Should I worry..or am I being crazy.

[smcjoj3]

newbie question.

My 5 1/2 mo old hen is not hanging out with her flock today. Being reclusive, hiding in the tool shed under some things, panting a bit (it's hot out - but none of the other ladies are panting.)

Do you think she is trying to find a good place to lay? She hasn't laid her first egg yet. Her sister chicken laid her first egg a little over a week ago, she didn't mature as quickly as today's reclusive hen, so I was surprised she went first? .....
Unfortunately the sister chicken laid her egg during Hurricane Irene & all the hens were in a xlarge dog kennel in my kitchen, so everyone's behavior was a little 'off' and I have nothing to compare todays behavior with.

Do i need to worry about her being egg bound? I hope not.
TIA

 

[gritsar]

Is she checking out containers and such in the tool shed? Is she clucking alot?

Sounds like she is looking for a place to lay her first egg.

 

[BooBear]

Sounds like she may be practicing for it.

 

[Nicole01]

I bet she is going to lay!

 

[gritsar]

Do yourself a favor and direct her to the nearest nestbox. Once they get the chance to lay somewhere other than the nestbox they are hard to break, says Gritty who had a hen that only wanted to lay in a deck chair.

 

[smcjoj3]

I moved her to the nest box & she got up and moved back to the tool shed! she is under a bunch of things & it is pretty enclosed where she is hiding. So I figured/hoped that's what she was doing.
I don't want her to lay there though! the chicken that laid in the dog crate during the kitchen now goes out of her way to seek that place out and thinks it is her nest! Maybe they don't like my nesting boxes? or where they are in the coop....but that's kind of a whole other thread.
thanks for the answers!