Hens acting bored and restless for no apparent reason?

[gtoliver]

Hi, I currently have 8 red star and 2 black star chickens, all of which are about 4 months old. They stay in the coop at night, and in the run during the day. I give them 16% layer feed crumbles, fresh and clean water every day, and they have everything they need as far as I can tell. Recently, (as in the last couple of months) they have been acting restless, and generally kind of unhappy, and I'm not sure why. Every time I come near the run or coop, they will all follow me and make unhappy/annoyed growling and screaming sounds. Anyone have any ideas why they could be acting like this? Am I doing something wrong? Thanks!

P.S. This is my first year keeping chickens. I am still learning and I appreciate any advice and feedback.

 

[neo71665]

How big is the run?

 

[nao57]

Mine do this too...no matter what.

So it might just be food greed.

But to be fair, I'm not as knowledgeable at chickens as ducks. (And this is partly why I like ducks more. They are easier to interact with, and therefore figure out what's up.)

Someone else could offer more knowledge.

But to me it seems like with my 2 chickens, they always do this sort of pitiful cry that sounds similar to what you said, even when I've given them more feed than they eat, and with plenty of water and shade. And I'd tested this by coming back an hour after feeding them to see if lack of food was the problem of the 'sounding pitiful', and often the food was still there.

I supposed I can offer you one idea. And that is, when it sounds or looks like there's a fix needed, you can come back an hour or so after you do a fix to see what's changed and how the reaction is. Likely their cries will be the same still, but if they'd been sounding pitiful, it would be reasonable to see that a bunch of food is gone for example, or if you'd put up more shade that suddenly they'd be in the shade instead of out in the open. (Although my chickens prefer the shade under hidey hole type bushes more than the best shade under the apple tree. So their instinct for safety seems to be stronger than wanting air conditioning.)

Hope that helps.

 

[sourland]

Do you provide feed ad lib ?

 

[gtoliver]

How big is the run?

The run is just shy of 150 square feet.

 

[gtoliver]

Mine do this too...no matter what.

So it might just be food greed.

But to be fair, I'm not as knowledgeable at chickens as ducks. (And this is partly why I like ducks more. They are easier to interact with, and therefore figure out what's up.)

Someone else could offer more knowledge. . .

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the idea! I'll try that this week.

 

[gtoliver]

Do you provide feed ad lib ?

I leave a feeder in the run during the day so they have a constant supply of food. Also I refill it whenever it begins to get low.

 

[gtoliver]

Anyone else have similar behaviors from their chickens?

 

[Molly Mojo]

Mine crowd the doorway with grumbles and honks and growls and chirps.

I’m assuming some are grumpy in the mornings, some think I’m their food goddess, and some are plotting my demise (but, they need me for food-that’s why they complain).