17 eggs, only 7 chickens!

[21softballstar]

Has anyone had this experience before? Kinda freaking me out. We only have 7 hens. Yesterday afternoon I collected 2 eggs from the hens. One Buff Orpington (we have 4 Buffs, 3 Ameraucanas) was laying on the straw "hissing" and getting all mad when I opened up the nesting box door. That same hen (I believe the same, can't tell the Buffs apart) has been always laying in that spot all the time. Every day, even when I go out to feed, she'll be laying there and not come to eat.

Then this morning, early, I got 6 more eggs. That hen is still laying there. Then, just a while ago, I got 11 eggs! No joke! That orange hen is STILL laying there by the nesting box on all the hay.

I think I've just broke the world record for most eggs laid by one chicken....

And it's actually quite cold here. It just snowed a ton and is probably only 15 degrees out.

Anyone have a weird experience like this?

 

[keesmom]

She's broody and has been collecting eggs.

 

[donrae]

I agree she's broody and has been collecting eggs for a while. Unless you've been moving her and taking eggs every single day, you probably don't want to take those eggs and crack them. Depending on how long she's been setting on them, if you have a rooster they're partially incubated and that's just going to be nasty

 

[21softballstar]

Ha, no, no rooster. That would be gross.... I picked her up and forced to get outside and eat some food. She seemed a bit grumpy at first, but then she just wandered around the run and ate.

 

[keesmom]

You did toss the pile she had been collecting, I hope? They won't be developed but that doesn't mean they won't be gross.

You will probably have to keep tossing her out of the nestbox to convince her to stop.

 

[21softballstar]

Yeah, tossed them. But wouldn't they still be good, because it's been cold here?

 

[donrae]

They haven't been cold if she's been brooding them. She's been keeping them around 100 degrees, no matter how cold it is outside.