Do they ever act like they laid an egg, but didn't?

[Happy Chooks]

Mine will lay down after they lay their egg to "rest". Then they get off and go about their business.

Broody hens will only leave the nest once per day to eat, drink, and poop. Otherwise, they are on the nest. Once they do go completely broody, they stop laying.

 

[Higins00]

Hi, I have had chickens sit in the nest boxs and not lay a egg before. Sounds like she wants to go broody to me tho. Put some fake porcelain eggs in her nest or ping pong balls or something like that and see if she settles on them. She seems like she is mad you took her eggs but can't lay anymore because she wanted to sit and go broody. I would only be worried if she acts funny. Good luck

 

[Oven Ready]

We have one hen that has never ever laid an egg in her life but she would go every day to the nest box, sing the song, cluck around and after an hour or so - no egg.
Once we realized this we gave her some eggs collected from the other chickens and she immediately started brooding them. Once the last egg hatched she abandonded the chicks and went back to her 'egg-laying' behavior.
She is now a surrogate hatcher who spends almost her entire life sitting on other hens eggs. She seems to enjoy it and is very successful at hatching - I just wish she realized that she's supposed to look after the chicks as well.

Broody hens will only leave the nest once per day to eat, drink, and poop. Otherwise, they are on the nest.

Our hens do not sit tight, they get off at least a few times each day sometimes for hours on end but it's hot where we are all the time; all day and all night every day all year round. Saying that it's been 'cold' (max 34C) here for the past two weeks as it's gone all rainy. Now I'll have tempted fate and we'll not get rain for six months !​

 

[emilysteng]

So interesting! Chickens are so fascinating.

When Casino had batches before that we knew about, she would lay a few before she started sitting on them, then start getting up once per day. During that time she would act all crazy, running around eating and drinking and letting out a huge gross poop, then go back. Last time she had a nest we knew about, she didn't seem to get up at all after she had laid about 5 eggs. I'm sure she did, but we never saw it. I finally made her get up and took that batch of eggs. After that she still went back to sit on it for a day or so, then gave up.

I always wondered if she gets "mad" at us for taking her eggs. I was planning on letting her have her chicks this time. Oh well. Hopefully she is alright. She was acting pretty normal yesterday.