Reading Your Hens: Eleven Behavioral Signals Worth Knowing
By Bertie Holcombe, Poultry Editor — Published 20 February 2026 · Last reviewed 20 February 2026
Chickens are not subtle communicators once you know the vocabulary. Eleven signals that experienced keepers read automatically.
1. Feather fluffing at rest: mild illness or cold. A healthy hen at rest is sleek. Persistent fluffing at warm temperatures means the bird is running a fever or is in early respiratory distress.
2. Standing on one leg: normal. This is thermoregulation — reducing exposed surface area. Not a sign of injury.
3. Standing on both legs but hunched, with eyes partly closed: not normal. Combined with the above fluffing, this is a sick bird. Separate and observe.
4. Wing droop in a young chick: emergency. Wing droop in chicks under 4 weeks old is often the first sign of Marek's disease, though it can also be injury, severe chill, or nutritional deficiency.
5. The egg song (the ba-GAWK after laying): normal announcing behavior. If a hen sings the egg song repeatedly without having laid, she is advertising from a occupied nest box and may have a laying issue.
6. Rapid panting in cool weather: heat stress, even in mild temperatures, if the bird is overweight or has respiratory compromise. Worth investigating if ambient temperature is below 75 F.
7. A hen sitting low to the ground and rocking slightly forward: she is about to lay within 30-60 minutes. Leave her alone and you will find a fresh egg.
8. The 'tidbitting' call from a hen: normally produced by roosters to call hens to food, this sound from a dominant hen indicates she has found something interesting to eat and is inviting the flock to share it.
9. Extended preening with apparent difficulty reaching the vent area: possible mite burden, obesity, or vent gleet. Inspect the vent area manually.
10. Running toward you when you approach: either a genuinely human-imprinted bird (Buff Orpington, Australorp) or a bird that has learned you carry food. The distinction matters only if you are trying to evaluate actual socialization versus conditioned food response.
11. Dust bathing in a group: a uniformly positive sign. Flocks that dust-bathe together are relaxed, comfortable with their environment, and healthy. A flock that has not collectively dust-bathed in over a week is showing mild chronic stress.