Chook behaviour

[Anne Wakely]

My cluck chook started sitting on 1 egg 7 days ago, every day she gets off for an hour or so rolls in the dirt then gets back on the nest for the rest of the day. When I checked this morning she is now sitting on 15 eggs, they are hers I'm sure as no other chook gets into her box. Should she still be laying?

 

[Pork Pie]

Not after 7 days - not in my experience, at least.

 

[Sutremaine]

They can't all be hers, because she'd need much longer than 7 days to lay 14 eggs. How is the nestbox separated from the other chickens?

 

[Anne Wakely]

They can't all be hers, because she'd need much longer than 7 days to lay 14 eggs. How is the nestbox separated from the other chickens?

It's just next one the other box but she only gets off for such a short time I don't know how the only other laying chook I have could get on there in enough time to lay. My other layer has a brown egg so it's not her. I'll try & take a photo tomorrow.

 

[lazy gardener]

You only have 2 layers? Do you have a rooster? Is she sitting on the nest at night? Please go to some of the articles in the learning center and read up on broody behavior and how to manage a broody. You either need to give her a brood of fertile eggs in a location that the other bird won't bother, or you need to break her. Do you even have enough space for new chicks? Recommendation is for a minimum of 4 s.f. in the coop and 10 s.f. in the run per bird. Run your space tighter, and you risk eventual behavior problems that can start with feather picking, and progress to blood shed and even death. A crowded coop/run is also more prone to disease and parasite issues. Also, if you allow her to hatch eggs, you need an exit plan for the cockerels. Don't plan on other folks being willing to rehome them. If she's still laying, she's not broody.

 

[varidgerunner]

Other hens will crawl in and lay beside or on top of them. They will also carry eggs into their nest. They can carry an egg under each wing and one under their neck. Usually they will break some doing these things. You will end up with a staggered hatch. Probably the first one will hatch and after a couple of days she will take off with that chick and leave the rest.

 

[chickens really]

Without a Rooster...Not fertlilzed to make Chicks..I would remove all eggs and garbage them...Place her in a wire bottom crate a few days with feed and water to break her Brooding...

 

[Ridgerunner]

Anne, if those are the only two laying somebody is playing a practical joke. When they go broody a hen stops laying. Any egg laid after she starts incubating the other eggs will not hatch, they won't have the 21 days of incubation they need. She doesn't eat enough to get the nutrition to lay eggs. They have to stop laying.

It's possible a hen could lay two eggs in a day, but that's rare. A hen is not going to lay two eggs each day for seven days in a row and the eggs be OK. Even when their internal egg laying machine has an oops and she lays two eggs in one day the second egg is usually not normal, it's often thin-shelled or even without a shell. No, it's not going to happen.

The only two possibilities I can come up with is that you have other chickens laying or someone is playing a joke.