Sad hen?

[jlquick30]

My chickens are young - just getting to 5 months old - and are just now starting to lay. The first egg came about 3 weeks ago and still there are only about 4 of my 10 laying.

Today, I walked outside and heard the most awful SCREAMING coming from the barn. Several of the chickens were walking around nonchalantly in the barnyard, but the screams were coming from inside and I just *knew* something was getting one of my hens.

I yelled for my husband and ran out to the barn - only to find a lone hen wandering around one of the horse stalls. We looked, and there was a freshly laid egg off in the corner, but it had fallen down in a crack between the wall. We gave her the egg and she rolled it around for a little while and then started "crying" again.

We took her, and the egg, to the nestbox to show her where it goes... and she sat in the box for a while on the egg, and then got up and went outside to eat. We left the egg for a while as she still seemed agitated (and we're new to this!).

Later in the afternoon, we went in the horse stall from this morning and "someone" had made a nest out of the straw, over in the corner by where the egg had originally been. I guess she is determined to lay there??

Anyway -- Any ideas on how we can get her to lay in the nestbox and not her homemade nest (we already have plastic eggs in the right nestbox and everyone else has gotten the idea) or should we leave her alone? And is it normal for a hen to get so upset about "losing" her egg? We gave it back to her and she still wandered around crying for 10+ minutes.

 

[CrazyChookz]

The fake eggs are a good idea, and probably the best. It will be difficult to get this stubborn sounding hen to lay in the nesting boxes. You could try putting her into the nest boxes when she is showing signs of laying, then shut the box so she can't get out. If she does not lay the egg in a while, then you should let her out in case she needs food or water. You may have to repeat this process after she finishes eating and drinking. If this doesn't work, maybe you will have to let her laying in the 'homemade' nest. Otherwise, I'm not sure what else you can do.
Sometimes it is perfectly normal for a hen to miss her egg a little - imagine your baby being taken away from you, but if it continues every single time she lays an egg, and it is severe, you may have a problem on your hands. Maybe try to give her some more time with her egg before taking it away.

Hope this will help! Good luck!

 

[jlquick30]

She's added more to her "cult" haha.

This morning I went out and the homemade nest had 2 eggs in it - one belonged to the hen from yesterday, I think, and one was obviously a new layer - it was teeny tiny. Tried to gather them and mama hen from yesterday came and started squawking/crying. I left her alone for a minute and she covered BOTH eggs up with straw before walking away. I left the eggs with her for now, I'll sneak out later and get them. But I hope she's not going to take it upon herself to guard the whole flocks' eggs!

Thank goodness for my early layers who are still using the intended nest boxes and leave theirs alone afterwards.

 

[jlquick30]

Today she was working on making her nest (in the stable) even better and making it more hidden... from us, presumably. She's got at least one, maybe two, other hens laying their eggs in there too. We keep moving them to the right nest box, and leaving them with her for a while, but it doesn't seem to be working.

Could she be broody this early? At most, she could only have been laying for a week or two.