- Apr 30, 2025
- 38
- 77
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Hello all! I just wanted to share my experience with one of my hens laying her first egg and the observations I made leading up to her laying. I am new to chickens and this is just me recording my observations mainly for my own memory.
I range my flock on 6 wooded acres (though they've really only discovered 1 of those acres so far) and they're all currently 4.5 months old. I have 17 hens and 3 roosters, mostly BYMs that I hatched from egg in incubator (possible parents are cochin bantams, EE/Ameraucanas, salmon faverolles, mille de fleurs, silkies, buckeyes, possibly more). Their coop is moveable with a mesh bottom so they usually don't hang out in there till they go to bed. I currently have two milk crates as nesting boxes with straw and a fake egg in each. I honestly wasn't sure if they'd ever use the coop nesting boxes because they range all day and prefer the safety of hedges, stumps with high grass around them, and thick patches of evergreens which all seem like great places to lay. I often see my head rooster picking spots for them to lay around the property that I try to make mental notes of in case they were to not be interested in the nesting boxes once it came time to lay.
Over the last few weeks I have been observing my hens since they turned 16 weeks old, as I figured I could expect eggs soon. One hen in particular caught my attention because she was the first one to allow my head rooster to mate with her without screaming and trying to get away. I then observed that she would occasionally stand in one spot for approximately a minute at a time, looking like she was squatting to poop but she wasn't. Then she'd run off, looking perfectly fine. Also her comb was definitely getting red, but she has peacomb so I find it harder to tell with peacomb vs single comb if it's getting bigger and/or redder. ((In case her breed somehow matters, she's quite the mutt. She has a beard, feathered feet and peacomb. My guess is Ameraucana x Mille de Fleur cross based on her possible parents and her physical appearance.))
Yesterday I noticed her going into the coop by herself which is very rare, my hens are always glued to my head rooster's every move and normally that involves exploring a giant hedge on the property. She stayed in the coop for about two hours, going back and forth between the nesting boxes, sitting in them and moving straw around. She would take breaks to drink water and came out once to eat some grass and then went back in. She then emerged and did the "egg song" (or really it's actually an escort song as Shadrach mentions in his excellent article that everyone should read if they own a rooster, Understanding Your Rooster) and my head rooster did indeed come running. He escorted her back to the flock and I was able to go check to see if she had laid. And that she had, right next to the fake egg! It was a pretty little light brown egg with a really good sized yolk for her first egg. Now I am just waiting on all my other freeloaders to start laying and I hope she can teach them to use the nesting boxes and not the giant hedge that is impossible for me to get into with out army crawling.
I range my flock on 6 wooded acres (though they've really only discovered 1 of those acres so far) and they're all currently 4.5 months old. I have 17 hens and 3 roosters, mostly BYMs that I hatched from egg in incubator (possible parents are cochin bantams, EE/Ameraucanas, salmon faverolles, mille de fleurs, silkies, buckeyes, possibly more). Their coop is moveable with a mesh bottom so they usually don't hang out in there till they go to bed. I currently have two milk crates as nesting boxes with straw and a fake egg in each. I honestly wasn't sure if they'd ever use the coop nesting boxes because they range all day and prefer the safety of hedges, stumps with high grass around them, and thick patches of evergreens which all seem like great places to lay. I often see my head rooster picking spots for them to lay around the property that I try to make mental notes of in case they were to not be interested in the nesting boxes once it came time to lay.
Over the last few weeks I have been observing my hens since they turned 16 weeks old, as I figured I could expect eggs soon. One hen in particular caught my attention because she was the first one to allow my head rooster to mate with her without screaming and trying to get away. I then observed that she would occasionally stand in one spot for approximately a minute at a time, looking like she was squatting to poop but she wasn't. Then she'd run off, looking perfectly fine. Also her comb was definitely getting red, but she has peacomb so I find it harder to tell with peacomb vs single comb if it's getting bigger and/or redder. ((In case her breed somehow matters, she's quite the mutt. She has a beard, feathered feet and peacomb. My guess is Ameraucana x Mille de Fleur cross based on her possible parents and her physical appearance.))
Yesterday I noticed her going into the coop by herself which is very rare, my hens are always glued to my head rooster's every move and normally that involves exploring a giant hedge on the property. She stayed in the coop for about two hours, going back and forth between the nesting boxes, sitting in them and moving straw around. She would take breaks to drink water and came out once to eat some grass and then went back in. She then emerged and did the "egg song" (or really it's actually an escort song as Shadrach mentions in his excellent article that everyone should read if they own a rooster, Understanding Your Rooster) and my head rooster did indeed come running. He escorted her back to the flock and I was able to go check to see if she had laid. And that she had, right next to the fake egg! It was a pretty little light brown egg with a really good sized yolk for her first egg. Now I am just waiting on all my other freeloaders to start laying and I hope she can teach them to use the nesting boxes and not the giant hedge that is impossible for me to get into with out army crawling.
