Keeping her quiet (with video!)

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Wax_Crayon

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My girlfriend and I have a bit of trouble.

For the next week or so we're living in a flat and taking care of a semi-poorly hen (taken from a farmer we know to separate her from a flock who were turning on her following a couple of injuries).

She's very recently started making a lot of noise (seeming to coincide with her improving health). Our theories are that she's talking to us / shouting to her flock (as they do to communicate when out of sight of each other) / crowing to take on the rooster role, as there's no rooster around.

Whatever it is, we want to disturb our neighbours as little as possible before we move out.

You can see the kind of noise here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOTDXOT1p3Q&feature=youtu.be . The volume is sometimes pretty loud.

What's she doing and how do we keep her quiet(er)?
 
She does seem to be calling to the others or looking for somewhere to lay(mine strut about making that sort of noise when wanting to lay an egg). I would have thought it difficult if not impossible to quieten her. Isn't she pooing everywhere? It must be very difficult having a hen in a flat!
 
She doesn't want to go into her makeshift nesting box, so I tried putting a long mirror on the floor to give her the illusion of company. She fluffed herself up, strutted up and down pecking the mirror and made more of a din than before. It took about 10 minutes to calm her down afterwards.

She shuts up when she's in the dark, but it's not fair to keep her like that all day.

She was great when we first took her in, she was very affectionate and made very soft trilling noises. However, I think she's outgrown us now. The only problem is whenever we take her back to the farm she looks petrified (especially of the cockerals) and is very quick to attack other hens. I don't think we have enough experience to manage the group dynamic, especially as she's now half-blind (after the injury for which we took her in) so can't see other hens' warning behaviour.
 
Can younnot make her a coop out of a box for the house and put her in a dog cage when at the farm with the othergirls?
 
You've got your hands full, when you move from the flat will you have a garden where you can keep her? She needs a buddy, they are not solitary animals. I have one hen who is blind in one eye and she has always been skittish with me but fine with the other poultry.
If you can't cope with her then it's really up to the farmer to "deal"with her.
 
Yes I agree, kind though your offer of care was, she is not your problem and if you cannot make her happy and she is disturbing the neighbours, she will just have to go back whence she came And the farmer wil have to deal with her. You have done your best snd have really pulled out the stops to help, but you cannot provide the conditions she needs to be happy and get better. And the longer she is on her own the more difficult it would be ever to reintroduce her to a flock - a solitary hen is always attacked and is difficult to integrate. You have done your best and the sooner she goes, the better, I feel.
 
From Wax_Crayon's girlfriend:

Newtoducks: It is pretty difficult having a hen in a flat, I spend most of my time cleaning up after her and scattering pellets around the place for her to "find"! But very rewarding to have nursed her back to health and she is the most affectionate hen I've known.

Bickerton: She sleeps in a pet carrier lined with Freshbed at night and roams around the flat - and her old farm - in the day. She's been very quiet tonight so it's turned out not to be a problem for neighbours luckily - most of them are away in the day.

Others: Thanks for your replies, I thought I should clarify for you that when we found her she was bleeding from the eye and comb, being severely attacked by the rest of the flock while she lay there cowering and defenceless, and I am sure she would have been long dead by now had we not isolated her. She has had two check-ups by a vet (not to mention an expensive course of antibiotics to clear an infection from her wounded eye) who was so amazed at the turnaround she has made that she did not charge us for her second check. Of the two weeks the hen has spent with us since she was rescued, she has laid an egg a day over the last week, been taken back to the farm we got her from everyday to forage with her old flock (supervised by me to prevent attacks), her comb has gone from being pale to bright red. We will be moving to a house with an extensive garden in about 10 days, and getting 6 ex battery hens who we will house with this one in a coop with a 12 ft attached run so she will not be alone for long now.

Our question was not about the hen's health or happiness, we are confident that she is not lacking in either - her only problem is that she is half blind, which will unfortunately not change. She is our pet now (very much our problem!) and will not be palmed off back to the farmer because we can't cope with a bit of noise. We should have made it clear that the looking after was not a temporary situation. The noise has also stopped entirely now and she's been back to trilling/trumpeting- phew!

Thanks anyway for your suggestions, a lot of them were very useful and we especially appreciate the advice on wooden perches and red mite.
 
That's just great, its good to have a fuller picture and to know that you can manage and want to keep her. You will have to introduce her to the new exbatts very carefully all the same - this may be a little easier in that they will all be new girls together, rather than an established flock who know each other already, but as you have realised, she will be very vulnerable at first. However, if her comb is now red and she is mire herself, she may actually be well able to hold her own in a group of newly-released exbatts, who will themselves be pretty shellshocked at first i expect. What a lucky girl, to have found such a caring home (even if a bit prematurely!) good luck with her, and do keep us updated on her progress.
 
