last night when I went to tuck in the chickens, two were missing. hubby came out to help look, we found one on the ground (red sexlink--idk why she was on the ground), and the other was up in the rafters, in a rubbermaid container that we have stored up there. She was sitting on eggs, so I figured today I would move her to a brooding pen, but this morning she was up and about with the other chickens. Is this normal? is she getting ready to set?
I have very little experience. I thought I had a hen or two going broody. They were kind of acting like it so I saved a dozen eggs in a nest box over two or three days. Nothing happened, a false alarm. I then had two hens that wouldn't leave the box so they each got more eggs. Had 8 eggs from each hen hatch. Standard hen lost 4 eggs. Banty hen hatched them all. Your experience sounds like my first experience.
I'm not sure how many eggs she has up there right now, but the part I found strange is that she sat on them all night, but was up and about today.
One of my bantams did that - she sat on the nest all day all night but the next day when i opened up she SHOT out the door and didn't go back.... My broody hen was MEAN and GRUMPY for a week before she finally sat on eggs.... she would PUFF herself up when ever another chicken came past, I thought she was SICK! I have noticed she's doing that same puff up and grumpy cluck noise now when any of the others get too close to her babies....
Sometimes they get caught on the nest trying to lay an egg late in the evening, so they just sleep there and return to the flock in the morning. My broodies normally act unsociable and always huffed up and growling at everyone when they're off their nests or are about to go broody.
Quote:last night when hubby climbed up to look, he got kinda close to see if there were eggs there, nd she puffed up like she was broody. i will check again tonight to see if she is there again.
The sreaming beach ball or screaming meemees are a sign of broodiness but I have noticed that most of hens get huffy when there are in the nest box for whatever reason.