broody already?

[elsiebb]

I have a hen that is 28 weeks old. She started laying in late July. This weekend she started staying in the nest box. She was there at 6pm last night, still at 9pm. Still there this morning when I opened the henhouse door to let them all out to the run. I pushed her out and she went down and ate with the others. There were no eggs in the nest last night or this morning. I'm just back from work and she was in there again. I shoed her out and there were two (warm!) eggs under her. We are roosterless, so no hope of chicks. Is she really broody already at this young age???

 

[Judy]

It can happen, yes. Having eggs to sit on doesn't usually seem to affect them, they just sit on nothing.