How long do your chickens hang out in the nesting box?

[AKnewbie]

Some of my 6mo old australorps seem to like hanging out in the nesting boxes, spending an hour or two in it sometimes. Is this typical behavior?
I get an average of 7 eggs out of the 9 hens and sometimes I get 9 in a day so I know they are all laying.

 

[mickey328]

Are they just sitting in them or is it after they've laid and they're on eggs?

 

[aldarita]

I also have 9 hens and I am getting an average of 7 eggs a day. I have noticed that some of them get in the nesting box and in few minutes they are out, however some others stayed there for 2 or 3 hours (a RIR and a barred rock) I cannot tell if they are sitting on the egg or just taking their time to lay it. I just wonder if every hen is just different on the way they lay. I know they are not broody because they are hybrids and there is no roo.

 

[mickey328]

Even without a roo some hens will go broody; it mostly depends on the breed. Ours are sexlinks which really aren't known to be broody, but we do have a couple that seem to like to sit on the eggs for a while before leaving the nest while most hop in, lay and scoot right back outside. Even when I gather, one or two of them will stay in the nest for a little while, although they don't object to me reaching under them to get the egg. Now, if they stayed for hours and hours or wouldn't leave to eat or got ferocious about us taking the eggs, that'd be a different thing. But as it is, we just let them do their thing