Any one want to join me in waiting for eggs, posting and comparing notes?

[CatSol]

Hi all... with summer around the corner I have been outside a lot setting up gardens and weeding. But about 2 days ago I got to see and hear a strange thing. I had let my girls out to free range in the late afternoon/ dusk. My Buttercup is now just 3 months old... first I hear a cluck... cluck... cluck... then she breaks out into an egg song. She is walking very carefully... I have heard that the egg song and an alert to danger can be really similar. I was not sure if she was strutting or watching something. I looked around the area and did not see anything.... Buttercup is a Buff Orpington and I thought they take longer to grow up. She has no wattles or comb yet. She has at least another 3 months to go before she should lay. I am not worried... I seen nothing that she was in danger of... just thought it was strange and funny. And since I know she was in no danger it was kind of cute...

I have taken some new pics and have not shared them yet... sorry. This is Buttercup. It the 3rd pic she is with Ruby the RIR who is 3 weeks older then Buttercup. The middle pic you can see that she is still young. The big girl is one of the Marans who is about 22 weeks old. The small girls are the new Ameracaunas/EE, they are only 8 weeks old.

 

[Melabella]

Hi all... with summer around the corner I have been outside a lot setting up gardens and weeding. But about 2 days ago I got to see and hear a strange thing. I had let my girls out to free range in the late afternoon/ dusk. My Buttercup is now just 3 months old... first I hear a cluck... cluck... cluck... then she breaks out into an egg song. She is walking very carefully... I have heard that the egg song and an alert to danger can be really similar. I was not sure if she was strutting or watching something. I looked around the area and did not see anything.... Buttercup is a Buff Orpington and I thought they take longer to grow up. She has no wattles or comb yet. She has at least another 3 months to go before she should lay. I am not worried... I seen nothing that she was in danger of... just thought it was strange and funny. And since I know she was in no danger it was kind of cute...

I have taken some new pics and have not shared them yet... sorry. This is Buttercup. It the 3rd pic she is with Ruby the RIR who is 3 weeks older then Buttercup. The middle pic you can see that she is still young. The big girl is one of the Marans who is about 22 weeks old. The small girls are the new Ameracaunas/EE, they are only 8 weeks old.

gosh Cat, I love the cohesiveness of your entire flock. I was under the impression you couldn't mix up different ages of birds as the younger ones would get picked on mercilessly. They all look so happy to hang out together. You know, reading your post made me think of something. You don't have a roo? Sometimes when a flock is without a rooster as leader, (or thinking he's leader!) one of the girls will take over the role. I can't tell you how now that I am outside more and more due to the warm weather, I get to hear all the click, clucks and calls that Clark makes to the girls. Duke and he have different styles, and tones of sounds, but I now know the warning call, from the "hey I found some scratch" call to the "lets move call" to the flat out RUN call. That cluck cluck cluck thing is what my roo does when he wants the girls to come look at something he found, and then he spins that into the drop wing, I'm so cool dance Sometimes, he will finish it off with an attempt at mating, but most of the girls still aren't buying it... they seem to be loyal to Duke.. I have actually started to have eggs that aren't fertilized,,, so that makes me see he isn't' getting to them all. If I do attempt to hatch any, it would only be the blue eggs and so far, most of them have been fertilized...we shall see..

MB

 

[jklyles1]

I went to bed in Southeast Texas and woke up in Antarctica!!!! It was 80 yesterday and this morning 46! CRAZY! Only in TEXAS!

 

[Angelicisi]

Hahahahahaha Yes! Man I'm in Louisiana and we were in the 80s, this morning is windy and cold! Keep it in Tx! Lol

I went to bed in Southeast Texas and woke up in Antarctica!!!!  It was 80 yesterday and this morning 46!  CRAZY!  Only in TEXAS!

 

[countrygirl74]

Hi all... with summer around the corner I have been outside a lot setting up gardens and weeding. But about 2 days ago I got to see and hear a strange thing. I had let my girls out to free range in the late afternoon/ dusk. My Buttercup is now just 3 months old... first I hear a cluck... cluck... cluck... then she breaks out into an egg song. She is walking very carefully... I have heard that the egg song and an alert to danger can be really similar. I was not sure if she was strutting or watching something. I looked around the area and did not see anything.... Buttercup is a Buff Orpington and I thought they take longer to grow up. She has no wattles or comb yet. She has at least another 3 months to go before she should lay. I am not worried... I seen nothing that she was in danger of... just thought it was strange and funny. And since I know she was in no danger it was kind of cute...

