ladybug77 Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 (edited) Hi - My Rhode Island Red Mabel has been laying an egg a day in the hen house since July - my flock free range in the garden all day. Mabel is the 'bossiest' hen and runs down the garden if she sees a human at the kitchen window because they love coming in the kitchen. About a month ago she went broody and wouldn't come out the hen house even though I took her egg away each day. In the end I resorted to resting her tummy in a big bucket of water to cool her down and it seemed to work although she stopped laying. Last week she started laying again and the first egg was laid in the hen house. Since then I assumed she was not laying but today I found her behind my enormous wooden tub of tomatoes sitting on a clutch of 6 eggs. Ironically the tub is just outside the kitchen door so she can still keep an eye of human movement in the house and dash in when the back door opens. Thinking I would help I took the six eggs and put them in the hen house and put Mabel on top but she was not amused and promptly ran down the garden and back to her nest where she immediately laid another egg. Can someone please tell me how I can persuade her to start laying in the hen house again Edited October 26, 2011 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ain't Nobody Here Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 Welcome to the forum . Removing the eggs as quickly as you can is probably the best bet but you could also try putting a pot (china) egg in the nestbox to see if that encourages her to lay in the nestbox again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chookingham Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 Blocking access to her special place behind the tub will probably send her somewhere else - but not necessarily back to the nest box unfortunately. Have you considered red mite etc in the coop? Sometimes they don't like laying if they are being bothered by little crawly things on their nether regions But if the others lay in there I guess that is not an issue. With mine I try not to let them into the garden until they have laid, but nowadays I have an afternoon layer so that doesn't work any more - she always goes back to the eglu though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
