Chickens squatting but not laying-why?

[tweetzone86]

Hello all! I have (as of Tuesday) 21 week old RIRs. I have 14 hours of supplemental light, layer feed, roost, dark nest box that's slightly tilted (rubbermaid tote with hole cut in front and lid on), fresh water, etc.

I have at least 3 pullets doing the braced squat, and I still see no eggs Will they squat without laying yet, or are they eating the eggs? I have seen no sign of eggs at all yet, eaten or otherwise.

Thanks!

 

[SueT]

What I've seen with mine is that they squat for 2 or 3 weeks before laying. You should have eggs soon!

 

[tweetzone86]

What I've seen with mine is that they squat for 2 or 3 weeks before laying. You should have eggs soon!

I sure hope so! I keep wondering if they're eating them, but I've got two ceramic eggs in their nest boxes so hopefully they won't try to do so.

 

[SueT]

Eating eggs is an anomaly. Most pullets and hens don't eat eggs unless there's an occasional soft shelled egg, another anomaly.

 

[aart]

Gonna just have to wait.
Here's some tips(but even these are not absolute) on how to tell.....
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/who-is-laying-and-who-is-not-butt-check.73309/

Do you free range?

Do you live in the northern hemisphere(add your location to your profile)?
Pullets may be slower to come into lay with the diminishing day length.

 

[tweetzone86]

Gonna just have to wait.
Here's some tips(but even these are not absolute) on how to tell.....
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/who-is-laying-and-who-is-not-butt-check.73309/

Do you free range?

Do you live in the northern hemisphere(add your location to your profile)?
Pullets may be slower to come into lay with the diminishing day length.

Only when we're in the backyard (city lot) to keep an eye on them because "free range" neighborhood cats are determined to have chicken dinner We had one get into the run (luckily when we were out there to chase it away before it got my babies, er, pullets) and one waited on the fence for them to come out when I was out there a couple weeks ago and they refused to do so (then it meowed and I noticed it staring right at the door) so we're in the process of trying to rebuild it more securely so the only time they get outside is when we can keep the 3 neighborhood cats away.

I wish people didn't let their cats roam all over kingdom come (not only because of chickens but also because of rabies potential in wild mice and rabbits, life-threatening allergies in some people, cats can bite and scratch, they could get hit by cars or attacked by cougars, coyotes, and bobcats (all of which have come into town in the past week), etc), but unfortunately there's no law against it so I have to keep my chickens safe from both them, hawks, falcons, and eagles, and the other predators listed above

Yes I do- northern Idaho, where cougars scare the pants off of school janitors by walking into the building like it owns it at 6 am and moose try to get into the local library But I did install a daylight LED 4' light in the coop (also our insulated finished shed- "chicken zone" is the back 6x10 feet of it) and it's set on a timer to turn on at 4 am and turn off at 6:30 pm which is currently sunset here. Is 14.5 hours long enough to induce laying? The chickens need to earn their feed (one income-I can't work a regular job due to a digestive disorder) so we will lay through the winter with supplemental light.

 

[Mimi13]

Yep, I second the question, “Do they free range?” The reason being is I just assumed that since all my pullets had been kept locked in the coop and run for months before being allowed to free range that they would just know where their home was. Nope! Some did, but not all.

Back story:
I didn’t let my original flock of 4 free range until they were about 15 months old, so they had been laying for about nine months in the coop prior to being let out. Also, my first four never jumped the fence into the pasture either, probably because they were older.

Different story with my “littles” though. I began letting them out of their run at about 8 weeks old. I felt they were nicely integrated with my original hens using the “see, no touch” method AND I needed to take down their temporary run in order to build the permanent one.

