Possibly Broody and Refusing to Use Nesting Box

[Dreammaker]

Hi, BYC!

Have you ever had a hen go broody but refuse to use nesting boxes to lay her eggs? My Speckled Sussex (1 year old) has been laying in various spots throughout the coop for the past few weeks (started under the roosting bar, now it's in the corner near the nesting boxes). She gets pretty P.O.'d if I try to approach her when she's in one of these spots and makes a weird purr/screech (cross between dinosaur and pigeon?) and puffs up a bit. This is accompanied by some pretty nasty pecks. She still lays regularly and spends most of the day in the run. Her noises and behavior suggest broody, but she's laying and spending lots of time in the run, so I'm not sure...

No amount of fake eggs has encouraged her to use the boxes. I tried curtains... Nothing... Freshening up the straw regularly... Nothing. I would consider broody jail, but I'm not even certain this is broodiness, so I don't want to waste my efforts or make her more irritable.

If I do nothing, how long could I expect this behavior to continue? Part of me wants to take action, the other part wants to wait it out. If this will go away on its own, I can deal for a few more weeks.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Doesn't sound broody, just a hen that doesn't want to be disturbed while laying an egg or just hanging out on a nest. Some hens like to loaf.

Most all my hens will fuss if you disturb them when laying an egg, they will also draw eggs to them, etc. but they aren't broody. Sometimes they like to linger on their "nest" or where they have laid the egg and take a little snooze...nice, quiet, why not take a beauty nap

Some hens just don't want to lay in nesting boxes, they will find a place they feel most comfortable. I've found that hens will do what they want.

Why is it you want the behavior to "go away"? Just leave her to lay her egg, when she's done and back in the run, then go collect. If she's laying in the back corner where it's hard to reach, a grabber works great. I use one.

 

[Dreammaker]

Doesn't sound broody, just a hen that doesn't want to be disturbed while laying an egg or just hanging out on a nest. Some hens like to loaf.

...

Why is it you want the behavior to "go away"? Just leave her to lay her egg, when she's done and back in the run, then go collect. If she's laying in the back corner where it's hard to reach, a grabber works great. I use one.

Tried replying earlier but it didn't seem to go through. Thank you for your response!

For me, it's much easier to collect eggs from the boxes (they're accessible from the outside; I don't have a walk-in coop). Having to reach in with some sort of tool to collect isn't a huge problem, but it's not ideal. Plus, I find that often, when laid in the bedding (we use deep bedding), they get a bit dirty/poopy and therefore require refrigeration. I'd prefer to keep them out on the counter.

I hope you're right that she's not broody, as having to break her of that would be a pain (we don't want any of our hens to raise chicks at the moment). Makes me wonder if I put pine shavings in the nesting box, if she'd be enticed to use it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

To me that is not close to broody behavior. A broody does not lay eggs, she uses the energy that goes into egg laying to keep her alive while she is sitting on the eggs. A broody spends nights on the nest, not sleeping in her normal spot.

Photos of the nests might help. I don't know what is going on. I take it she did lay in a nest regularly until this behavior started. Is she otherwise acting healthy and are the eggs OK? Nothing weird?

Every now and then I have a hen stop laying in a nest and start "hiding" a nest somewhere. Maybe one time out of three that hen does go broody several weeks later. That's certainly not consistent but I have noticed that.

I made some of my nests so I could lock a hen in there if I wanted to. That's come in handy for various reasons. When I have a hen start laying somewhere other than the nests I catch her when she is on that other nest and lock her in my real nest until she lays that egg, usually takes her a half hour but I had one take three hours one time. Once is usually all it takes to retrain them but I had one hen that took two lock-ups. I'm retired so I can go down there several times a day until I actually catch her trying to lay.

I sympathize, this can be a pain in the rear.

 

[townchicks]

Do you have fake eggs in your nest box? That can help. If she's a lower ranking hen, she may be intimidated by the others when she's in the box, I have that problem with one of mine. Photos would be good. It sounds like maybe you have a prefab? If so, building a walk in run or buying a dog kennel would help with both the access and intimidation problem, if that is what is going on.

 

[aart]

Photos of the nests might help.

Ditto Dat.
As well as how many birds in how big a coop.

 

[Dreammaker]

To me that is not close to broody behavior. A broody does not lay eggs, she uses the energy that goes into egg laying to keep her alive while she is sitting on the eggs. A broody spends nights on the nest, not sleeping in her normal spot.

