they are needing social help very badly. they are trying to let you know that they need this help. as a professional sickalogolist, I can tell you that as they have gotten older, they have literally ran out of things to talk about. What they need is another newer hen to talk about or with and all will be well in chicken land. (unless the new chicken clashes with the others and then things would turn out worse but it will still give the older ones something new to talk about.) There is an art about using reverse sickalogoly on others but when you get it down, it can work wonders.