Almost egg time

[Hopeful homesteader]

In 2 weeks my 4 oldest pullets will be 20 weeks old which is the estimated age they start laying. I've noticed some changes in my blue orpington more than the speckled sussex girls and was curious if these are indications that she's getting ready. Firstly all 4 of their combs and wattles have started growing more this past week, the blue orp comb was all black and it's turning pink now. She is also the one most interested in the nesting box, the rest just explored it when I first put it in but she seems to hang around it. Today while cleaning out the coop I noticed one of them had kicked the wooden egg out of the nesting box and I found it in the corner near the chickens door, is there any significance to that? The blue has gotten more vocal, she's still very quiet but she's make noise often now where before she almost never made any noise and the pitch of her noises has deepened, close to the sound of a ducks quack but quiet. I thought it could be an illness but aside from dry pox on some of the younger chickens (I haven't seen any on her yet) I can't find anything that would indicate any illness so I thought maybe it's related to the hormones starting? This change in clucking sound started maybe 2-3 weeks ago, the 3 SS are also starting to make a similar tone the last few days but hers caught my attention the most. What are some things I should be looking for that they're ready, I've read something about measuring between their legs with your fingers but not sure how that's done or which part I'm supposed to feel for if anyone could explain that to me? She's squatted when I pet her since she was 10-11 weeks old so I don't think that really applies. Also how long does it take an egg to dry, I read another post where they ran in too soon to get the first egg and it was slimy from bloom and I don't wanna do that lol.

 

[Hopeful homesteader]

Another question, when should I put out the oyster shells? I have cockerels so we've stuck with chick starter/grower since I can't find all flock locally and I know they can't have layer pellets. I plan to keep 1 cockerel and 8 pullets for now then adding more next year.

 

[Sequel]

You are in that exciting time! Waiting for first eggs is such fun isn’t it? I would offer oyster shell in a separate container now. They’ll eat it if they need to.
Squatting, reddening of combs and faces, new vocal sounds and “rearranging furniture “are all signs of nearing egg laying. They are all individuals, some will kick all bedding out of the box, some will pick up straw and try to put it on their backs, keep watching and enjoy the activity!
The bloom dries in mere moments in my experience, I wouldn’t worry about that. If you mess with the wet bloom dirt and straw tends to stick to it making them messy but unless you’re collecting eggs to hatch or sell it’s not an issue. Good luck and have fun!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Measuring pelvic points: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/who-is-laying-and-who-is-not-butt-check.73309/

The fake egg likely got booted while some bird was exploring the box. Might want to consider raising the lip on the boxes, if it's low enough for fake eggs to be rolled out.

Amount of time it takes bloom to dry depends on how heavy the bloom is. Some birds I can reach in as soon as the egg is laid and pick up an egg that's nearly dry. Other birds tend to lay with excessive bloom so their eggs can remain sticky for several minutes. You won't know what you get until you get it. (And BTW the bloom does nothing to hurt you, just wash your hands after handling the egg, which you should be doing anyhow!)

Put out oyster shells now and let them explore them/try them. Many of us have oyster shell available 24/7 no matter age and gender of birds.

 

[Hopeful homesteader]

Measuring pelvic points: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/who-is-laying-and-who-is-not-butt-check.73309/

The fake egg likely got booted while some bird was exploring the box. Might want to consider raising the lip on the boxes, if it's low enough for fake eggs to be rolled out.

Amount of time it takes bloom to dry depends on how heavy the bloom is. Some birds I can reach in as soon as the egg is laid and pick up an egg that's nearly dry. Other birds tend to lay with excessive bloom so their eggs can remain sticky for several minutes. You won't know what you get until you get it. (And BTW the bloom does nothing to hurt you, just wash your hands after handling the egg, which you should be doing anyhow!)

Put out oyster shells now and let them explore them/try them. Many of us have oyster shell available 24/7 no matter age and gender of birds.

I just have a plastic shelf type thing that sits on tye floor as the nesting box for now as my husband hasn't built them onto the coop yet and I wanted to give them somewhere to lay if they started before the boxes were built.

Here's what I'm talking about with some pine shavings in it.

 

[Shezadandy]

The weirdest thing for me when I got that first very fresh egg was it was warm! After a lifetime of refrigerated store bought eggs, I was so surprised I almost dropped it! A lot of first ever egg layers will spend the day acting very restless and out of character, pacing around and jumping all over the place. Of course they soon get the hang of things, but that's the main symptom #1 that an egg is almost here. Most of mine kick every last scrap of bedding I put in the nest boxes right on out, so I just use a 1/4" rubber mat (usually sold by the foot at farm supply stores) https://www.farmstore.com/product/rb-rubber-1-4-in-x-4-ft-rubber-mat-per-foot/ to keep things easy to clean and it also provides that little cushioning effect when the egg drops, because of course they don't actually "lay" laying down. Maybe your ladies will be nice and keep that bedding in place. So exciting!

 

[aart]

Other birds tend to lay with excessive bloom so their eggs can remain sticky for several minutes.

...some can take hours to dry.

 

[rosemarythyme]

...some can take hours to dry.

Hmm, probably true, since I get eggs occasionally with a wet spot or two on the shell that are otherwise fine and room temperature, which means it's been sitting for a while.

 

[aart]

Hmm, probably true, since I get eggs occasionally with a wet spot or two on the shell that are otherwise fine and room temperature, which means it's been sitting for a while.

Have pulled eggs from nest with actual droplets on them, I try to set them drop up so they don't gather dust on my egg shelf and they can take several hours to dry.