Confused Americauna

[Miss Red]

I have a yearling Americauna chick who has been laying at least one egg a day since October. Recently, my game birds have gone broody and I had 20 new chicks show up. A few of them were definitely Piggy's offspring as they are total 'cauna chicks. I have one living on my porch right now, I had to adopt the poor chick.

BUT.

Piggy has decided that she wants to lay UNDER my nesting hens, and by the time I find her eggs the process has begun and for the most part they are inedible. [sp?] Is there any way I can stop Piggy from laying under my nesting hens when they get up for food, I've tried putting her in nest boxes with fake eggs and she's not having it. She has to have 'her' spot, which is currently occupied by three first time brooders.

Will my girl realize she needs to find another spot? Should I go ahead and pen her up? I have no idea what to do to continue getting Piggy's eggs, as she's my only layer the rest of my birds are game birds and their eggs are generally no good when they DO finally lay.

Comments?

 

[Illia]

Well first, I'm seriously assuming you have an Easter Egger, not Ameraucana - So with that, I'm not surprised of the odd behaviors.

My own Easter Egger hen only lays about once a week, and during that time she always lays HUUGE eggs.

And then I've got another hen who, no matter what I do, even if I try and pen her up somehow, will only lay eggs in the barn where all the hay, wood, etc is stored. Now matter how much I try and secure her into the run, the pasture, the coop - She finds a way out. And then back in when she's done. I don't know why but she feels the absolute need to lay eggs waaay over there, then come back to her pasture to live out the rest of the day with normality.

The worst part is that I NEVER find where she lays her eggs. . . No matter how hard I look. But, since she's so sweet and everyone else's favorite hen, noone seems to mind.

 

[Miss Red]

Oh I seriously hope Piggy isn't an EE. She's been too good of a girl up until now to not be a cana. She used to lay practically an egg a day, in the same spot, rain or snow now I can't get her to stop laying under my game birds and I've got a tonnnnn of piggy crosses running around in my yard right now because of it.

Here is a really, really crappy picture of Piggy. I will get better ones once my camera is out of the shop, I took this one with my phone.

She has tufts around her face, a beard, blue-ish legs she's all white with a bright red face and very angry facial features.

 

[bethandjoeync]

have you marked the eggs currently under the broodies? I would suggest marking them, and then the one's Piggy lays will be more apparent, and I would collect them nightly (less stress on a broody, so I have read). could you move the broody out of the particular nest that Piggy favors? maybe she is just letting someone else do the sitting for her lol...and she is just being an "egg doner" lol sorry I couldn't resist

 

[Miss Red]

You know I've been so stressed over Piggy going whacky I never thought to mark my eggs. I think I'll go do that when I feed, because I know Baldy will get up and she's the only one I'm worried about stressing out over me moving her to mark the eggs. My other two girls were hand raised and -hopefully-

wont mind me moving them to another place. How do I go about moving the eggs? I normally just let my girls sit because before piggy, I had no problems with hens doing that.

 

[sourland]

Remove the broody hens one at a time and put them out to eat. Mark their eggs with a pencil. From that point on check the nests daily for any added eggs and remove them. Nothing "wacky" whatsoever about Piggy. She just wants to use the nest boxes that are very evidently most appealing. Normal chicken behavior. I'm willing to bet that your chickens are a heck of lot less likely to stress out over this situation than you are.