why would a hen suddenly decide to hide eggs?

[chickengeorgeto]

Quote:

I have a silver phoenix, she's about 6 months old. She started laying eggs about a month ago.... Then it seemed like she slowed down.

well yesterday.... saw her hanging out under [the grill] and found one of her eggs! .... the hens hide out under the deck when it's hot, so now I'm wondering how many [egge] are under there(but I aint going under there to find out)

Why would a chicken suddenly decide to lay somewhere else if they already know to use the boxes?

Chickens lay eggs to have chicks and by so doing prepetuate their DNA. I can not imagine a worst place for a hen chicken to incubate her clutch than in a typical nest box.

.... For the past week or so I thought something was going on with my girls because my egg production went from 6-8 eggs a day to 1 or 2 a day. Then I found a hidden clutch of eggs under the nesting boxes that they all have used all the time. And then yesterday I found another clutch of 15 eggs in one of our garages. Not sure if I have more then one hen that wants to go brooding. This is our first spring with our hens - we got them late last summer. If you could help I would greatly appreciate it. Also does your brooding hen do alot of clucking when she is not on her nest?

You will find more stolen nests, I say maybe at least 3 more. If you want genuine free range chicken eggs... be prepaired tp hold daily Easteregg hunts.

That's what I'm starting to think it might be, even without a rooster around though?

I guess she kind caught me off guard, I would have thought she would be the last one to go broody since she's a poor layer. I would have expected my RIRs to do that before her...

When it was REALLY hot here, some of my layers who were quite used to laying in nest boxes, found a few hiding spaces to lay their eggs in the yard. I think it was because it was so danged hot in the coop, they just didn't want to go in there and lay an egg!

Now that it's cooler, they're all laying in the nest boxes again.

It is in a hens nature to nest on the ground. This is especially true in warmer weather because the Earth contributes a cool and somewhat moist enviroment not only for incubation but the cooler and damper enviroment helps the first eggs laid remain viable untill the hen turns broody and takes to her nest to begin setting.


To he beginning poster:
Get your self a bag of mini candy bars. Give each of your children (or trusted neighborhood youngsters) one mini candy bar each for every egg they bring you.

Hint, put the childs initals on the eggs that each child dilivers to you so that there is no "recycling" of eggs for candy bars. It could be that your neighbors begin to think that they have a chicken snake living in their refrigrator and that he is eating their eggs.

It use to be my job in the summer to crawl under my GrandMaw's house (Most homes here were built on field rock pilings so that there was air circulation on all 6 sides) to look for stolen hens nest. sourland and myself "... think alike on many things....." but where he says that we steal our hens' eggs..... I say that our hens steal their nests, and therefor their eggs away from our eyes.