I have a mama hen that has been laying and hiding eggs to sit on once she has enough I... - Page 3

Sometimes other hens will lay their eggs in a nest that already has eggs, so if you have 3 or 4 hens in a few days they could have a nice size cache of eggs...So not one hen laid 30 eggs, but a few hens probably laid the 30 eggs. And mamas can take up to 2 weeks to build up their nest before they actually start laying...so any eggs laid in the nest within 2 weeks will be sat on. 

Well she is sitting on 5 eggs right now...2 it looks like 2 of her small eggs, and 3 of a leghorn hen's eggs...so we'll see if she actually sets on them or not...I don't know. She started laying eggs in the dog crate like I wanted her to, but then the other hens started doing it too, but I closed her in there tonight...so we'll see how it all goes. I feel like she'll set them if she feels like nothing is going to mess with her. This would be so much easier if she wasn't so terribly afraid of people. A few of her chicks we got when we got her are getting to be really friendly, but she hasn't come around at all. She was fully free ranged by a local woman. She just had a lot of small beautiful chickens that just wander and be chickens all over the place, so she doesn't really like me getting near her. She's just not used to people still. When I toss out treats she still jumps if I toss them near her...while all the other birds are right at me trying to see what I have. So it makes it really hard to much of anything with her. I really don't want her to wander off and set eggs...so I'm going to keep working with her on the fact that babies go in the coop. I know none of the other chickens will mess with the babies, because she is the head hen right now, and the big rooster doesn't let anyone get picked on. I know because I have been putting off culling a bird that really needed it for a couple of weeks, and even though she was obviously weakened none of the other chickens paid her any mind. they allowed her to eat and drink and what not. So, as long as they have that crate the momma will keep care of them in there. She did it with 7 already. She is a mean mama, she freezes with fear if I get too close to her, after I chase her all over...although it is a slow herding more than chasing...either way she is the hardest to get a hold of, and she protests the most when you do get her...Either way, we'll make it work even if I have to rig up some sort of feeder so I don't have to get near her at all. And then as soon as I have another bird that will set eggs I will probably decommission this mama, just because I want a friendly outgoing barnyard chicken. So I can't keep breeding what I don't want. I have to streamline the traits that I do want.