Do your hens relocate their eggs?

[janiedoe]

Another random egg… blue again, bet it’s the same hen! Someone likes that barn floor!

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She's probably one of those exhibitionists.

 

[Ponypoor]

She's probably one of those exhibitionists.

Tippy the Teaser

 

[WingItRanch]

Thanks for sharing! I've never seen it in action but I once found 3 wooden eggs in a nest box. At the time, I had 4 boxes with a single wooden egg in each one. If I didn't live in the middle of nowhere, I'd have thought someone was playing a prank on me!

I don't know if it was a single girl or teamwork but they would have had to lift them over a ledge and carry into a different partition. Crazy chickens! Not even broody behavior- just being weird.

 

[RoyalChick]

Thanks for sharing! I've never seen it in action but I once found 3 wooden eggs in a nest box. At the time, I had 4 boxes with a single wooden egg in each one. If I didn't live in the middle of nowhere, I'd have thought someone was playing a prank on me!

I don't know if it was a single girl or teamwork but they would have had to lift them over a ledge and carry into a different partition. Crazy chickens! Not even broody behavior- just being weird.

My nest boxes are bowls intended for washing dishes so I too was puzzled by the ‘lift over a ledge’ thing.
Bernadette routinely moved eggs from one bowl to another and kicked the fake eggs out.

 

[Bsmac]

I am curious if others have seen their hens relocating their eggs, and if so, how they go about it.
I have three examples I have observed.

1. Bernadette (RIP) who is not looking very successful in this video but actually was an accomplished egg mover. Always the same method - tucked under her ‘chin’.

2. Tassels (no video) who hid eggs under her wings - tucked into her ‘armpit’ - and managed to bring one with her into broody jail.

3. Piglet who tried this method today. A bit of a disaster, but certainly an innovative approach! Not her egg by the way.

Would love to hear other people’s experiences and see pictures and videos of their enterprising hens!

In the second video it looks like she got mad that it broke for her! Poor girl! Very entertaining!

 

[Bsmac]

I love Piglet’s reaction when the egg fell and cracked! This has got to be the chicken version of cussing!

It sure looks like it!

 

[Ponypoor]

My nest boxes are bowls intended for washing dishes so I too was puzzled by the ‘lift over a ledge’ thing.
Bernadette routinely moved eggs from one bowl to another and kicked the fake eggs out.

Awww I miss Bernie as I am sure you do too - she was a character

 

[Eleos]

Someone on another thread linked me here when I told my broody hen egg-mover story.
I caught one of my hens sitting on 20 eggs (laid by at least two or three of my 8 hens)!
The thing is, I don't think she had been broody more than a day or two by the time I noticed her because I always count the hens before I put them to bed at night. There was only one night I noticed her missing and it was 2 days before I found her stash. Unless she was still roosting early on when she became broody. Is that a thing? Based on the number of each colored egg she was nesting on I'd say there was about a week's worth of eggs (ie, there were 6 blue eggs and I only have one hen who lays blue eggs). So who knows. I'm new to having broody chickens. Never had one in all the years I had my first batch of chickens.
Plus none of my hens lay anywhere but in the boxes in the coop. My broody hen's nesting spot was on the opposite side of the run from the coop...20 feet away. The coop is also on stilts so they use a ramp to get out into the run. How on earth did my broody hen collect eggs everyday and move them up and over the egg boxes, out of the coop, down the ramp and across to the other side of the run to her nesting spot?! I soooo wish I had caught her in the act but didn't think to question how until after I put her in broody jail.

 

[Ponypoor]

Someone on another thread linked me here when I told my broody hen egg-mover story.
I caught one of my hens sitting on 20 eggs (laid by at least two or three of my 8 hens)!
The thing is, I don't think she had been broody more than a day or two by the time I noticed her because I always count the hens before I put them to bed at night. There was only one night I noticed her missing and it was 2 days before I found her stash. Unless she was still roosting early on when she became broody. Is that a thing? Based on the number of each colored egg she was nesting on I'd say there was about a week's worth of eggs (ie, there were 6 blue eggs and I only have one hen who lays blue eggs). So who knows. I'm new to having broody chickens. Never had one in all the years I had my first batch of chickens.
Plus none of my hens lay anywhere but in the boxes in the coop. My broody hen's nesting spot was on the opposite side of the run from the coop...20 feet away. The coop is also on stilts so they use a ramp to get out into the run. How on earth did my broody hen collect eggs everyday and move them up and over the egg boxes, out of the coop, down the ramp and across to the other side of the run to her nesting spot?! I soooo wish I had caught her in the act but didn't think to question how until after I put her in broody jail.

Where there’s a will there’s a way it seems!

 

[janiedoe]

Someone on another thread linked me here when I told my broody hen egg-mover story.
I caught one of my hens sitting on 20 eggs (laid by at least two or three of my 8 hens)!
The thing is, I don't think she had been broody more than a day or two by the time I noticed her because I always count the hens before I put them to bed at night. There was only one night I noticed her missing and it was 2 days before I found her stash. Unless she was still roosting early on when she became broody. Is that a thing? Based on the number of each colored egg she was nesting on I'd say there was about a week's worth of eggs (ie, there were 6 blue eggs and I only have one hen who lays blue eggs). So who knows. I'm new to having broody chickens. Never had one in all the years I had my first batch of chickens.
Plus none of my hens lay anywhere but in the boxes in the coop. My broody hen's nesting spot was on the opposite side of the run from the coop...20 feet away. The coop is also on stilts so they use a ramp to get out into the run. How on earth did my broody hen collect eggs everyday and move them up and over the egg boxes, out of the coop, down the ramp and across to the other side of the run to her nesting spot?! I soooo wish I had caught her in the act but didn't think to question how until after I put her in broody jail.

I've had broody hens that played the long game. They sit a little longer each day, collect eggs, and continue to roost. Eventually they will begin to sit round the clock. As to how, she may have convenienced her roomies to lay in her chosen spot by depositing her own eggs there for a couple of days.
Are you going to let her sit or break her? There is just nothing like a mama hen and chicks.