Do chickens egg each other on?

[Sahraschweiss]

I have 12 18 week old pullets about to lay. One has laid twice ( yesterday and today). One has tried a few times today, but has not delivered. Whenever she tries a few of the others follow her into the coop. Once in, one of them will start the egg song as soon as the one trying to lay gets into a box. This distracts the one trying to lay. She leaves and starts the whole thing over...

 

[sourland]

Sounds like your girls are all becoming hormonal at the same time.

 

[donddon]

It's all gonna happen at once.

 

[aart]

Chuckles at thread title.

I have 12 18 week old pullets about to lay. One has laid twice ( yesterday and today). One has tried a few times today, but has not delivered. Whenever she tries a few of the others follow her into the coop. Once in, one of them will start the egg song as soon as the one trying to lay gets into a box. This distracts the one trying to lay. She leaves and starts the whole thing over...

Yep, they can create quite the raucous cacophony.
I once had a groups of pullets that were so loud I had to close the windows in the house to work over the phone.

New layers are goofy....can take up to a month or so for things to smooth out.