If you disturb a hen off the nest...

[Chotii]

...will she go back to it a bit later and lay?

I inadvertently disturbed the same hen off the nest 2 days running. Yesterday...and today. Yesterday we got no egg from her. Today I disturbed her off it again. Her lower abdomen (below her vent & behind her legs) seems extremely swollen. She did not go immediately back to the nest, but went back out to the run and began eating.

I wouldn't know what to do if she were egg-bound. And I don't know when hens DO when they're disturbed off the nest.

Suggestions?

 

[gkeesling]

sometimes when I go into the coop a hen on the nest will jump down and go out into the run, sometimes they just stay in the nest. If they get up they always goes back to the nest after I leave.

 

[evonne]

i took my first clutch of eggs out of my leghorns hidden nest yesterday.. today she scratched around in there sat for a while, then left.... but later i was noticing her acting wierd so i just kept a watch.. and she found a new spot that she approved of for laying...

even with the nest disturbed, she laid her egg.. a little later in the day than the last 2 days...
but i think had her other eggs still been in her nest she would have laid todays there too....
my leg horn is not broody, she sits on them for about 10 minutes after she lays, then she's running the yard again...
i'm guessing that if your hen is broody, and the eggs are still there she'll go back to them...
got an incubator just in case?

 

[Eastins Eggs]

If a hen is disturbed off her nest she will usually just find another nest to use.