Immature, aggressive nesty hen

[dmj64]

Hello
My Little Girl and Little Buddy have been making many babies for the past year. I have been giving the babies away once they are weaned. One of the babies I hand fed and kept as my own. She is 9 months old. She and her parents more or less tolerated one another and stayed out of one another's way.

My small apartment is more or less a "bird room" and I leave my luvie's cages open all the time, even when I'm gone.

Now my Baby turns out to be a very aggressive nesty hen. She's laid 3 eggs already and has built a very nice nest in the bottom of her cage, but still doesn't really know what she's doing. I am her "mate" and she tries to "mate" with my hand.

Now, she is very aggressive towards her parents. She invades their cage and just sits on the bottom. Momma & Daddy are forced to hide in their nest box because Baby will attack them if they venture out. Now I must keep Baby secured in her cage at all times, because she terrorizes her parents.

Has anyone experience anything like this? Will she grow out of it? My peaceful bird room has become a madhouse because of this young hen!

[linda040899]

If your little nesty hen had a mate and was truly sitting on fertile eggs, she would be in her cage 24/7 while she incubated her eggs and cared for whatever young might hatch. Even though she doesn't have a mate (other than you), it looks like you're going to have to keep her in her cage as long as she has eggs!

Once she abandons her eggs, rearrange the cage and maybe switch positions with her parents' cage. Take away anything that she might view as nesting material and cut her daylight hrs back to max of 10/day. Egg laying this young can be dangerous, as her body is not ready for it. She's sexually matures but not physically mature.

Make sure you offer foods that are high in calcium (collard greens, broccoli, figs) and either an egg product or a small amount of pellets for Vit. D.