Fretting about finding JUST the right spot to lay their eggs...

[Iheartmyhens]

Do your hens do this? My hens have a large sideyard to roam and enjoy with a coop-I swear they make a certain annoyed noise while wandering around looking for right spot. I followed one hen around for 40 minutes trying to find their new hiding spot and had to give up because Daisy STILL hadn't made up her mind. Anyone else seen their hens behave like this?

Even after all this fussing, they seem to go back to their same spots anyway.

Do your hens also make a surprised sound after getting off the nest again as if they are shocked another egg came out of them???

 

[Chick CJ]

Yes!!! My OEGB "Fiona" always runs around the yard sqauwking and seemingly looking like she is looking for a spot to lay an egg whenever I let her out of the run before she lays! Then she will finally go into the same nesting box and spend an hour in there before finally doing the deed. She is what I call an "egg laying drama queen". At first I was worried there was something wrong with her but it's just the way she does it! I have two other hens laying now and they are all different! I LOVE my chickens!

CJ

 

[Iheartmyhens]

LOL @ "egg laying drama queen"! They really can be SUCH divas sometimes...

 

[patricium]

Two of my bantams do that too. They make fretty sounds and run around looking, but so far they haven't found a better place than the nestboxes, I guess. Just today, I noticed that this behavior sometimes seems to cause the other ones to peck or chase them. It's been with different individual chickens, so I think it must trigger some instinctual behavior or something.

Mine hardly ever make the surprised sound when laying eggs. One of my hens does it whenever the nest box is occupied and she wants to use it though.