I have a red sex-link hen that I've wondered about...if she's "all there." She sometimes doesn't seem to respond the way the others do, and we've wondered if she's blind, or deaf, or just...really not too bright...! Well, on occasion I've noticed a smashed egg in the bottom of the coop, which she and the other hens will peck at if I don't clean it up quick (I've worried that she will teach them egg-eating), but I couldn't figure out what was going on. Well, today I opened the coop and my other girls happily scattered to the run, and this one just sat on the perch glaring at me. She wasn't in the nesting box, just sitting there on a perch. So I thought maybe she didn't feel like jumping down today, so I gently picked her up and put her on the ground. Well, as I did so, plop! An egg fell right out of her butt and smashed on the ground! I've never heard of a hen that had no idea when she was laying?!? Or who would rather lay from a perch than a nesting box?! No wonder the eggs were smashing! Has anyone ever heard of this or have a clue what to do about it?!?
I don't have any answers for you but that got my husband to laugh out loud and he almost never does. He also doesn't find chickens at all amusing.
I hate to label her as a crazy chicken, but as that kind of behavior warrants a padded coop, she may be a little crazy! Maybe you can find her a tiny straight jacket to go along with her needed padded coop. I had a free roamer that liked to lay her eggs in the holes in a cinder block fence, was cleaning out the bird houses on a ladder and looked over to the fence to see the holes just jam packed with eggs, wasted around 30 eggs she did!
One of mine did the same thing sitting on a perch outside the coop. I thought that was the craziest thing I'd ever seen! She hasn't done it again that I've noticed.
My group just started laying a couple weeks ago and have found 2 under the roost. I have a poop pan full of sand under there so they eggs have no broken. I hope she gets it together and gets in the box.
Impress, that made me laugh...the holes in the cinder blocks?!? Maybe she was part squirrel. Hmmm...maybe I need to put some padding at the bottom of the coop...I think the other hens would ignore an egg sitting there, but once it's smashed, they'll start getting curious.
