Help me out please chicken experts... these are my first hens so this is new territory for me.
Background - got hens as day old chicks. They're about 5 1/2 months old now. Have a BO, BR and an EE. All have red wattles and faces and have been doing the egg squat for over two weeks. No eggs so far though. Impatiently waiting - LOL.
Tonight I went out to the coop to lock them up for the night and noticed the EE wasn't on the roost. I got very nervous because the three of them are always together on the roost. I found her in the nestbox sitting on the golfball I put in there a few days ago. I petted her to see how she would react, but she went into the egg squat right away and lifted her tailfeathers up. I could look under her tail and see the golf ball, but no eggs.
This was 8 pm and it was dark out....
What's going on? Is this normal behavior? I thought chickens always roosted at night. I didn't think she'd have any interest in sitting on a golf ball in a nest since she hasn't layed an egg yet.
Thanks!!!!
Background - got hens as day old chicks. They're about 5 1/2 months old now. Have a BO, BR and an EE. All have red wattles and faces and have been doing the egg squat for over two weeks. No eggs so far though. Impatiently waiting - LOL.
Tonight I went out to the coop to lock them up for the night and noticed the EE wasn't on the roost. I got very nervous because the three of them are always together on the roost. I found her in the nestbox sitting on the golfball I put in there a few days ago. I petted her to see how she would react, but she went into the egg squat right away and lifted her tailfeathers up. I could look under her tail and see the golf ball, but no eggs.
This was 8 pm and it was dark out....
What's going on? Is this normal behavior? I thought chickens always roosted at night. I didn't think she'd have any interest in sitting on a golf ball in a nest since she hasn't layed an egg yet.
Thanks!!!!
