We have an EE that has always liked to hang out by herself while free ranging, on the far side of the yard near where we park our cars. We discovered she was laying in a box and took those eggs away. She has never laid in the box again, but we don't know that she has laid in the coop since then either. . . this was a couple of months ago. My DH discovered she is now laying in a bucket. There are 5 eggs in there now and while I never see her sitting on them, she doesn't return to the coop at night with the rest of the flock. She is roosting on a high shelf near the bucket. While we do realize she could be eaten or injured by a predator at night while she roosts outside, we are wondering if she is possibly building a clutch to brood. If she is, we will gladly move her to a safe location, but how are we to know? A clutch could take a couple of weeks to build, depending on what size she decides she wants, yes? We want her to go broody if that's what she's doing, but if she's just being a dummy and laying and roosting outside just because, then we don't want that. How much more time should we give her before we take these eggs away?
