No egg for 3 days and in nest all day and night

[ccmac]

My hen is 10 months old and I am afraid she is egg bound. She has been in the nest round the clock for three days and has not laid an egg since Tuesday. I have lifted her off the nest for the past two days to observe her behavior in the yard for an hour or so. I have watched her eat and drink and poop. Today when I put her in the yard she was especially cranky and puffing up her feathers. Her rear end seems sensitive, but I can't tell if she is hurting or just mad. I'd love any and all advice! Thank you.

 

[PoultryGirly]

I'm thinking that your hen is broody and trying to hatch some eggs! In her nest, are there eggs under her? If so, how many and are they fertile? Sounds exactly like my broody hens did...

 

[ccmac]

No eggs are under her. I have lifted her up and off the nest into the yard everyday. She has not laid an egg for three days. The hen she shares a nest with has had to move to another one while this one sits there all day and all night.

 

[Chikas123]

Well you could try slipping a few eggs under her and see what she does, Broody hens are very weird they get into a trance when sitting on their eggs. Good luck!

 

[Chikas123]

P.s I have had a chicken who was egg bound and she was sleeping all the time and she had 0 energy

 

[ccmac]

So I shouldn't be worried if she's been laying 5x a week and has stopped?

 

[ccmac]

Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge. She was not egg-bound, definitely broody! I got a dozen fertilized eggs from a friend nearby and she hatched 7. She is the great momma. What strikes me is how instinctive her mothering is since I got her as a day-old and raised her under a lamp. She never had a "mother"...The chicks are now two weeks old. They were just a couple of days old in these photos: