First Eggs

[JennySkarsten]

Thank you flock master. I had read that if you rub a chickens belly that it would put them to sleep so I had to try and you can see she is shutting her eyes. LOL Try it. I just turned her over on my lap and she fussed for a few seconds then stopped. She had no choice!! She really did enjoy it and I was pleasantly surprised!!

 

[Rainier]

I think there is something about putting them on their backs. All of our chickens relax when held belly up. As chicks they would stretch out their legs and fall asleep. I'll look and see if I took any pictures of our chicks as babies doing it. I know I have one of my daughter sleeping with a hen in her lap.

ETA
I found this pic. I thought the chick was dead when I walked in then my daughter said that she was giving it belly rubs and it went to sleep, so I took a picture!

 

[RunamokRanch]

Mine are 22_23 Wks old. Have heard egg song a couple times, no eggs. They keep burying the fake eggs or they throw them out the door. Any advice?

 

[JennySkarsten]

OMG!! So sweet!! Wish I had done this when they were chicks but did not know about this until they were 4 months old. Love this picture!!

 

[JennySkarsten]

I use golf balls. They are harder and heavier than plastic eggs. If they are burying them that means they are moving the straw around and preparing for that first egg!! Are they also EE?

 

[aart]

I think there is something about putting them on their backs. All of our chickens relax when held belly up. As chicks they would stretch out their legs and fall asleep. I'll look and see if I took any pictures of our chicks as babies doing it. I know I have one of my daughter sleeping with a hen in her lap.

ETA
I found this pic. I thought the chick was dead when I walked in then my daughter said that she was giving it belly rubs and it went to sleep, so I took a picture!

Yes, I've done that with chicks and older too when I changed their leg bands. Maybe I should do this to her more often.

 

[rc4u]

all the talk about chicken song and i still have not heard mine make any noise when laying...i have one BO that insists to lay her egg in the raised garden under the cucumber leaves...rain or shine she has one there. she flys the fence to get out and waits for me to let her back in...and then another BO that lays one in the corner of the coop...and the rest use the next boxesonly two of the four boxes thou....and still no egg song...jeff

 

[JennySkarsten]

I have the one hen laying out of six and I don't hear any egg song either. I have now limited their free ranging to a couple hours in the evening as I have to keep my eyes on them and they tend to wander into the neighbors yard and even once into my front yard flower bed. I keep them in the coop now until around 10 or 11 am then they are let into the run. I want them to know where to lay the eggs (not in the yard) and have golf balls in the boxes in the coop.