gotten one other egg 2 days ago. It was laid in the same place as this one. But neither hen cared when we went in and got it. Both are super friendly and always come right over (but not aggressively). This hen that’s guarding the egg is the friendliest. She follows us around, she lets me pick her up. She even sat in my lap without me holding her there the first day I got her. She’s super sweet so I’m very surprised.

 

[scalci]

Just sounds a bit egg obsessive. Not broody. Make sure she knows that you are the boss, not her, peck her with your finger when she tries to peck you from the egg. This isn’t mean, but you need to establish dominance over her. Don’t peck her hard, but enough that she knows what you mean!

I absolutely will make sure I do this! I am very attached to this hen. She’s beautiful and she has one of the best personalities of all the chickens I’ve had. So I definitely want to make sure she knows I’m the boss so we can have a good relationship with none of this possessive nonsense!

 

[Ladybird CA]

I haven't heard of red sex links go broody before, but maybe someone had one that did. How did she behave with today's egg?