How long before first laying do chickens sing the egg song?

[colmcmanus]

We've heard at least one of our chickens, though possibly 2-3, sing the egg song in the morning over the past week or two. However, no egg yet. The girls are about 19 weeks, though the one we heard singing was not as developed in comb etc. as some of the other girls, and she's a BO which I don't think are early layers. I haven't seen any of them squat yet. I was just curious if they can "sing" for weeks before actually laying their first egg...

 

[Chick Charm]

Yes it is possible to sing and get loud a week or two before laying the first egg. They tend to get a little chatty at the point of laying. Squatting, bright red combs, interest in the nest, going off alone from the rest of the flock are all indicators they want to lay or figuring out where to lay.

Sounds like they are getting close. Wish ya the best.

 

[colmcmanus]

Thanks - they are definitely getting chatty, but no squatting yet. Hope they don't keep us in suspense too much longer!

 

[ChirpyChicks1]

Mine got really loud before they started laying and now that most of them are........no more egg songs I'm totally bummed

 

[colmcmanus]

Thanks! We did get our first egg 2 weeks ago (very exciting!!), but I don't think that bird ever sang the egg song. One of our Buffs is really loud and has sang the egg song off an on for over a month, but much more frequently now. We're waiting for her egg - she's doing the squat when you put your hand over her and has been doing that for about 3 days, so hopefully she won't make us wait much longer! The other 5 don't seem close to laying yet.

 

[Chick Charm]

Congrats!

So, in your case it took about a month of chatty talk before laying?

 

[colmcmanus]

Not exactly. We have 2 layers. The chicken that laid first wasn't too noisy before laying. The second one actually had sung the egg song 2 months before laying. She did get extremely noisy about 3 weeks before laying her first egg - generic noisiness, as well as the egg song. And she was loud. She kept up the noisiness through when she started laying. The telltale sign for us was that they both started squatting if we put our hand near their back. We noticed this very soon before they started laying (2 day for one; about 6-7 days for the other bird).