We got our FIRST EGG! Now hen is acting nuts!

[MamiPollo]

Yippee! Went to put the girls to bed last night and there was an egg in the nest box! Happy Day!

This morning my hen, Hilda, the one I am sure is the one who laid it. She is the most mature and has been acting nutty for the past week. Apparently she thinks I am her rooster, because she sure has gotten friendly with me! lol

Anyway, this morning, she keeps hopping over the gate and trying to make a nest in the carport. I put her back a few times, even brought her in the house, where she kept trying to fly up in the kitchen sink. So I took her back to the carport and figured, I'll just go with it and I gave her some straw to build her nest in the spot she had picked out.

She sat there and I could actually see her sphincter working, but she did not push an egg out. She just got out of the nest and started wandering around on the driveway. This, I could not allow!

I ended up closing her in the hen house until she finishes laying her egg.

Is this the right thing to do? She seems very agitated and is panting. She was doing this while looking for her nest.

I don't know why she won't go in the nest box again.

Help!

P.S. Are all 6 of them going to get this nutty when they start laying? Or is Hilda a "special case"?

 

[MamiPollo]

After I shut Hilda in the hen house, she went into her nesting box and laid an egg. Now she is back in the yard with her sisters.

I hope she will get used to the idea of laying her egg in the nesting box and not try to get out of the yard to lay elsewhere.

And I also hope the other 4 do not go nutty when they start laying!

 

[MamiPollo]

Again late this morning, Hilda jumped over the fence and tried to lay her egg in the carport. I would just let her, except once she gets tehre she isn't as happy as she wants to be and starts wandering around acting upset.

So I put her back in the hen house until she lays her egg and then I let her out. I feel bad, because if I get called to work she is going to have to stay in there all day by herself until I get home.

I don't like it, but otherwise she might end up wandering around the neighborhood all day. Not good!


When I put the girls to bed at night I always pet each one after they are all on their roost. Tonight, Goldie squatted for the first time when I petted her. I am expecting a green egg in the next few weeks! Yippee!!!!

 

[ChicKat]

Mami

Interesting behavior on Hilda's part. Sometimes I think there is rhyme and reason to the chicken behaviors and I am just not getting it----and other times----like you I think they are a little nutty. Hope she settles down to her routine. I think you are right to make sure that she lays in the nest box. Could there be something else---is she hot in the coop and thus wants out?

Good luck---hope she settles down. Congrats on the up coming green egg. (Now all you need is the ham)