wierd chicken behavior(to me)

Well, I have no idea if it's normal or not, but I have caught two of my birds crammed into one small nesting box a couple times.

I suspect the one hen is trying to take credit for another hen's egg.

I watched my SLW lay her very first egg. Also watching was one of my EE. As soon as the egg popped out, the EE rushed into the box, and the bewildered SLW found herself straddling the EE.

Here's a pic I snapped of the incident:

 

Same Here...so Much For Extra Boxes.

 

When we went into the "Chicken Business" LOL, we went to the trouble of building a box for each hen. 24 boxes later they laid in about 10 of them. Years later now and about triple the size of our first flock, it is still the same 10 boxes. Not unusual to find 2 in one box at all. My guess if the favorite nest is occupied when the egg song starts the "extra" moves on it anyway.

 

Weird is often normal when talking chicken behavior I am finding. One of my EEs is a total busy body when the others are laying. Walking in and out of the box, even laying on top of the layer, moving the eggs around etc. So, probably normal. Have fun with your birds!

 

Our girls squash in on each other all the time. We have 10 boxes and they all lay in the same 2 boxes. Crazy. When one is laying and another is hanging out I call it the midwife. Maybe she's just there to encourage.

 

I find it adorable hen they do that, lol. Sorry, pretty normal.

 

Yup very normal! They seem to find a "favorite" nest and mostly use that one depending on how many hens you have. When I was building my coop the plans called for ten nest boxes (the coop is big enough for 30 chickens although I only have eight) but I only built five into the coop. No sense in building more than they will use. If it seems like they need more nests I can always add more. I have read on here that some hens will line up like women waiting to use the rest room to use an occupied favorite nest box.

 

I bought my coop from an Amish man who has had a ton of experience raising chickens. I was very concerned about heat for the girls with winter approaching and he assured me that the breeds I have (Welsummer, Golden Comet, New Hampshire Red, and Partridge Rock) should do just fine with the winters we have here in central NC. His advice was to just dab a bit of lubricant (like Vaseline) on the NH Reds comb if the temps were going to stay way below freezing for more than 10-12 hrs. He reminded me that the Amish live without electricity, so their chickens dont have heated coops and are healthy and hearty as a result. I mentioned I was happy I only had 4 hens, as there are only 4 nesting boxes in the coop - and he told me that he's seen 3 hens huddle into one nexting box to lay eggs regularilly. . .sort of a bonding thing with some chickens. After thinking about it, I think I would want friends close by if I was squeezing out an egg each day