Chicken constantly looking for nests, singing egg songs, but no eggs?

[Lyris]

(not sure if this belongs here or in illnesses)

Gretchen is a Rhode Island Red hen. Last year she laid her eggs with no problems, then took a break for fall/winter. All my other hens have begun laying for the spring/summer again except her. She likes to follow the other hens to the nesting box and pluck at the nesting materials. She's often looking for a nest throughout the day, but will never settle. If I accidentally leave the door open she likes to come in and try to nest in my dryer or on my counter. Sometimes when she's there she will sit for a while, sing an egg song, and go outside. The rest of the day she behaves as if she really did lay an egg and is calmer, but there's no egg where she was nesting. I've even caught her pushing like she's trying to pass an egg. If she doesn't lay her pretend egg then she acts like she needs to lay until all the other hens have finished for the day. Currently she likes to go find a tall spot in the yard and sing her egg song for everyone to hear. If you give her a fake egg she will coo at it and tuck it under her, then instantly leave. Twice I've found what appears to be the remnants of an egg in the nesting box after she's left. No shell, just part of the yolk. Once my chicken expert friend felt a soft egg inside her, but when she came back a week later she was empty inside. No bound eggs or anything. I never did find where the soft egg went or if she laid it.

For a while I suspected she was turning into a rooster since she's my top hen. My friend was noticing how she's got little nubs for spurs, but we don't know if they're new or not. Comparing her old pics to now, she's also a bit glossier around her neck, and lately her neck feathers have a backwards swoop to them. It's possible she developed the swoop feathers after she molted last year and I just didn't notice, or when she got a bath for mites a while ago. It's been a month since we discovered the spurs and feathers and nothing has changed since. We've also had a respiratory infection but it hasn't affected egg laying in any of my other chickens.

My other hens are getting tired of having an audience while they nest. How come she hasn't started laying again? Can I convince her to lay? Why is she obsessed with bothering the other hens while they lay? And why does she pretend to lay an egg? She's always been a little weirdo who marches to the beat of her own drum, but this is bizarre. I'm getting tired of trying to convince her that she can't nest on my counters or in my dryer. It's a constant fight with her. Any ideas?

 

[Debbie292d]

Do you have an oyster shell dish she/they have access to?

If so, you still might want to give her a calcium boost. You could give her one of your Calcium + D pills or a Tums once daily. I'd do it for two or three days.

 

[Lyris]

Do you have an oyster shell dish she/they have access to?

If so, you still might want to give her a calcium boost. You could give her one of your Calcium + D pills or a Tums once daily. I'd do it for two or three days.

Late reply - I've been out of cell range for a while. (Backcountry road trip!)

They have access to oyster shells, but they won't eat them. They free-range the yard during the day and seem to prefer whatever they find out there. They do have access to food and scratch, and plenty of dinner scraps. I'm already medicating one hen, I can give her some calcium as well. The other hens have incredibly strong eggshells at least.

she's beyond obsessed with coming inside. It's incredibly frustrating and I hate it. She's frantic about it and will spend all day trying to get it. Yesterday I gave up and let her in. She made a straight line for the dryer and honked at me until I opened it. She promptly jumped into it, kicked around a bit, and sat down to lay her pretend egg. Less than an hour later she went outside, found the tallest piece of wood in the yard, and happily sang an egg song up there for the world to hear. You'd think she was a rooster crowing. She settled down and had no interest in coming inside for the rest of the day. Weirdo.

 

[Debbie292d]

This is indeed the strangest hen I've ever heard of!

Perhaps a vitamin deficiency of some sort? Do you have any poultry vitamins you could try on her/them? I put Poultry Cell in their water a couple of times a week if I hear one sneeze. I don't take chances so I'm pumping them up with vitamins often.

The other thing about the oyster shell, I have breeding pens with a dish for the oyster shells mounted in the same spot in every pen. One pen, untouched. The next one, nearly empty in two weeks. They all eat the same thing. Ours get Kalmbach's Flock Maker, which is higher protein, but lower calcium, so I have to put it out for them. It's just bizarre how some seem to need it and others don't.

I'd leave it yours out, though, as suddenly one day, one might feel the need.