Esther and Winnie~ Emerald ~ Momma Time~ UH-OH Egg Overload P46

[barg]

Emerald has spent way too much time in the nest box today.
She is one of my chickens that will spend up to a couple hours in the nest box but none of them has ever lingered so long and so late in the day as she is today.
It is almsot time for them to go in for the night and she has been in the box four hours and hours.

I'm not sure if this is broody or sick or what it is.
She is just sitting in there laying pretty much full body spread flat with her head tucked in, I got her to look up and look around (shown in the first pic) by prodding her a little, she made a squeely noise at me but didn't really budge.

How can I tell if she is broody, or if this is illness?

 

[SpottedCrow]

If she looks like a feathery pancake, she's broody.

 

[silkiechicken]

Pull out here eggs and leave them a few inches in front of her. If she rolls them under, she wants to be a momma!

 

[barg]

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When I built the nest boxes, I took the standard size and scaled down; the nest box isn't that big but I can put the eggs maybe an inch in front of her.
guess I'll do that tomarrow, it's already dark and the chickens are in for the night.

She does look like a feather pancake so, what do I do about it?
These are infertile eggs- no rooster here, and although there is a nest box underneath her, none of the chickens like it and always lay in the upper one.

 

[Fancy Feather Poultry]

The pictures arent working and, How big should nest boxes be for standard hens?.

 

[LoneCowboy]

Well, from your list, you have some heavy breeds, so the nest box should be about 14" w X 12" L x 14" H. I just looked it up today.

 

[Fancy Feather Poultry]

So about 1ftX1ft?

 

[LoneCowboy]

Well, 1 foot X 1 foot x 1 foot for light breeds. The extra 2 inches are for heavy breeds like buff orpingtons.

 

[barg]

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If the pictures arn't working, right click on them and hit "show Pictures"
There has been a glitch since my isp started making changes to my personal web pages and thay have everything all screwd up.

I don't remember the exact dimensions of my nest boxes but I know that for the bottom I used 1x12 wich translates to 3/4 by 11 inches, so the nest box is about 11 inches wide and like 12-14 inches deep, and it has no top on it so it's plenty high enough.


Emerald is an Australorp so she's no small chicken, but for day to day use the nest box seems very adequte for their needs, it was never intended for long stays.

Anyway, what should I do, remove the eggs?

Correction, the nest box is about 11 inches deep by about 14 inches wide, not the other way around​

 

[silkiechicken]

Take out her eggs, and see if you can't break her from sitting in the boxes. Take her out all the time, put her in a wire cage so air gets under her belly, and eventually she will give up... or you can give up and give her two chicks! Hahaha. No need to spend that much time integrating either since she'd take care of that for you!