Hen has laid an egg and won't leave it.

[Stargrazer]

My hen Annabelle laid an egg this morning and has been on it ever since. She has been on it for about 12 hours. Is there anything I need to do or should I leave her be. I have no males. Just hens.

Update: bedtime. I took her out and tried to set her on the ground and she wouldn't stand up. I had blueberries and tempted her to stand up. She finally did, ate the berries I offered her and then went to the water, drank a bunch, then to the dish of oyster shell calcium. She then walked around some doing a single "cluck" every few seconds (never done that before either). Everyone else started to go into their places in the house. I watched her go in then grabbed her and put her up in her usual resting spot, up in the roost by the ceiling. She jumped down and went back to her "nest" minus the egg. I had taken the egg. I left her alone after that.

I assume she is brooding? I'm hoping she gets over it or maybe I need to do something more?
It's a new event to me so don't want to create problems for her.

 

[Kiki]

Pick her up and remove her.

 

[mountainchickens]

My hen Annabelle laid an egg this morning and has been on it ever since. She has been on it for about 12 hours. Is there anything I need to do or should I leave her be. I have no males. Just hens.

Depends if you want chicks or not If you do, you'll have to get her some fertilized eggs. If not, the above post is a good idea.

 

[aart]

Sounds like she is meeting all these signs:
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?
If so, then she is probably broody and you'll have to decide how to manage it.


If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, best to break her broodiness promptly.

My experience goes about like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest (or as soon as I know they are broody), I put her in a wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop or run with feed and water.

I used to let them out a couple times a day, but now just once a day in the evening(you don't have to) and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two. Or take her out of crate daily very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate.

Chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken.

 

[Stargrazer]

Thank you everyone. It confirmed my suspicion. I took her out and set her on the ground. She saw her breakfast and started munching. She followed the others out into the yard and so far has stayed there with them. Hopefully I can break her of this. It's pointless. No boys, no chicks. Just breakfast (scrambled eggs, yum!).