I have taken some new pics and have not shared them yet... sorry. This is Buttercup. It the 3rd pic she is with Ruby the RIR who is 3 weeks older then Buttercup. The middle pic you can see that she is still young. The big girl is one of the Marans who is about 22 weeks old. The small girls are the new Ameracaunas/EE, they are only 8 weeks old.

My roosters get a replica of the "egg song" going anytime they seem the neighbor's cat lurking - it's pretty funny. Not sure why the "danger song" is so similar to the "egg song".

I went to bed in Southeast Texas and woke up in Antarctica!!!! It was 80 yesterday and this morning 46! CRAZY! Only in TEXAS!

Same here! It's been in the 80's and then yesterday I was cold!! There was a cold wind blowing - brrr. One day I'm in a tank-top, the next I'm back in my jacket.

 

[nakstk]

Shoot, some days just start going wrong.... and then head downhill. Best to just look forward to bedtime so you can wake up to a brand new day. At least Skyler gave you something to dance about.

You might be worried someone broke it deliberately? Or that they may have had a taste and thought YUMMMMM......

Most likely to have been an accident - maybe one of them didn't pick up on her internal signs soon enough and got caught short. When mine first started laying I had a few broken (because they laid off the roost, must have been a surprise to everyone!) and also no-shell eggs that glooped everywhere. Yuck!!! I never found they had tried it. Most times the yolk was intact within the white, so not even pecked I sure came across them being very curious about it, so mop up real quick.

If it's like my experience, there's nothing to worry about. It's just such a shame to see the beautiful egg, wasted, after all that waiting we have done. I was going to say "patient waiting" but I know that would be a fib on my part!. Still, you know, tomorrow is another day......

ATB
Katrina

No one broke it deliberately. I know it fell out of the coop. When we built the hubby thought it would be a good idea to put chicken wire under the roosts. The wire has gotten holes in it. I cleaned the coop floor so there wasn't any more shaving from their nest box down there, hoping to detour them from laying down there. I just need a second best box it their coop, I have found 5 eggs on the coop floor in the last week. My girl are plenty old enough to know better. My 5 SS will be 2 yrs old in 2 months and my Wellies just turned 1 year old two weeks ago. I just have too many trying to lay at the same time. I just really hope they don't start pecking and eating their eggs.

 

[jklyles1]

My Blue Hamburg who is top of the pecking order is now sitting in the nest box (the favorite nest box of course) for HOURS! And shes not laying..i found an egg in the flowerbed yesterday evening. I sure hope this isnt a "broody" thing. My roos arent old enough yet so none of the eggs are fertile. This girl is always DRAMA!

 

[CatSol]

I sure hope Clark will settle in. It is funny that the girls are so loyal to Duke. You would think that the way that Duke treated them they would be happy to have Clark.
I have been very lucky with my girls. I do try to be careful about introducing new girls. I don't know what it is... There is a bit of scuffling and chasing but I put a stop to it fast. After that there does not seem to be too much of an issue. Maybe it is due to the young ones being so young. They are more then willing to submit to the older girls. The 2 oldest are my EE/Amercaunas ... who know they are in charge even if they are not the biggest any more. But those 2 are the top of the pecking order. Buttercup may not be they youngest but she is close to youngest... and very timid around all of the older girls. I thought 3 months old was a little young for any kind of song.. but then again... she is so timid she may have been sounding an alarm about her shadow
Oh I wish we had real spring weather... Sunday though Wednesday we should get that. With the possibility of drizzle... Yah! For today we are in the HIGH 90's. I am afraid we will break 100 degrees today. We also had some high winds... there are several fires in Southern California. I am lucky that they are not here. We had one last week... VERy close to my house. Lots of people tend to dump their trash in the abandoned field near my house... Well some guy was in a SUV with a trailer. He got stuck then something caught the dry brush on fire and his trailer and car went up in smoke as well... This was very close to a lot of houses including ours. Lucky the fire department is so close and it was put out. Don't know if the police caught them yet... Very scary.

 

[jyurina]

So if the eggs are good we should be getting babies today!!! So excited and I want to look closer but Hermia is NOT having any of it. Puffs and growls if you get to close to her and the eggs. Anyone know if she will just finally abandon the eggs if they aren't going to hatch? Or will I have to let her have a go of it and then "steal" them if they don't hatch by Monday or so?

 

[nakstk]

It's been really windy here today and it blew the coop door open. I found Daphne standing in the stream of the pond cooling her feet and getting a drink. Sorry its not the best pic cause I was in the house looking through the window using my cell phone.