20 weeks no eggs :( How hard should I be looking?

[04SportsterChick]

I know it can still be a few weeks but I am so excited!! The combs are red and waddles are too. I have their coop in their run which is all closed in. There are wood shavings in the coop and I put 2 baskets in the far corner. The shavings are not too deep I think I would see the egg where ever they lay it. I guess what I need to know is should I be digging around in the corners and such. Do they really hide the eggs? There isn't anything but extra food and water dishes in the coop I havn't moved around to check....

 

[SIMPleChick]

LOL! I worried about the same thing, and DID the same thing! hahaha, don't worry, when it comes you WILL see it! I even saw the green little one my EE farted out in the grass on accident after spending hours in the nest. Even if it is small and sunk into the pine shavings, you will still see it, they don't hide it to where you can't see it. Good luck! Can't wait to see your first egg on the other thread!

 

[Silkie<3]

Last Wednesday we got our first egg (of coarse not in the nesting box). she really has made us work for them the first time we found it on the work bench cuddled in a empty cat food bag (for the barn cats not the chickens). the next morning i had to pull her out of the boys bin (no idea how she got in) and right under her was an egg sooo i'd say that it is true that they hide there eggs :\\ i cant imagine when the rest all start laying :] we'll have an Easter egg hunt every morning. sorry im not much help ;\\

 

[mommas chickens]

I am excited to my BO started laying the day before she turned 20 wks and has laid everyday since but my other girls who are the same age have been holding out they are all 23wks old now and shes still the only one, Ive gone as far to rake the dirt under the coop that they fluff in to see if the covered one accidently so we are all just impatiently waiting!! LOL

 

[LindenLiving]

My Black Australorps are 18 1/2 weeks old and just started laying....but not all of them. Two are laying in the nest but not everyday...one drops it wherever it happens to be standing!!!! They have also "made" themselves a next in the straw in the coop instead of going into the laying boxes. From what I have read they will get more consistent as they get older.

 

[CarolJ]

I got my first egg today - and all my pullets will be 23 weeks tomorrow. The Ancona is the one who laid the egg today. The others that I'm still waiting on are the Easter Eggers, the New Hampshire Red and the Jersey Giant.

Good luck! I hope you get your first egg earlier than I got mine! LOL!

 

[04SportsterChick]

Thank you all for the responces. I will not go tear the coop apart looking for something that just isn't there...yet. So to make my anticipation worse I think my white rock squatted for me. I wasn't sure about the squatting cause all my girls freeze and lower when I go to pick them up. Mostly they run from us. They are getting better however when I went to get the WR to put back in the run she totally squatted and sat there. It was different then the ducking they normally do. So now I am just more eager for that first egg. With my luck we are going away over night later this week and my mom is coming to check on them....there will be an egg for her!!

 

[SIMPleChick]

Egg Squat! Egg Squat!! WooHoo!!!

 

[ItsAZOO32]

I am right there with you!! My mixed batch of birds are 19 weeks now and my dad got his first egg yesterday from chickens that were from the same group of eggs. (I hatched them and then gave him some) HOPING that I will have one very very soon.. I swear I take 4-5 looks in the nest box each day. I have a plaster egg in one just to see if it helps encourage them to go there. Driving me CRAZY

 

[This_chicks_place]

Hi,
I know how it feels to wait and look for that first egg too..........all day long! We got our first last week and 4 more out of the last 5 days all from the same chicken.

I thought that I wouldn't feel that impatient again. But guess what? I'm back out at the coop again trying to figure out who is next and if I see any signs of it happening soon!

The time I have wasted watching chickens! Arrrgghhh! (Truthfully could watch them all day long)