Hen “holding in” egg until I bring her inside

[Emrosenagel]

Hello!

So, some info first — my hen is a 9 month old Cochin bantam. She went broody back in January and hatched eggs on February 14th, gave up on the chicks about 2 weeks ago and started laying again. Last week we had some seriously hot days, and Gil (that’s my hen) has always been a later in the day layer. She decided to lay her egg at like 2pm, peak temps for the day at around 94. I noticed she was a having a hard time with the heat and I felt bad for her (probably my mistake, but I can’t go back) and brought her inside in a crate to lay. Did the same thing the next day, too. Then things went back to normal for a few days — but yesterday Gil demanded to be brought inside to lay. She yelled and paced and came up to the door screaming at me, so I let her in. And, of course, she layed. Today was a bit different. I thought maybe she wouldn’t lay today, because by 5 I had no egg from her. But she was acting like she needed to lay — yelling, pacing, jumping up on stuff — so I locked her in the beating boxes for a bit. I came back in a half hour and she was eager to get out, but no egg. So I went about my evening until it was time to put them to bed at 745, and noticed Gil was still frantic. Very odd behavior, since she refused to lay. So I let her out into the yard and she went straight to the back door! I let her in, she went into the crate and only 5 minutes later I had an egg. At 8pm!

my questions are: is it normal for an egg to hold in an egg until she’s where she wants to lay it? Could it be she is preparing a clutch to hatch and wants them all in the same nest? She did sit on her egg yesterday after she layed it, and proceeded to make a nest around herself. Gil did do something like this the first time she went broody, like she could never find the perfect spot, and made such a fuss over it.

Thanks! And sorry for such a long post !

 

[Gemstateranch]

In my experience thats a normal thing for a chicken to do. Once they have a spot they feel is safe to lay, they tend to want to lay there. I've had chickens skip a day just because I was cleaning their coop during the time they normally lay, the fuss caused them to hold off on laying until the following day. Or if you ever transport chickens, sometimes it takes a day or two for them to get comfortable with a new locations. So yes totally normal for them to hold in an egg, and also for them to want to lay in the same spot each day.

 

[LaurenRitz]

So, what happens if you put the crate right by the back door, but outside?

 

[Emrosenagel]

So, what happens if you put the crate right by the back door, but outside?

She layed in the crate outside eventually, so that problem was solved. Unfortunately, she now has a new problem that might be cancer or an infection. Which really sucks since she’s such a young chicken