Pelvic bone check proved right!

[Whigru]

I’ve kept chickens for a year or so now, but last year it was all new to me so I didn’t know much. This year, I had to start over with 4 birds - two are now 20wks and two are now 11wks. I noticed that my Prod Red was exhibiting signs of nearing POL in the last week or so: red, floppier comb and wattles, some amount of squatting, and her vent seemed to be opening up more compared to my same-age Columbian Wyandotte. Last year, I did not know you could use pelvic bone placement as a way to see if a bird is getting close to laying or if they are laying. I learned about it recently and decided to check the older birds. The last week has proven interesting, especially with Red as she laid her first egg early this morning! When I started checking about 10 days ago, her pelvic bones were maybe a finger and a half width apart. I checked a few days later and not much change. I checked on Sunday and could easily fit 3 finger widths in between and thought for sure there would be an egg soon. Low and behold, it was accurate! So, not only am I excited about my first egg of this flock, but I’m also excited to have a better way to gauge where the birds are at based on pelvic bones. Thank you to the many posters who have suggested this as a way to understand if egg laying is somewhat near!

 

[sourland]

A long time ago it was how we decided who would get invited to Sunday dinner.