Some fish for the girls

Occasionally I give the girls some fish as a treat. I give any fish that is in olive oil. A small tin is low cost and gives the girls about a teaspoon of fish each. It adds a bit of protein which is benificial when they are moulting.

Speckles seems to have been moulting forever and I am still picking up loads of her feathers and Rusty is moulting too.

Dandelion, Cinnamon and Apricot are laying again as well as Freckles who hasn’t taken a break for ages. Dandelion’s egg had a good shell. I think the stress of Rusty’s prolapse triggered her to moult more than usual but if that keeps her from laying then I happy about that. The longer break she takes from laying the better.

I put the fish into four little dishes.

Some fish for the girls

Apricot is missing as she is in the nest box

Speckles is being mother hen to Dandelion, she was doing the same to Cinnamon a little earlier

Apricot has just laid her egg

Cinnamon and Apricot have the fish to themselves

The three amigos sharing the fish

By the end of the day the dishes were empty and I knew that all the girls had had a share.

Speckles continues to behave like a mother hen to a brood of chicks. She calls the little girls to any treat and picks up bits of the treat and drops it in front of them. I have only ever seen this behaviour on videos of mother hens with chicks.

I have never come across anyone else who has reported this behaviour with an unrelated hen and adult girls, albeit, little girls. She is often sat in the run surrounded by her little girls. It is the most peculiar but endearing behaviour and we have often speculated how long this behaviour will continue. She has been behaving like this for four months now, since her and Emerald became the only two bigger girls in the flock.

Freckles and Rusty are firm friends but when it comes to the treats Rusty will peck Freckles out of her way. It isn’t in a chicken’s nature to be unselfish and when it comes to treats it’s every girl for herself so it is very odd to see Speckles giving treats to the little girls and often foregoing them herself.

When I dig for worms the best of friends run around the run trying to take possession of the worm but if Speckles gets one she places it in front of the nearest little girl. I would be interested to know if anyone has come across this before. I will update when this behaviour changes because even real chicks have to grow up and their mums eventually stop mothering them. I suspect it would change when Speckles comes back into lay but that isn’t usually until the end of February which is a long time for a hen to act as a mother.

I don’t have the technical knowledge to put on a video or sound but I did let my mum listen to Speckles over the phone recently when I gave out the bedtime treat. She makes so much noise as she excitedly calls the girls that my mum asked how she managed to get any herself and I replied that she often doesn’t.

We are quite sure that in Speckles we have the nuttiest of chickens.

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10 Responses to Some fish for the girls

  1. marion.pharo says:

    Such a sweet girl.

  2. Amy Sanchez says:

    I need to do this for my girls. Now everyone is molting.

    I had a hen, Ginger, who would “tid-bit” or pick up a treat and drop it for the others. Even though she had never gone broody. She’d give away her meal worms. I made my hubby come watch it as I knew no one would believe me. My gut told me she really wanted to be a mama and just never went broody.

    • That is really interesting. I hadn’t come across this before. Speckles too, has never gone broody. I think that being just her and Emerald with five little girls has sparked the mothering instinct in her. I think like you say that although she has never gone broody she just wants to be a mum.

  3. Kevin says:

    Chicken behaviour is strangely fascinating.

    You should be able to upload and insert a video the same way you do with pictures although the file size of a video will be larger and that could cause problems.

    • I am not technical at all. My eldest son (my I.T. guy) helped me to set up my blog. He made me a special programme which we call the “blog resizer”. It automatically makes all my photos the right size to put on my blog. He knew if I had to crop photos myself I would never have the patience and a blog really needs photos. I am so grateful to have this. It makes it so easy for me.

  4. Sophie says:

    It’s so lovely to see that Rusty is recovered and the peace and harmony in your little flock. It was a heart-wrenching thing for you to do but rehoming Peaches and Barley was really the best thing you did.

    just to let you know I shut my girls out of the house all day (because of the broody season) and they just lay their eggs in a corner of the run but I have one girl who has been broody for at least a month. I tried her in a broody cage but that didn’t work and just made her really aggressive with the other girls when I let her out for a bit of exercise
    so I’m going to carry on as I am. Interestingly the other girls haven’t gone broody once since I started this routine.

  5. I have thought so many times that it was the best thing for my flock to rehome Peaches and Barley. It transformed my flock.

    I think I have been quite lucky with my broodies. Freckles only went broody once and is my best layer. Rusty was my most broody but by keep taking them out of the nest box every time I go in it has only taken three days to break them. Apricot only took two days and Cinnamon one day and it has only happened twice. Dandelion has never been broody so far. I am also lucky that they are not aggressive. Having had Topaz who was an extremely aggressive broody I know what it can be like. Rusty does chase the other girls when I take her out of the nest box but it doesn’t last long.

    I can’t imagine having a broody girl for a month. It’s interesting that the others haven’t gone broody since though.

  6. David Anderson says:

    It is unusual behaviour from Speckles, doubly so as she only started since the little girls came on the scene. I have 2 hens who do something a bit similar, although never drop things for the others. Both BC, one of my chocolate wyandottes and Scaley, my aged welsummer, call like broody hens to their chicks when they first reach the food in the mornings. Strangely enough, despite the very many broodies I have, neither of these has ever gone broody. Only 2 broody at the moment, probably because most are moulting and have stopped laying: egg production is seriously down.

    • After Amy’s reply and now your’s I am wondering if this behaviour is more likely with girls that have never been broody. Working on instinct only, I think the combination of Peaches and Barley leaving the flock and just Speckles and Emerald being left alone with five little girls, added to the end of egg laying due to starting to moult, has kicked this behaviour off. Speckles is really behaving like a mother hen in all ways. She sits surrounded by the little girls. She calls long and loud when treats go in and she picks up seeds and drops them in front of the little girls. She does this for any food item or any treat and sometimes she calls them and it might just be a bit of grit. It is quite amazing to see her.

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