17 week old GC chicken squating

[Emily_loveschickens]

hi,
i have a golden comet chicken who is about 17 weeks and when i go up to her she squats.
does this mean she will start laying soon? i know golden comets lay early and she is the age the generally start laying. what do you think? edit: she aslo has abig red comb and kicks all the bedding out of the nest box i have herd these are common pre egglaying behaviors.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Bright red comb and squating behaviors are good indicators, yes. Additionally, that's the right range in age typical of that cross. My Comets started about 17 weeks, I think one waited til 19. I've seen a few claims as early as 15th week, but 17-20 is what I see most of.

 

[Lizzy733]

They usually start to lay within a week once they've started squatting. It's a great indicator.

Look out for those pullet eggs - they can be all kinds of strange. Everything at this stage will be normal, even those that might signal problems in an older hen, and they'll settle into a consistent size and quality over the first week or so . Make sure they've been swapped over to layer ration with calcium on the side of you haven't already.

Good luck! Once hybrids start, they really do not stop until they're at least 2 years old and that's a lot of strain on them.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

^^^ yup.

Takes a bit for them to work the kinks out of their plumbing. about 10x more frequent to find egg production mistakes in new layers, based on what I've read. Perfectly normal. Oh, and unlike we human types, chickens don't have bony pelvic rings - so the first time you see a double yolk egg, don't panic - it didn't hurt your bird the way it would break one of us.

 

[Lizzy733]

^^^ yup.

Takes a bit for them to work the kinks out of their plumbing. about 10x more frequent to find egg production mistakes in new layers, based on what I've read. Perfectly normal. Oh, and unlike we human types, chickens don't have bony pelvic rings - so the first time you see a double yolk egg, don't panic - it didn't hurt your bird the way it would break one of us.

Though if they are huge and it's happening daily on a new layer, do keep an eye on them. It may not cause a problem, but I've had one get salpingitis which was undoubtedly caused by an internal tear due to those double yolkers. She stopped laying doubles once she recovered, thankfully, and never had another incident, though most of her eggs from that point on were usually wrinkled to some degree.