broody chicken and egg laying

[jengrinager]

My Buff Orphington became broody about two months ago. After about a month she quit laying eggs and just sat in her spot as if she had eggs she was trying to hatch. I would put her out in the coop regularly and force her off her nesting spot and she would then eat, drink and behave normally, but then go back to her nesting spot after about 20 minutes. Finally, I started closing the door to the hen house and this worked as she started staying out in the coop even with later having the ability to go into the hen house, but she wasn't laying eggs at all. She didn't lay an egg for about a month and I kept observing her and seeing that every thing else was normal and I thought maybe she was going to start molting. There was one day when she had literally 10 feathers that she lost in the coop. The next day she laid an egg in the morning. It was smaller, kind of like when a young chicken lays their first egg. Then, later that day she laid a second egg that was extremely long and narrow. Is this possible to lay two eggs in one day?

 

[nchls school]

My Buff Orphington became broody about two months ago. After about a month she quit laying eggs and just sat in her spot as if she had eggs she was trying to hatch. I would put her out in the coop regularly and force her off her nesting spot and she would then eat, drink and behave normally, but then go back to her nesting spot after about 20 minutes. Finally, I started closing the door to the hen house and this worked as she started staying out in the coop even with later having the ability to go into the hen house, but she wasn't laying eggs at all. She didn't lay an egg for about a month and I kept observing her and seeing that every thing else was normal and I thought maybe she was going to start molting. There was one day when she had literally 10 feathers that she lost in the coop. The next day she laid an egg in the morning. It was smaller, kind of like when a young chicken lays their first egg. Then, later that day she laid a second egg that was extremely long and narrow. Is this possible to lay two eggs in one day?

Yes, but rarely happens.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

When a hen goes broody, laying will cease because the natural order of things dictate that any bird, regardless of species will lay a clutch of eggs and then begin setting so that all eggs will hatch at the same time. If they continued to lay during broodiness, that would be a disaster for the later eggs. Once the first ones hatch, she will leave the nest to care for the live chicks to show them food and water. She may go back to the nest occasionally to keep chicks warm but that isn't long enough to continue the incubation of the later eggs.

It is extremely unlikely that a bird can lay two in a day since it takes about 24-25 hours to produce an egg and ovulation doesn't occur till the last one is laid.

Are the eggs fertile?

 

[nchls school]

:...extremely unlikely..." True enough, but it does happen. This I have witnessed a few times in the last 50 years. How? that I can't explain. Exceptions to everything I guess.