Going broody???

[77horses]

Our young 4 month old pullet laid her first or second egg over the weekend! Here's what happened:
It was in the afternoon, I went out to visit the four ladies, who are all the same age, and our new splash cochin rooster. I looked in the coop,(which is in the garage) and saw only 3 girls and the rooster. Then I noticed that our red star(Cinnamon) was sitting up on a shelf, which had a trash bag on top filled with old clothes. She was huddled up in the center, with a few strands of grass and feathers around her. She had jumped up and out of the coop! So, I picked her up and placed her back inside. She went over to the nest boxes, and started acting strange....She got inside one, then got out, then went to the next, then got out, and found some pieces of hay and sawdust, then arranged them in a way, and got back in, then settled down. Our other red star(Linda, her sister) came over and stood there, watching Cinnamon. She stayed with her a few minutes, then started cleaning her feathers, then left. Cinnamon just sat there, and when I thought she was gonna lay an egg, she hopped out. Then she started cackling really loudly, like she does when she is scared!

I looked around, thinking that she saw a cat or something, but there was nothing!

Then, she started pacing back and forth, trying to get back out to that particular spot where I had found her. So, I picked her up and put her back in that spot, and she got comfortable, sat down, and started picking at the pieces of newspapers and fixing the "nest". I grabbed some grass for her to make her more cozy and so she could make a better nest, and she took them and tucked them under herself. I watched, and then finally she stood up and a small egg plopped out and onto the nest. She stood there a moment, and I watched quietly so she wouldn't be disturbed, and then she sat back down, rolled the egg around with her beak, and rested. Then, she stood back up, started cackling again, as if to say to the other girls, "Hey! Look at this! I laid an egg! Yay!"

But i was sooo proud of her! She laid her first egg!

I patted her and looked at the small tan egg. And when I started touching it, she watched me closely and actually made a weird noise at me, like she was warning me. She never did bite me, but she seemed protective. But then, she got off the nest, and went back into the coop. I took the egg inside and put it in the fridge with the rest.

Is she beginning to go broody, or was she just acting strange because it was a new thing to her???

The other pullet, Linda, has started laying already, too. Any thoughts??? I thought she was going to sit on the egg all day, but she didn't even last 20 minutes before leaving.

And sorry this is really really long, but I had to get all the thoughts out and what happened.

Thanks!

 

[chickenannie]

You just wrote a perfect description of how a chicken lays its first egg! Congratulations.

I would say that your hen acted perfectly normal. My suggestion would be to let her have her privacy, her "space" and I don't usually collect eggs until after the hen is gone -- otherwise she might feel like you are invading her space. That is HARD work for a hen to lay an egg.

Typically a hen won't go "broody" until she has at least 12-14 eggs lying in her nest. So, if you take the egg away each day, she won't ever get broody. Broody means she absolutely will refuse to leave her nest, all day and all night. It is fairly obvious when they go broody because they fluff up all their feathers and they peck at you if you try to reach in to their nest.

Good luck!