Broody or something else?

[laurenjoers]

Hello everyone! I have a 9 month old Partridge Cochin hen who recently has been acting strange. She’s our best egg layer; we’ve only had a few less eggs than the number of days since she has started laying. She’s been laying for about 3 months or so, and all of her eggs are super normal! We haven’t had an odd egg from her yet, and we think they are getting plenty of calcium from their feed. However, I noticed the other day that she was acting strangely; staying by the coop instead of wandering like she usually does, barely digging, even passing up a worm (her favorite!). She was also making motions that she was attempting to poop several times, which had me thinking that she was egg-bound (she was still pooping, just fairly liquid). I realized then that we had not gotten an egg from her for 2 days. A little later, she went into her nesting box and talked and talked for at least an hour. I went to check on her after, thinking she had laid her egg and wanted to sit on it, but there was no egg. I checked on her every hour or so that afternoon, but she was laying in the same spot, making broody noises, but not actually laying on any eggs. We took her inside later that night and she seemed a lot more normal, had a big normal poo, and I felt around for an egg and did not feel one. I know that broody hens stop laying eggs if they are already laying on enough, but she is not laying on anything! She doesn’t seem sick, but today, she was back to laying on nothing in her nesting box, and no egg from her. Please tell me this is normal, and she’s just overwhelmed with spring hormones and a little confused!

Too long; didn’t read: Younger hen has stopped laying eggs and seems to be going broody, despite not having any eggs to lay on. Is this normal?

 

[Shadrach]

I'm not going to tell you it's normal because there may be other factors involved.
What I can say with certainty is that hens do not necessarily need to have eggs to sit on to be broody.
One way to test for broodiness is to take your hen and put her with some others. If she clucks incessantly at the other hens and puffs up her feathers, that is broody behaviour.
It is worth doing a proper check for egg binding. You need to wash your hands very thoroughly, get a tub of coconut oil or some other non toxic lubricant, KY jelly, or similar is fine. Rub a bit of lubricant around the vent and coat your forefinger in lubricant. Insert your lubricated finger into the hens vent. It's quite safe. Think of the diameter of an egg!
You can insert your finger as far as your second knuckle. If there is an egg there you'll be able to feel it. This is best done not wearing gloves.
If you can't feel an egg (it's quite obvious) then it's safe to assume she isn't egg bound. This doesn't mean there may not be other reproductive problems. In general egg bound hens don't poop solids so that should also be an indication.
If she seems otherwise healthy, eating, drinking, preening and dust bathing then broodiness would seem the most likely explanation for her behaviour.