chicken squatting

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lilshadow

lilshadow

Songster
12 Years
Jan 8, 2008
893
18
161
Milaca, MN
Hey all,
I have had my bella for a month now. Tonight when I went to check on her she was squatting, and her tail was down, and it looked like she what pushing. Her back end that is. I started dancing around, and my son and his girl friend were laughing at me, because I told them that bella was going to lay an egg for me. Could this be the case. She is squatting then she will stand and shift, and the squat again. Then you can see that it looks like she is pushing because her tail feathers are moving up and down like she is. My son told me she was just constipated, but I am think it is the laying egg process. I am so excited because she has never done this before.
 
Sure sounds like the egg-squat! Mine only do it when I go to touch them and they haven't laid yet for the day...
 
yippeee! I am so excited..
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lol my old ones do it but lil ones dont yet...is it like a sign of affection or what?
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If they squat when you approach them, and freeze like that, it's usually a mating position. Squat with wings slightly out and shaking??? However, if she was found squatting like that and was walking around squating and straining; tail going up and down; it could be she was trying to lay an egg and may be egg bound. How old is she? If it's her first she may be a little "confused". If she continues, do a search on this forum for "egg bound" and examine her and follow guidelines. I've only seen one of my girls do what you described and I knew immeditely something was wrong. I kept trying to get her to pick her up but she stayed one step ahead of me. Finally she jumped up and flew a few feet and out fell a busted rubbery egg.
 
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She is about a year old, but I found her like that, and she is still doing that. I am going to check her just to make sure she isn't egg bound. Will I be able to see the egg right away?
 
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Glad you got your PM and checked on her. That's what I was afraid of - that she was probably already of egg laying age and the behaviour you described sounded more like egg bound. If she is a year old and you've had her a month and she hasn't laid, and is still doing the squatting/straining you saw earlier today, you might want to move this thread to emergency section so those more experienced can help. In the meantime you can edit your initial post and change the title to something like "Egg bound hen - help needed ASAP". DLHUnicorn is resident expert - PM her. I think treatment involves placing the hen in a warm soak but I have no experience in this area. I wish you the best of luck.
 
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