egg pile detected in the bushes , broody hen or just nice spot to lay ???

[strangeanimal]

Hello again to all of you ,

I just noticed as I was gardening a pile of eggs with very carefully placed feathers in between the eggs plus a lot of leaves and pineshavings .
So I dot even know which hens are responsible for this but I already noticed a major increase of eggs which is not that abnormal given the hens ages , that vary from a year to even up to close to be 3 years old so that was not exactly alarming but this eggpile is definitely NOT from one chicken as I spotted that there were mainly white eggs so I am keeping a closer eye on the white eared chickens but also a few brown ones hmm , what is going on here ?
There was a broody but she was totally " off " when she moved here in fact , so what do I have to think about this pile of eggs in fact ?
No hen is staying on it BUT when approaching this pile , even not being aware of that as this is next to my vegetables I had to take care off I noticed typical behaviors in the chickens , they alarmed eachother at that point .
I mean , this were free rangers that lived up the trees and each time you would approach a broody or her nest the roosters began to crow and didnt stop along with hens sounding like complaining and other hens also just calling like the roosters , now this is happening again since they moved here to a run and I found that they finally have accepted ( half ) the situation now to be living in a coop and a run but also I have to let them out daily because no other way seemed to work , so they free range during the day about 6 to 7 hours and then get back to their run and still they do not yet sleep into their coop but on branches of some bushes I recently putted there .
They called out to eachother as I approached the veggies and I noticed that I had already heard that sound before , each time I do approach that place it starts again with always the sound of a wining hen , what might be going on here ?? is there a broody or not because these eggs are now already left for over 2 weeks in fact without a hen sitting on it by day nor night , altough I still keep in mind that each time a hen got broody as they were still free ranged she first kept collecting eggs for a long time , even sometimes longer than a month and suddenly you would not be able to get any egg without getting pecked on because there she sat on the pile of eggs , usually with the compagnionship of another hen that was just sitting next to her . So are we dealing here with a broody collector that is going to hatch out soon ? or what can I expect given the fact we are still working on their run and are not entirely used to see that much of movement so close to them which gives them so much stress ?
could it be that this is as I was hoping for , the same broody that went broody off but has decided to be sneaky about it and still longs for a little family ?? As the chickens I have now are going to serve mainly as meatbirds given their ages and also the fact they will never be a 99% happy with their captivity it would be fantastic if there is indeed a hen being broody and just collecting now to sit on later but as I said I have NO clue at all . So please share your thoughts on this one as I become almost so sensitive about the idea of not having any offspring of these great chickens which will always remind me of my old english gamefowls that just had to leave their free ranging area .. and since I have like zip idea about broodiness and collecting eggs ..
I really thank you in advance !
Note : I have not removed the entire pile of eggs but tested their responses by taking a few eggs on several occations and each time the chickens did the same thing like they used to when a hen was broody , collecting eggs and someone approached that nest ..

 

[azygous]

Let's see if I can summarize this so we can see what we're dealing with.

You have a semi-feral flock, some preferring to lay eggs and roost outside in the bushes, you have a "big pile" of eggs in the bushes, and you aren't sure you have a broody intending to incubate, but you wouldn't mind it if you did.

It should be fairly obvious if you have a broody. Regardless of a pile of eggs, you should notice a hen that is fussy and puffs up irritably and clucks almost non-stop under her breath. She will find a place to sit on a nest somewhere, even if it has no eggs.

The collection of eggs, however, can be from numerous hens laying on that spot regardless of intent to come back later and sit on them. Hens see an egg in a nest and will lay their egg there since someone else thought it was a good spot. No telling how old some of those eggs are.

It would appear you have a "casual" management style. You can choose to leave the eggs alone and allow the hens to continue to add to them or you can gather them and toss them all out and destroy the nest. Your choice.

You may or may not have a hen going broody. Leaving the eggs will not necessarily insure chicks will result. If you are curious about whether you have a broody, you need to observe the behavior of your hens, looking for the odd one who is vocalizing in a different manner from the rest, acting irritable, perhaps making the others annoyed with her behavior.