"Holding" it

[Uzuri]

Forgot to post about this, but I'm still curious.

Anyone ever heard of a hen "holding" an egg? A week ago I moved my hens to some new digs, and this involved moving their house without them in it. They spent the day in a mobile run with a tarp thrown over. About noon one of my Wellies starting the egg song and seemed rather upset. She never did lay. If she was a person she would have been going around with her legs crossed. A couple others looked uncomfortable, and only one of them laid in the moveable run.

Next morning what do I have but three eggs laid from the roost -- one was a softshell delivered along with a good egg from my Wellie.

So did they hold it? You tell me!

 

[Critter Crazed]

I've had a hen hold an egg in because she couldn't get to her normal nesting area. So I'm gonna say, yes they held it because their nesting area was gone.

 

[FarmerSandra]

I'm pretty new at this. But one of my pullets was kept in the coop for a couple of days and I think she held hers. No eggs from her and then when she finally got out, she ran to her nest in the yard and she laid a double yolker. I thought that was rather impressive and so I just let her lay in her nest now; it's out of the way and the kids have to climb the hillside, but I don't want her to get bound up. Do you know if that can happen? The egg binding because they hold their eggs? I don't know.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

I'm not sure if it can cause eggbinding, but I do know they can hold it if they can't get to where they want to lay. Mine did that often. I found it easier to check the nests they hid in the yard than try to force them to lay in the coop. I'm hoping I can train my new batch better because they have a LOT more range.