Hen suddenly started hiding eggs...will she go broody?

[Chicken-fil-a]

I have a young BO hen/pullet (I think she is about 7 or 8 months old) that always comes back to the coop to lay her eggs when she free ranges. Her egg wasn't in the box about 5 days ago and I figured she was taking a day off. When she didn't lay the following days, I started searching and found her nest hidden in the honeysuckle vines at the base of a large oak tree in their large pen. I have been putting my other hen's fertile eggs in with hers to see if she wants to sit on them. As of tonight there are 7 eggs total in her clutch and she still lays her egg for the day and leaves to go about her chicken business.

My questions are these...

Does this sudden change of laying habits mean she is thinking of going broody?

Do some hens just decide to hide their eggs for no reason?

How many eggs do I let it build up to before giving up and taking them for my breakfast?

Thanks for any and all responses.

 

[chicks4kids]

Sounds to me like she's stashing eggs to go broody

I had a hen that used to stash hers in an upright tractor tire...at one point, she had over 11 eggs in there. I removed them all and she continued to lay until she had 9 more in there, then she went broody. It's up to her when she decides to go broody, but if you to keep track of her eggs, you can always date them and when she goes broody, remove the oldest ones.

Good luck!!

 

[countrygurl]

She is probably broody, let her gather 10-12 eggs, and see what happens.

 

[Chicken-fil-a]

Thank you! I really hope she decides to sit on her eggs. My daughter really would love to see the process from beginning to end.

Crossing my fingers...

 

[MareeZoCool]

My BA hen once saw me collecting eggs. She seemed to be yelling at the roo as if he was to blame for the poor choice of nesting location.Now she uses a 34 gallon tub, lying on it's side she has 3 sides of privacy.

 

[Kev]

Hiding, nesting behavior is instinctive. It's not done by "reason". Leghorn hens with NO chance of going broody ever, will still hunt around and find hidden spots to lay their eggs if allowed to free range. They will even arrange and make a very nice nest with materials all woven up neatly into a cup.. but they just keep on laying....

Broodiness is also instinct/genetics. This is why leghorns do not go broody, it has been bred out of them for production reasons- broody hens are not laying, so... Hens do not decide to go broody either, it is due to hormones in combination with stimulation- number of eggs SHE laid, number of eggs in nest, etc.

This is not to say your hen would not end up going broody on that nest though. Your concern should be would she be safe sitting on that nest for 21 days? Are there raccoons, possums, is it accessible to dogs etc?

Do not add eggs to her nest.. the proper way is to just leave the nest be, remove excess eggs if need be(leave about 8-10 eggs in nest if you want to encourage broodiness).. if you want her own eggs to hatch, remove the oldest eggs first so the freshest eggs will be in nest once she goes broody.. or leave the old/fake eggs in nest and collect whatever eggs you want to be hatched in a proper place until the day she goes broody, then replace entire nest with the freshest of the eggs.

There is also a limit on eggs a hen can adequately cover. For the average BO it's about 10 large eggs tops. Exceptional hens can cover more, many hens really handle less than that very well.

Good luck and have fun.