picky laying spot

[marahipasc]

i have a hen that really likes to lay her eggs in a basket on our porch. it snowed pretty bad last night and she can’t get to the basket today. she’s been pacing back & forth trying to get to it all day. we have nesting boxes accesible to her & everyone else lays there. sun is almost down and she hasn’t laid yet? will she be ok if she doesn’t lay that egg?

 

[SandyRiverChick]

Can you help a girl out? Pick her up and carry to basket of choice? She's fine though... If her body wants that egg to come out it will, anywhere... Hope she's safe for the night in the coop? She could lay it from a roost bar or maybe she'll decide the nest boxes aren't too bad. I guess you'll find out.

 

[marahipasc]

Can you help a girl out? Pick her up and carry to basket of choice? She's fine though... If her body wants that egg to come out it will, anywhere... Hope she's safe for the night in the coop? She could lay it from a roost bar or maybe she'll decide the nest boxes aren't too bad. I guess you'll find out.

she doesn’t not let us carry her. she’ll come near us on her own but is very skiddish if we try to touch her or even feed her out of our hands.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

Oh that explains it, yeah bummer. It's pretty cute that she chooses a basket on your porch. But maybe she'll figure out that the nest box is a safe place too. Hope you post an update

 

[rosemarythyme]

Most likely when she can't hold it any longer she'll just lay it wherever she is - or she'll run into a box at the last moment if she decides that's better than nothing. They can't hold onto it indefinitely.

 

[Seaslug]

How is your hen?
We had a Maran that we left out to free range once and shut the run/coop because we did not want our dog to get into it -- the Maran paced by the run door for hours -- in the sun, panting -- and we had no idea what was wrong with her. She ended up looking very bad, insisting on being by the run door, until finally she dropped in front of it. She was dehydrated because she would not move from the run door to water and it finally dawned on us that she was frantic because she had yet to lay that day and could not get into her nest boxes. She WOULD NOT lay anywhere else. That egg was right at the point of lay and, likely due to her dehydration, it did not move at all the rest of the day. The next day we had to do a warm soak and assist with the egg removal. Now we always watch if the hens pace once or twice and are outside of their run/coop. Each time, left to their own devices, the hen in questions high-tails it to the coop to lay.
It seems as though, once they decide on where they want to lay, come hell or high water, you are not going to change their mind. Or my hens are really stubborn!

 

[marahipasc]

thank you guys for responses. she’s fine. she ended up laying the egg in the coop when it was almost dark.