- May 4, 2013
- 88
- 12
- 41
So, we have 12 hens in a coop with 6 nesting boxes. And, as I've heard is normal, they ALL want to use the same box. Don't know why, they will even pile on top of each other and lay on top of each other in it. Weirdos...
Anyways, my question for those more experienced is, is it normal for a chicken to be so possessive of said box that she will throw eggs out of the nest? I have come to find one egg definitely pecked (didn't break the membrane, but had a spot that looked similar to a rock peck you get in your windshield) and I've on other occasions found eggs laying on the coop floor like they had been rolled out of the nesting box. I even have one hen that goes and sits in the empty box every morning, but she doesn't lay. Like she's warming up the nest for everyone else. I think she was my first layer, but then one day she just stopped laying. She will even go in later in the morning and sit on everyone else's eggs. The hen I think is pitching eggs from the nest is our bossy hen. She also has to be in the coop right next to the nest box every time another hen is laying and then she announces when the egg has been layed. It's almost as if she's saying, "Mom, sister layed her egg in MY nest again!" lol...very entertaining...I'm just worried that we are going to lose a lot of eggs if she keeps up the bossy, possessive behavior.
Anyways, my question for those more experienced is, is it normal for a chicken to be so possessive of said box that she will throw eggs out of the nest? I have come to find one egg definitely pecked (didn't break the membrane, but had a spot that looked similar to a rock peck you get in your windshield) and I've on other occasions found eggs laying on the coop floor like they had been rolled out of the nesting box. I even have one hen that goes and sits in the empty box every morning, but she doesn't lay. Like she's warming up the nest for everyone else. I think she was my first layer, but then one day she just stopped laying. She will even go in later in the morning and sit on everyone else's eggs. The hen I think is pitching eggs from the nest is our bossy hen. She also has to be in the coop right next to the nest box every time another hen is laying and then she announces when the egg has been layed. It's almost as if she's saying, "Mom, sister layed her egg in MY nest again!" lol...very entertaining...I'm just worried that we are going to lose a lot of eggs if she keeps up the bossy, possessive behavior.
