Can you give us more info on her--is she listless, sitting with eyes closed, breathing hard, losing weight, looking sick, etc? Any runny poops and are her vent feathers dirty?

If she isn't obviously sick or egg bound (panting, straining to lay), it could be that she is broody--wants to hatch some eggs. Check my chicken site here and see if anything on this page matches:

http://home.earthlink.net/~velvetsparrow/VSChickHensBroodiesChicks.htm

That's the section on broodies & egg binding. You ned to rule out illness and/or injury first, because if something is wrong you need to act quickly. :)

Velvet ~:>

Hi Velvet,

Thank you so much for your reply. I have been trying to watch her, but I still not 100% sure if she is egg-binding or brooding... (thanks for your link. It's really helpful!)

All I know is she opens her eyes while she is sitting, may lost a bit weight, but hard to tell since I don't pick her up usually... Once in a while, I see her breathing hard like right after she lays egg, but not all the time. Her vent feather is a bit dirty. Didn't think she looked sick...

I went ahead and mixed up live oil, karo and milk and fed her some of it. When I opened one of our egg collecting door which allow me to reach her w/o going inside of the coop, she didn't move much. When I tried to feed the mix, she moved her necks a lot, but didn't stand up. Finally I tried to pick her up, she stood up and try to go away from me.

Her abdomen didn't look distended too me. I touched around it, but didn't feel any egg (do I need to squeeze hard to feel egg??)

She is a pretty fluffy bird (look a lot bigger than another Cuckoo Maran I had before). I will try to take her picture tomorrow w/day light and post it here since it's pretty dark outside now.

Thanks!!
-b

Ok, I took some pictures below.

Update today: After taking her picture (I found her still sitting in nesting area), I checked her vent, then released her in outside area with other hens. She was walking/running fine, ate some pellets & corn I strewed. Pecked other hens more than usual tho.

After seeing her being outside, I was 80% sure she is in brooding mode rather than egg biding...

However, there is some spot at the chest that her feather looked no so smooth... (there is a pix for that).

I would love to hear your opinion!!

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Well, she looks like she might be broody. A lot of the breeds have had a lot of the brooding instinct bred out of them, the end result is sometimes a confused, half-broody kind of behaviour.

I have a little hen who is the spitting image of yours, mine is named Houdini (a name she earned in her first days of living with us). Houdini is also broody right now, she'll growl a little bit but hops right off the nest and grumps around the yard when we roust her off the nest.

Velvet ~:>

I'm quite sure that your hen is broody,is she kind of puffing up when she sees you?