Photos of the nests might help. I don't know what is going on. I take it she did lay in a nest regularly until this behavior started. Is she otherwise acting healthy and are the eggs OK? Nothing weird?

Every now and then I have a hen stop laying in a nest and start "hiding" a nest somewhere. Maybe one time out of three that hen does go broody several weeks later. That's certainly not consistent but I have noticed that.

I made some of my nests so I could lock a hen in there if I wanted to. That's come in handy for various reasons. When I have a hen start laying somewhere other than the nests I catch her when she is on that other nest and lock her in my real nest until she lays that egg, usually takes her a half hour but I had one take three hours one time. Once is usually all it takes to retrain them but I had one hen that took two lock-ups. I'm retired so I can go down there several times a day until I actually catch her trying to lay.

I sympathize, this can be a pain in the rear.

Thank you for the feedback. Pain in the rear indeed... Interesting re: the hidden nests as an indicator of impending broodiness. I wonder if that'll be the case here. Nice idea about nesting boxes that can be closed/locked. I'm not sure how feasible it'd be for us to make something like that, but something to keep in mind.

I'll have to upload some photos later. I did just put plastic nesting pads (plastic shelf liner, topped with plastic "grass-like" pad, topped with some straw (it's technically not necessary with the "grassy" pads, but they do love tossing it around right before laying). The plastic components are to help with cleanup, particularly with broken eggs (something I've dealt with for the last few weeks). I also added curtains recently, but this errant laying was happening well before all this. Maybe my changes + her new favorite nesting spot has inspired her flock-mates, as I've got 3 more birds laying outside their boxes within the last couple of days. Good grief...

 

[Dreammaker]

Do you have fake eggs in your nest box? That can help. If she's a lower ranking hen, she may be intimidated by the others when she's in the box, I have that problem with one of mine. Photos would be good. It sounds like maybe you have a prefab? If so, building a walk in run or buying a dog kennel would help with both the access and intimidation problem, if that is what is going on.

We did put fake eggs in until a couple weeks ago. We kind of just stopped. I'm not sure whether they helped much. We still would get the occasional egg outside the boxes. I could try again though. I don't think it'd hurt and maybe it'd help? The Speckled Sussex is for sure in the bottom half of the pecking order--maybe 2nd to last? So, it could be that she feels intimidated somehow. She does tend to lay when there aren't others in there, so I'm not seeing her having to compete for space with other birds.

Re: the coop/run - we built it ourselves. The henhouse itself is 6x5 and the run is 6x16. Plenty of room for 6 birds. It's not walk-in, but the entire back of the henhouse opens for when I need to deep clean. They're not free-ranged and spend most of their time in the attached run. There are 4 nesting boxes, all roughly a cubic foot. Plenty of boxes for the small number of birds we have. Yet none seem to appeal to our Speckled friend... lol

I'll try to upload some photos later. I have a busy afternoon and, truth be told, need a bit of a chicken break today to keep my sanity

 

[zenaghia]

Its so funny that you say your speckled sussex is doing this... I have a speckled sussex that does a very similar thing - her name is Sissy. She lays pretty regularly and uses the nest boxes for the most part, and will even climb on top of other hens in the nest boxes in the event they are not fast enough with their laying. But every so often Sissy decides she wants to hide her eggs in my yard (like once every 3 months). She is quite good at hiding, and it takes me about 3 days to find them (I cannot find her nest but have to catch her in the act of sitting on it). I take away those eggs and she will go back to laying in the boxes.

I don't have any definitively reason why she does this, but she has a "twin" sister that is a blue rock hen and they are inseparable. The blue rock, Belle, will occasionally go into a broody mode where she does not lay at all, but wanders around, eats, puffs up her feathers and clucks loudly at everything and everyone like she is protecting her brood of non existent chicks. I think this seems to be related to Sissy's behavior of hiding her nest. I am not sure which one is trying to help out the other!

 

[Dreammaker]

At last, here are some photos I promised. Of course, she laid in the box today. Go figure. It could be like zenaghia and her chicken, Sissy; just a phase she's going through. After reading everyone's feedback, I think the answer to my question is: no, she's not broody...yet, anyway. As for why she lays all over the place, no idea. I guess she's just a weirdo like many chickens are. Feel free to weigh in on my set up though. Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

P.S. I swear my coop isn't so grungy and scary-looking in person lol The lighting isn't the best today.