Why Hide Eggs?

Dominique has been on an egg-laying strike.  There have been mutterings from me about sending her to freezer camp. People have suggested it is too hot? People have suggested she needs more protein.  Freezer camp seems like a good idea.

For a while she has been running in and out of her nest box, clucking and cackling at me. She goes in and turns around, walks around, sticks her head out, jumps out and starts all over again. Well, I thought I knew what she wanted. I cannot move the box and cannot rake pine straw for cleaner bedding. It was stinky. I turned over the pine straw and brought a handful to of fresh straw.

Finally, I got a friend to dump it and refill the box with pine straw. The box smelled better. 

She has had cooked chicken bits for 5 out of 7 days. Today, Friday, I took her the carcass of a huge chicken breast from KFC. I used my Birthday dinner free card last night. She also had half the biscuit and grass I pulled. Saturday, she will have the other chicken breast carcass and the other half of the biscuit. If I sat down and picked the shreds of chicken from the bone, there would be more than 1/4 cup of meat. Plus, she likes the skin and gristle. Both days, Dominique will have pulled handsful of St. Augustine grass.

Friday,I did my obligatory looksee into her nest box but expected nothing. 3 eggs? This chicken hides eggs under the six inches of pine straw!  Today, she had pulled them all out into a bare place where she had moved all the straw away. I thought she quit laying for the winter, so I gave up looking under straw. This time last year, she was all done with laying.

Since she is always out of the box, I don't think she is broody. At any rate, I don't want new chicks right now. Besides, I don't know of any broody hen who hides her eggs in the nest. I have heard of them hiding eggs in the garage, in a clump of grass under a log, but not just throwing straw over them. Silly hen.

My original hens and all since have just left the egg on the straw. I have had to dig around in the corners to find Dominique's eggs.

Three eggs will be breakfast tomorrow! they are really small, so it won't be as bad as it sounds. However, since I cannot eat so many foods, I will eat all the eggs I want. No, they will not clog arteries with cholesterol. Besides, getting one egg per day sort of limits my egg eating.

Your turn
Do your hens ever lay eggs in the nest and then cover them up?