when a chicken lays her first egg does she get to choose when it happens or does she just feel it and goes to the nest box?
what a good question. I don't know the answer but I can give you a bump. I have heard that pullets sometimes lay their first egg in the run, as if they weren't sure what was going on. It may have a lot of variables to the answer...like is there an older hen there that is laying so they know the drill? Are there fake eggs in the nest box so she knows a good place to lay the egg? I also wonder how much control the chicken has over egg-laying timing. Sometimes I go out with a treat, and if one is on the nest box, she will get up come out get the treat and go back afterwards to finish the egg. Hopefully someone who knows what goes on inside that chicken's head (and ovaduct) can provide a really good answer.
Well, ummmmm.... Consider body functions YOU experience. If yer a gal in or past the age of child-bearing, you may remember the sensations when you had no control over the onset of menstruation. Human women "shed" eggs monthly, hens do it daily. The first few menses can be distressing, with unfamiliar cramping. Multiply that 30 times. Over a period of time, hens get used to what their bodies are telling them, able to gauge where in the process they are at a given time. But those first few eggs... "Dang! It's happening AGAIN! What's up with that?!?!?"
before my girls started laying, one walked by me, stopped and out popped her first soft shelled egg...so I would say no...they don't always know what is going on! She dropped it out and kept walking!
so i bet you could post a link saying oh i went to check on the hens and there it is in the nest my first egg
Sssssooo Funny..i Think Laying An Egg Is Very Painful The First Few Times, But After That.........probably Not As Bad:d
Quote:Reminds me of the Monty Python movie, Meaning of Life. The woman with the houseful of children, standing at the sink doing dishes and the baby just falls out. She looks at the baby, then says to her older daughter.........."Get that, would you Deirdre?", then just keeps doing the dishes. I don't think it's all that painful after you lay an egg daily, I wouldn't think so anyway. Deb
