Found a nest!

[marlene]

I couldn't find 1 of me hens this morning, after a little hunt round the garden i found her sitting in a tiny corner behind a load of building materials.
When she left the corner i went to investigate and found her little nest with 5 eggs in it, i did wander why she had stopped laying, obviously now i know she hadn't stopped just decided to start laying else where.
She isn't broody because she hasn't been sitting on her nest, just laying there, the rest of the time she has been free ranging with the other hens.
Why after 1 1/2 years would she suddenly decide to stop laying in her nest box? I don't understand it.
Can any one give me some insight to this?
TIA

 

[bobbieschicks]

Quote:
Awwh. I don't have any experience with broody hens yet - I'm hoping I will in the Spring. Are the nest boxes up high and she doesn't like to get up there anymore? Maybe too much competition getting into them? At least you now know where to look for her eggs!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Hard to say. Sometimes a change in nesting material or dirty bedding. Sometimes another change like more or less light in the nest area.

 

[marlene]

Nothing has changed, every thing is the same as it has always been. Their is 6 nest boxes in the coop and only 4 hens laying so that is more than enough.
Don't understand why she is doing this.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've had that happen before and I really don't know why it happens. They are living animals and anything can happen.

It is possible something happened to frighten her when on a nest in the coop so she decided to start laying somewhere else. Maybe she saw a rat or weasel in there. Possibly she saw a rock or something that looked like an egg to her in the new place and she thought it was a good place to lay. But I really don't know why they change like that.

When I find one of mine doing that, I lock all the chickens in the coop and run for about a week to try to break her of the habit, plus remove all the eggs in the hidden nest and try to make it look not like a nest. That usually retrains them but I had to do that twice for one. The one that was hard to retrain did go broody a couple of months later. The others that have done that did not eventually go broody, but maybe it was the onset of a hormonal change in my one?

 

[peterlund]

Quote:
Chicken therapist advised. That is what you are going to need to figure out chicken behavior.

I have 8 nesting boxes. All clean and good sized, and they only lay eggs in ONE of them..... and sometimes there are 3 birds in it.

 

[theoldchick]

Flock dynamics might have forced to chose a more private place. I like to watch my hens chose the box to lay in. I have 17 hens and 16 nest boxes. They spend their time choosing which box to lay in. They peer in one then another then run back out to have a discussion with other hens. At times they cackle and carry on quite loudly. One box may be the favorite of a few hens. Another box might be the perfect one for a few others. Then there is a few who insist on using their own nest box.

Don't forget-they are the female of the species. Who knows what is going on behind those eyes?

 

[farmdude]

Hiding nests is a normal thing for hens to do. It is instinct for them to find a safe place where their eggs won't be disturbed. That is why many people use fake eggs in the nest boxes to keep hens from changing locations. If their eggs don't disappear, they'll think it's a safe place and continue to use it. If their eggs disappear, they find a new spot.

 

[Lollipop]

Quote:
Yuppers, I agree with the farmdude on this theory. If I were you, I would remove all the eggs except one and mark that one as a nest egg. Then just collect the fresh ones as they appear......Pop

 

[wyoDreamer]

Maybe she is begining to go broody ?
Since they only lay one egg a day, they will need to stockpile eggs before they have gathered enough to sit on and try to hatch.