Back to real time:
Knowing that I should be getting more eggs from my 24 week old pullets than I was, this past weekend I hung out around the coop area and just watched my birds as they went about their morning of free ranging. This was about 7:30 am. No eggs layed in the nest boxes yet. Several of the breeds I have now can F-L-Y, and they also like the goodies that are on the pasture side of the fence. Think horses, et al. Well, it didn’t take long before I noticed my Australorp slowly approaching the overgrown base of a HUGE oak tree. Yeah, think briars and honeysuckle and poison oak and broken branches and UGH, outside the chicken yard, over in the pasture. (If you’ve ever watched a hen approaching the nest boxes, you know how they slowly creep up to and then enter the box even more slowly. They’ve got to make sure nothing sees them, right?) Well, I noticed her approaching the tree like she was approaching a nest box. “Noooooooo!” I hollered. “I know that approach.” I continued to watch and that darn bird disappeared into the area I didn’t want her to. $&#^*>% was all I could think so off I headed to retrieve her. As she smugly sat on a little nest-looking bed of sticks and leaves, I took my little rake to move several “things” out of my way in order to get her. I didn’t have my phone or I’d have taken a picture, I think, but who knows because I was upset. I picked her up and was shocked to see 6 beautiful, but nasty looking, pullet eggs. I reached in and got them and carried her clucking, fuzzy butt back to the coop. Yes, clucking, no other word intended. She clucked the whole way. She was mad! I placed her in a nest box where she stayed, oh, about 30 seconds, before she headed back to her empty nest at the base of the tree. I let her go. About an hour later I went back out to look for her egg. No egg was in the nest and I looked all over for her and couldn’t find her. The crazy bird was back in the coop’s nest box. Later that morning, I searched high and low looking for more “illegal” nests. I didn’t find any, but I know they’re out there.

Long, long story shorter, they are now locked in the coop/run until about 3:30ish, every day. No more early morning ranging until they know where to lay. I say that, but I’m sure some will go straight back to their rogue way of life, laying in the dark confines of “the other side!”

The eggs the dogs ate!

 

[Mimi13]

Only when we're in the backyard (city lot) to keep an eye on them because "free range" neighborhood cats are determined to have chicken dinner We had one get into the run (luckily when we were out there to chase it away before it got my babies, er, pullets) and one waited on the fence for them to come out when I was out there a couple weeks ago and they refused to do so (then it meowed and I noticed it staring right at the door) so we're in the process of trying to rebuild it more securely so the only time they get outside is when we can keep the 3 neighborhood cats away.

I wish people didn't let their cats roam all over kingdom come (not only because of chickens but also because of rabies potential in wild mice and rabbits, life-threatening allergies in some people, cats can bite and scratch, they could get hit by cars or attacked by cougars, coyotes, and bobcats (all of which have come into town in the past week), etc), but unfortunately there's no law against it so I have to keep my chickens safe from both them, hawks, falcons, and eagles, and the other predators listed above

Yes I do- northern Idaho, where cougars scare the pants off of school janitors by walking into the building like it owns it at 6 am and moose try to get into the local library But I did install a daylight LED 4' light in the coop (also our insulated finished shed- "chicken zone" is the back 6x10 feet of it) and it's set on a timer to turn on at 4 am and turn off at 6:30 pm which is currently sunset here. Is 14.5 hours long enough to induce laying? The chickens need to earn their feed (one income-I can't work a regular job due to a digestive disorder) so we will lay through the winter with supplemental light.

Yes, cats are roamers for sure. It’s just their nature; however, my barn cats do not bother my chickens at all (not chicks, I’m sure they’d kill them in a second.) As for supplemental lighting, I’ve read anywhere from 13 to 16 hours will suffice for continued laying.

About your “moose in the library.” When I lived in Ft. Greely, Alaska, way back when, there were some days we couldn’t go outside for recess because there would be a herd of buffalo on the playground. Here in Alabama, no worries there!

 

[tweetzone86]

Yes, cats are roamers for sure. It’s just their nature; however, my barn cats do not bother my chickens at all (not chicks, I’m sure they’d kill them in a second.) As for supplemental lighting, I’ve read anywhere from 13 to 16 hours will suffice for continued laying.

About your “moose in the library.” When I lived in Ft. Greely, Alaska, way back when, there were some days we couldn’t go outside for recess because there would be a herd of buffalo on the playground. Here in Alabama, no worries there!

I have been cleaning up my yard so there are definitely no illicit nests (I feel for you- nesting in poison ivy of all places! Yikes!).

I know they are- I just think that with litter boxes and such that town cats would be safer indoors and so would people (my husband has a cat allergy, my brother in law and mother in law and sisters are deathly allergic, etc).

Yikes! I definitely wouldn't be going outside into a herd of buffalo either! Though I am surprised that there were herds that far north. I hadn't heard of buffalo ranging in Alaska before.

Ah the joys of living on the edge of the wilderness Though it does mean that come farm time we'll be outside of town and I'll have to bear, coyote, wolf, and cougar-proof everything. Better than living in town, but the coop will be reinforced like Fort Knox then!

 

[aart]

Is 14.5 hours long enough to induce laying?

Yes...no guarantees tho.