Chicken obsessed with rocks?

[csbarber]

I keep finding one of my chicken brooding on piles of rocks in her nesting box. I take the rocks out of her nest, then about a week later its full of rocks again. I have literally filled buckets with her rock "eggs"!?! I would never have thought a chicken could move rocks. These aren't pebbles either. They are the size of eggs. She a bantum brahma. Has anyone else seen this behavior? Is this normal? Is she just a rock freak? Should I be worried? Thoughts?

 

[paddock36]

I would only worry if they hatch

 

[briana1975]

That is pretty funny.

 

[Chicken Ninja]

My chickens like laying and scratching in the rocks, but yours seems unique in that she is trying to adopt the rocks

Let us know when she starts laying if she still does this. If she is already laying eggs, maybe she mistakes the rocks for her taken eggs, and is just returning them back where they belong.

 

[Chick-a-roos]

"PET ROCKS" for chickens!

 

[csbarber]

She has laid fairly regularly for about three years now and broods often - on ANYTHING. She will brood on her own poop (its sad). She has specifically targeted the rock "eggs" for about a year and a half. When ever she gets intense about the brooding she stops laying. She and I argue about her brooding issues for a few days each time. I try to block her out of her nest box, she talks some chicken-poop at me, I rub a little ice on the bald area of her chest, she talks more chicken-poop, eventually she gives up and goes back to wandering around the yard with the other chickens. Sometimes I think she believes that she has figured out how to out smart me with the rocks. Frankly, she has a HUGE personality for a chicken. She also fancies terrorizing the cats - that brahma/Napoleon complex.

 

[csbarber]

An update: She is finally laying eggs again regularly, but today she managed to further perplex me. Somehow she managed to maneuver a wrench (what!?!?) into her nest. First rocks, now tools. I give up! At least my tools might be accompanied by some yummy eggs.