Is she broody or egg bound?

[AlGalMom]

The last two days my 1 year old Golden Laced Cochin has spent the entire afternoon and on into the evening setting on the nest. We've just assumed that she was laying an egg, but after hours on the nest today there was still no egg. This morning there was an egg, but I assumed it was from our wonky layer who frequently lays thin-shelled or otherwise sub-standard eggs (also a GLC, so their eggs can be hard to tell apart). The egg this morning was almost round and had white crusty splotches (calcium deposits?) all over it.

Anyway, how do I tell if she's having a hard time laying or if she's going broody? Can she go broody if she's not sitting on any eggs?

 

[Erica]

Hi Algalmom,

if she's broody, then when you put a hand in over her back she'll growl and hunker down lower. Also broody hens will make soft cluck-cluck-cluck noises and be all fluffed up when they come out to eat.

They can go broody off eggs, though it's more likely if there are eggs to sit on.

I would pick her up, check her all over for lice, mites or other problems, check her vent to see if it's pulsing or straining, and take it from there. Her behaviour when you pick her up would be easy to tell if she's broody because she'd growl at you and may peck.

If her vent is doing something strange or you see any kind of abnormal mucus or evidence of diarrhea, raise it under a new heading on the hen health section and you'll likely get plenty of help.

best wishes
Erica