How many eggs do they collect in general before they decide to stay on the nest?
We had fewer number of eggs in the last few week and we thought it was odd because even in the hot summer they were laying OK. With the lower temps they should have recovered from the heat and resumed laying and yet we found much less eggs. I let them free range on and off, depending on the condition of the grass around the house. Well I found a hen sitting on a nest of the missing 7 eggs behind the feed box. When I checked again, the next day, it was 8 eggs. She then went to eat. By the afternoon there were 9 eggs. That was yesterday. Today there are still 9 eggs. She does not lay every day, at least that is my understanding. I have left the eggs in hopes that she will return when she decides that she has enough eggs. I have never had a broody hen and this is the first summer we have hens so I don't have much experience with this. Is there a chance she will go broody, or she is just laying the eggs there to spite me LOL, and there is really no reason to believe she is interested in a nest, I just couldn't find the eggs before. I find this all interesting, and it would be fun to have chickens hatch by the hen. I suck at incubator hatching due to power outages.
It is a brown hen. I think it is always the same hen, and I will take a picture of the eggs tomorrow to show and confirm if they all came from the same hen.
If she starts to sit, I will bring her into the house and keep her in a basket to make sure she won't abandon the nest.
Feeling hopeful here.
