I have 10 six month old RIR pullets. They are all laying now, and have been for quite some time. One of them did something very strange the other evening. She ran around and around the outside of the pen in such distress. She went into the pen, into the coop, into the nesting boxes, scratched around a bit. But then she came out and repeated the same behavior. Over and over. Finally I walked into the pen and stood by the coop door. She followed me, went into a nesting box and settled down. It took her about 20 minutes to (finally) lay her egg, as I stood by the coop door 'on guard' for her. She 'talked' to me the whole time with quiet, high-pitched little chirps. I don't know if she was distressed because it was so late in the day to be laying, but when she finally did lay it was at 5:45 p.m. All 10 of my girls are friendly and social, but this was the first time I've seen one so needy for my protection.
