[Franceska]

Hi!  We are on our second lot of hens with one old girl left from our first lot.  She interacts well with all of the hens but for some reason, when our Speckledy  tries to lay an egg in the egg box, Madam stand on the perch in front of her and screams.  She doesn't do it to any of the other hens, and in fact, usually sticks like glue to this one hen.  Madam has stopped laying about a year ago.  Any thoughts on hen psychology? 

[kegs]

Moral support?? 

[helens-hens]

Its not exactly the same but 1 of my hens (who unfortunately died last week) used to make a real racket (started off quiet and built up into a sort of a scream) whenever I used to give the hen house & nestbox a proper clean.

I used to shut them out of the run when doing this and she would literally jump up and into the wire mesh trying to get in. It was almost as though she thought she had left an egg or a chick up there. She could never wait to get back in when I had finished!

[sneezer]

This sounds like what happened to us, we had an original hen who had stopped laying and we got three newbies to keep her company and each time they went to lay she would go into the coop and stand whilst they laid. was your speckledy top of the new hens? Again ours would always make sure she had an eye on the top hen of the new bunch to stamp her authority! They really are fascinating to watch