We had a house hen called Daffodil. She used to make 'top hen' noises to herself, so she was top hen in her flock of one! She hated other hens and used to be kept separated and was very happy. Her favourite time was back in the house and when she had eaten and drunk on an evening she would go down the corridor and into the dining room and put herself to bed in her cage. She was constantly talking, but I wouldn't say it was noisy.

Returning her to the farmer is effectively killing her, so that isn't an option. She will assert herself when introduced to the ex-batts and will probably be top hen to that new flock as the ex-batts will be looking for leadership anyway. Good luck Wax_Crayon.
 
Thanks, yes she's staying with us, we've well and truly fallen in love with her- bawking, pooing and all. I hope integration with the ex bats goes well and both sides are as nice to each other as possible! We'll keep you posted, will no doubt need some more expert advice when the time comes too!
 
Hi all, thanks for your support and kind words. We're very hopeful it'll go well with the ex bats and our little Pumpkin will find herself a new group of friends.

@chris, Daffodil sounds very much like this hen. She seems to love being our only hen, flies up on to my shoulder and looks at what I'm doing when I'm on the computer, chases me around the flat and oddly loves having the top of her head stroked. She puts herself to bed and lays an egg every night.
@marigold: do you have any advice in terms of introducing her to the ex batts? Should we wait a couple of days after we get them to let them settle in or do it right away to make sure they don't establish a pecking order without her?
@newtoducks: thanks, we get them on the 23rd, fingers crossed all goes well! Will keep you posted!!
 
I would put Pumpkin in your new run on her own for a day or two so she comes to regard it as her own territory, then when she's used to going to bed in the coop, erect a mesh barrier between her and the new girls, so they can see each other but not fight. A nighttime, let her go to roost and then lift the exbatts into the coop when its fairly dark. Thy wont be aggressive in the dark and will then all come to smell the same. Next day, let them out together and watch for serious fighting - some chasing is normal but if it looks as if blood may be shed, separate the aggressor ,( which may or may not be Pumpkin!) provide several feed and water points within the run, and give them enough space to get away from each other - at least 2 sq. metres of floor space per hen, more is better.
 
Wax-Crayon -quick note to say she accepts the aggressive move to her head as she accepts you are dominant. Great step forward -getting a cockerel to do that is 100x more difficult. She sounds like a great hen. Just amazing how intelligent they are when they are in isolation and not behaving in a flock environment. Vastly underrated is the intelligence of chickens. Sadly less than 1% of chicken keepers realise that.
 
@Marigold: thanks very much for the advice. One week to go now.

@Chris: She is a fabulous hen. Very intelligent and a real treat to have around :)
 
Pooing on the carpet needs a spray and scrub with 1001 cleaner Wax_Crayon. Bottom is now moulting and you have that to come. They want a cuddle but don't want to be touched as it is painful for them. Sounds like you will get great pleasure from keeping her. We used to take Daffodil down for the day and then back for night for a cuddle and back down in the morning. She used to stand and wait to be collected in the evening when all the others had gone to bed, she so much wanted to be in the house with us.
 
pumpkin cuddle.jpg

Thanks for the advice Chris! We're moving out soon and will need to erase all traces of the hens having stayed here or the landlord will kill us.. we took them to my parent's house for the weekend and they spent all day running around in the garden eating worms, having dustbaths and sunbaths and wrecking the flowerbeds. Broke my heart to bring them back to the flat but they will have their own garden next week and I don't mind if they dig up the whole thing.

Here's a picture of Pumpkin getting her (twice) daily cuddles, dozing in my arms. She's taken to hanging around me begging to be picked up and cuddled, falls asleep in my lap till she gets hungry and then hops on to my arm and down to the ground. Lovely little thing. Best hen in the world!!
 
Our pet Bottom is mid-moult at the moment. He desperately wants a cuddle and keeps pecking me on the leg for one. But then when I try to pick him up it hurts and he complains. He is pretty miserable. Usually he sits on my lap, curls his huge feet up and sleeps for up to an hour -and snores!
 
poor Bottom, sounds rough. How long does it take for their feathers to grow back? He sounds absolutely ace.
 
About three months in his case previously, some are done in a month. But he started his moult before we arrived here, so September. Then he was ill with stress from the environmental change and had an ILT flareup which gave him a sore throat so he lost his voice, stopped eating and stopped moulting. We had to feed and water him. Then he had Carbon Monoxide poisoning, which stopped when I mended the wood burner last month. He ate for France and managed to put about 1Kg on and now has continued his moult. His neck is almost completely bald and he is cold at night, so his heat lamp will be re-installed tonight to see if that helps him sleep.

We took him camping fort a week in Tenby once and carried him around in a basket to the amazement of everyone. Great photos of him on the beach- and when he started crowing!!!!
 
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