Make up your mind already!

[townchicks]

One of my EEs almost never does the egg song. My RIR is loud enough to wake the neighborhood.

 

[aart]

Does anybody ( besides me, now) know how long it takes your chicken to decide to actually lay an egg?

Some go in lay go back out and about their other business.
Some will sit in nest for up to several hours, before and after laying, I call those the 'loungers'.
Some will do as you describe, especially new layers.
New layers can be quite goofy acting, they don't know what they are doing at first and can be confused and anxious, it can take up to a month or so before they get it all figured out. Putting some fake eggs or golf balls in the nest might help show them where to lay. They may scratch around in the nests for weeks before laying, spreading the bedding everywhere. They will scratch around a bit less in nest as they get used to the routine. Meanwhile, eggs everywhere, some of them can be rather funky looking, soft or thin shelled, huge double yolked eggs.


As to timing of egg emergence:
It takes about 25 hours for an egg to form, a new ova is released shortly after an egg is laid.
A new egg could be laid approximately every 25-26 hours, so an hour or so later every day until one is laid late in the day and another ova might not be released until the following day, so a day off. BUT..very hen is different and only time will tell what a particular hen/pullets schedule might be. Not every hen/pullet lays every day..some only lay a few a week.