Any signs to look for?

According to the McMurray website, my Redstars should be starting to lay any time now, they're 18 weeks old,and the Buffs shouldn't be but a few weeks behind them. Do they start acting differently when they start laying? What can I do so they "know" that they lay in the nest boxes, or will they know automatically? One of my red stars started sleeping in one of the nest boxes last week, should I let her continue to do that?

They'll just start. You might hear some clucking in the morning as everyone checks out the egg and admires it. The first eggs might be soft or sort of misshapen and small, and then things will sort out. You can put a wooden egg in the nesting box to give them the idea, but chances are good they'll figure it out for themselves. If they're like mine, they'll all like the same one or two nests, too. Crazy little nuts.

I think you have a lot of nesting boxes, right? In that case, I wouldn't much worry about the one hen sleeping in one, unless everyone starts.

Yes, we have 16 boxes for 55 hens. I was just out there with them a little while ago. They just look at me and cluck away when I ask why they're not laying yet! LOL

I don't know if this is valid, or just a coincidence, but my hens didn't start laying until they were almost 7 months old ( partially to do with the fact that it became winter here and pretty dark) but my mother's ( same breed) did about 2 months before. They were with older hens who were already laying. Maybe it inspired them?

We got our first egg, way after we had given up hope, on Christmas day! A CHirstmas miracle!

Also, you are supposed to be able to tell if they are going to lay by how red their combs are. if they turn from yellow to red, they are ready.

How neat to get your first egg on Christmas! If my hens aren't laying by then, I'd be afraid they were "clogged" LOL But, my hen's combs have always been pink or red. :-)

I have some RIR pullets that are about 20 weeks old. I can't tell if they are ready to lay or not, but the roosters may know something that I don't know.
They have been grabbing them by the feathers on top of the head and trying to cover them as to breed. I've got a couple of baldies that surely must be getting close to time to lay, they better learn to just give in before all their head feathers are gone. Their combs are getting darker red also.

Peggie~ I've heard of that happening. The roosters sometimes give their favorite hens a haircut by pulling out their head feathers, while covering them. Poor girls!

Maybe baldness in hens is sexy in the chicken culture ????? LOL

These are young roosters just starting to breed and crow.

This message was edited Jul 9, 2006 11:20 PM

Heres a great story. I had chickens many years ago that I had gotten from
a local farm. the farmer lady told me to go down to the barns and just
pick out 15 or so to add to my flock, so I did. this was springtime and
they were just pullets. anyhow, I went out every day beginning in August
till end of September and told them to "LAY!!!!". It wasnt until I heard
the vague gargling beginning crowing that I realized I had 15 ROOSTERS.
sheri

I'm sure you'll hear 'all about it' when one does start laying. My hen's here make so much noise when there's an egg layed. My one silkie hen just layed her first egg, yesterday, after taking some time off to hatch some chicks and both the hens and the rooster were squaking away, I thought something was getting at them. Had the same thing when I had 2 Barred Rock hens. The one that wasn't laying the egg would walk around 'broadcasting' the news to every one like it was front page news. LOL

They are so funny.

You could always go out there with a empty bucket of KFC and tell them if they don't start laying you're going to "Plan B"........LOL

Maybe you could read them that book Leo the Late BLoomer, to give them some inspiration :)
They'll get around to it sometime or other :) Don't give up hope!
It's so true about the egg cackle. You think they are being murdered in there, but it just turns out everyone's psyched about eggs. CHickens are so funny.

Yes, they are funny! I love watching them.
This morning when I went out, one of the red stars had actually made a nest in one of the nesting boxes... that HAS to be a good sign. :-)

Maybe they're at least thinking about it. And we all know that actions are usually preceeded by a thought. Yippee, maybe soon.

July 21st was the day.

This is what we ended up with over the weekend. :-)

Congratulations!

Very nice sized first eggs! Congrats!

PS, WIGGLY, Loved that cute story!

Wow! You must be such a proud Mama!

Thanks guys, dingy, actually they're small, the largest one is the speckled one. I should have had them in a hand for comparison. :-)

I'm just glad they're finally laying!

how egg-citing!!!

mine are four months old today, and i just can't wait any longer!!!

but i guess i iwll have too... so glad yours have begun! 55 hens, wow, i think i have almost 40... still have the cockerels in there too...

tf

Mine were 19 wks to the day when the first ones started. I "caught" a buff on the nest this afternoon looking very uncomfortable, and when I went back a few hours later there was an egg in there, so I'm sure that at least one of the buffs is laying and one of the red stars... but we got 4 on one day, so there have to be 4 of them out there laying. :-) Just not sure what the other two are. :-)

Plucker (red star) still jumps on my shoulder whenever she gets a chance, she's such a neat bird, and the only one who is still really friendly. I have about 10 that will come close to me whenever I'm out there, and follow me around, I can pick them up if I want to, but Plucker is the only one who wants me to hold her, or be that close to me... :-)

Look at this monster egg one of our girls layed!!

No wonder they squack so much

compared

we haven't used it yet, but have already had a lot of double yolks, I wonder if this one is a triple yolk?

I'm learning so much from this forum -- planning to have a flock myself before too long. (Hey, if I can call my 1/4 acre a farm, I can call 3 chickens a flock, dadgummit.) Anyway... what would be wrong with letting them sleep in the nesting boxes? If that's completely ignorant, laugh away but tell me. Thanks.

They'll poop in the box and dirty the next day's eggs.

Melissa, we (and others) call those eggs "grunters." Owch! Oh, check out my thread on our coop to see our twin of your Tweeter...

Ah! Nothing esoteric, then -- just purely practical. Maybe it's my mindset -- I need to be told the obvious. Thanks!

I needed to be told that, too.

I like your coop Zeppy... I'm wondering if we'd put something like your outhouse find over some of the nest boxes our girls would be more inclined to use them... they seem to want "privacy" when they're laying... I'll have to go out and take pictures of the most popular spots... LOL in the middle section of the barn, we have an area we've always used to raise baby calves. Since we don't have any babies we need to bottle feed, we have straw stored in there. Hubby had one left over bale when he stacked it, and just set it down on the floor in front of the other straw.... well, he didn't butt it right up against the other straw, but left a spot about 6 or so inches wide. That is the absolute FAVORITE spot to lay eggs.

This morning, hubby said it looked like there was a waiting line to get back there to lay. I've tried leaving them in the coop until noon, but it's like they "hold" it until they can get out and lay in their special spots.

Behind that straw was a broken 5 gallon bucket. It's also become a favorite egg laying spot.

There is a section of the barn in the back that has that super soft dusty dirt that comes with old barns sometimes... we find about 3 eggs a day in that soft dirt. It's right out in the open though, so not sure why they are laying there.

Hubby's utility ladder is laying beside the barn... we had sprayed round up earlier in the summer, so the grass that was left was dead and soft. One of our buffs made a nest under that ladder in the dead grass, and she goes there every single time to lay.

I'm not sure how many we have laying right now, but, we're getting 7-12 eggs a day. Eggs for supper tonight infact, I've got almost 4 dozen in the fridge. :-)

brigidlady, you will LOVE your chickens!