My sweet house chicken, Singing Feather has started laying eggs this week.

[cydthekid50]

Singing Feather is a Le Fleur D'uccle Bantam, beautifully marked. I did not intend for her to be my only chicken, but the two other chicks I bought with her turned out to be roosters. Rotten luck! Be that as it may, she and I have bonded in a special way. She lives in a spacious rabbit hutch in my bedroom and until she started laying eggs, was a perfectly happy and cheerful house chicken. This is my first experience raising chickens, and I have been told by many people that I am doing an unconventional thing here. Whatever! She is laying an egg about once a day which is pretty darned good for a bantam! They are about 40% to 50% of the average chicken egg size.

I noticed yesterday morning that she was nervously pacing, and seemed to be trying to dig into the corner of her hutch underneath her nesting box(it's hung up high because she likes to sleep in it). After much fuss and pacing and such, about two hours later I found her third egg (in as many days).

This morning, she started doing the same thing. I went out shopping for about an hour and came back and she was really working herself up into a fury! I took her out of her hutch and sat her on top of her cage, which is something I do daily to let her flap her wings and jump around. She jumped down from the top of the hutch and walked over to me, hopping up into my lap. I rolled her over on her back and stroked her tummy and talked to her. (yes some would say I am insane, but I talk to ALL of my pets and any other animals that cross my path, so sue me!) I rolled her back over on her tummy and told her she needed to relax and stay calm, that if she fights it, it will hurt so much, but if she just relaxes, it will just happen without so much effort. And there, on my bed and my good quilt, she laid an egg!

I know I will figure this out with her, hopefully she will get the hint, hopefully she will not feel the need to hold the egg until mommy gets home to sooth her enough to lay it!
Has anyone else noticed their new layers trying to fight laying? Just curious.

PS>I bought three black sexlink hybrids yesterday, so eventually Singing Feather will be part of a small flock.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

No advice on the egg thing but sex links get quite big compared to your pretty girl i have four golden sexlinks and they are already at four months as big as my six month old leghorns if they arent bigger they weigh anywhere from 7-8 pounds so your girl might become the lost ranking hen later on.

 

[cydthekid50]

Thanks for letting me know this. I have a feeling she might gain pecking rights if I put her in with the other girls before they are bigger than her. I will watch them closely. If I see that's not working, I will return her to her own hutch. The sexlinks will eventually be placed in a backyard coop. I suspect I messed up her chicken manners by letting her be by herself and bonding so strongly to me.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Not a problem, we got deleware and leghorns from tractor supply didnt know the breeds they were just listed as pullets and the deleware twins are diffidently top dogs they out weigh the leghorns who are two weeks older by a good pound or two. Our leghorns are a healthy weight for them and the delewares are the same for their breed but they are huge in comparison they are closer to two or three leghorns in size wise. Adel the biggest girl she close to the same size as our delaware rooster. Oh and becare full if you end up with a rooster and her he might be to big for her if he a sexlink and he could do damage.

 

[yochickiemomma]

She's soooo pretty. I have an EE that's by herself right now because she's been picked on severely. My best friend just told my hubby that my baby should become a house chicken. He's not going for it yet.

 

[cydthekid50]

Thanks for that warning! I will be diligent on being sure no huge rooster gets near my Singing Feather!

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Welcome

 

[cydthekid50]

I will confess I live in an apartment! I let my chicken run loose in my bedroom with an old king-sized sheet on the floor. I thought about getting those chicken diapers, but have not yet done so. She is really good about not going on me or my bed or the cat tree and those are usual places where she will hang out when not in her hutch. She knows she can use the sheet to relieve herself, that's the only place she will "go" except in her hutch. Because she is a D'uccle Bantam, she is content to be in her hutch about 80% of the time. I offer to let her out a few times a day on weekends and at night after supper on weeknights. She takes me up on the offer about half the time. She really likes to sit on my shoulder while I walk around the house. She only tried to fly off my shoulder once, met my son's cat who is definitely not as cool and collected around her as MY cat is, who lives in the same room as my chicken. I have to clean her cage every day and change her water twice a day. I'm in the middle of teaching her how to use a water bottle (like for hamsters), she almost has it after just 1/2 day of trying to teach her. She likes to throw her food around so I have to sweep up around her every day. But a lot of birds are like that. I have kept parakeets and love birds and zebra finches and they are all messy and they have to be kept clean. Chickens are no different except they are bigger. I expect to be in a house with a backyard in a couple of months and will be setting up a coop for my black sexlinks I just got yesterday. Get your husband to read this before he puts his foot all the way down. Singing Feather is a delightful pet to me, and she lays beautiful eggs too~ If I had a single full sized chicken that I kept inside, I would get her one of those multi-level flight cages that large parrots have. I priced them at one point before getting my hutches. They were anywhere from $125 all the way up to over $1,000.00. My D'uccle likes to sit on a perch. My son made one for her using a 3/4" dowel. I scrub it down every other week with hot water and a hard bristle brush.