Very odd chicken behaviour

Before I start today’s post I just want to give an update on Jasmine. Today she has been completely back to normal and she even has more colour in her comb. I now think that yesterday’s dozing in the morning was because the brooding and then collapsing twice had taken it out of her.

I have decided not to give her the antibiotic as I feel that there is no need and trying to put it in her beak is just more stress for her. It has a years date on it so I will keep it.

Jasmine looks so much better

Vanilla has now been broody for two weeks and Flame has been broody for one week. Over the last few days I have found that Flame has been on top of Vanilla and I have worried about Vanilla getting smothered. I have tried to separate them out a bit and Flame will then take Vanilla under her wing.

I realised that Flame was mothering Vanilla and this is perpetuating the broodiness for the pair of them. Flame thinks that she has a chick to brood and Vanilla is being kept warm.

This was proved further when I got them out this morning for a break. Flame called Vanilla to tit bits just like Speckles used to with her girls. Flame was definitely showing a bit of mothering. Vanilla then followed Flame out into the run and they had a dust bath together.

Flame and Vanilla dust bath together

I decided that this brooding situation would probably go on for a long time if I didn’t try to do something about it. I decided that when I got back home at lunch time I would get the two of them out and then when they returned to the shed I would take Vanilla out and block the pop hole to keep them apart.

After lunch I got Vanilla and Flame out of the shed and when they went back in I carried out my plan. I watched and took photos while sweeping the patio and underneath the nest boxes.

Vanilla can’t understand why she can’t back in the shed

Vanilla jumps on the “doorstop”

I suddenly had a light bulb moment. I wondered why I hadn’t just shut both of them out and try to break both of them at once so I got Flame out. This just proved the mother chick relationship and provided the most bizarre chicken behaviour that I have ever seen.

Vanilla kept going to Flame and outstretching her wings. She would also try to get Flame’s attention by tapping her beak on the back of Flame’s neck and Flame was remarkably tolerant with her.

Vanilla displays her wings

Flame and Vanilla are face to face

Vanilla has her wings outstretched

From another angle

The next minute Vanilla was pushing herself underneath Flame and I realised that all the outstretching of her wings was chick behaviour.

Vanilla forces herself underneath Flame

This is mother and chick behaviour

Vanilla appears to have regressed back to being a chick. At this point I decided to let Flame go back in the shed and block Vanilla out again. If I leave them to settle like this on the patio it will only prolong the behaviour.

While Flame was in the shed Vanilla approached Ebony and started the same behaviour with her. Ebony was having none of this nonsense and quickly walked away.

I later got Flame out for another break and Flame went to the food dish and broke up some pellets, dropped them on the floor and called Vanilla to them. Vanilla kept trying to get underneath Flame while Flame was trying to eat pellets and a couple of times Flame simply stepped over her.

I ended up opening the pop hole and letting Flame back in but blocking Vanilla as she tried to follow.

I have no idea how long this will take to break. I have never seen anything like this before. When Speckles was mothering her girls they just took advantage of her calling them to treats and protecting them but they didn’t regress into full on chick behaviour because Speckles wasn’t ever broody.

This is very odd behaviour and it will be interesting to see how long it will take to break them out of it. Normally a mother hen would stop this behaviour when the chicks are old enough to look after themselves but as Vanilla is already an adult girl who has been laying her own eggs it’s difficult to know what will happen next. I would be interested to know if anyone else has come across this behaviour.