Newbie help please.

[ruby2zdaze]

One of our chickens laid her first egg this morning. We're not sure which one it is, but we suspect the Rhode Island White, because when I came near her, she hunkered down and started stomping her feet.
But...The small brown egg was not on the side she normally sleeps on.

My questions are, what is this behavior & is there anything I should do to calm her AND other than catching her in the act, can we tell which one actually laid it by the egg itself?

Penelope is a Rhode Island white
Magdalena is a mottled Cochin bantam
Bacon is a New Hampshire red
Ariel is an Americauna
Or so we were told....

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[ruby2zdaze]

 

[donrae]

I'm not sure what you mean by calm her down?

From the looks of your hens, I'd say the white one is your egg layer. Runner up would be the Red, but her comb isn't as red and plump as the white, so I'd say she's a ways off.

what do you mean by where she sleeps? Did she lay while on the roost? Do they have nest boxes to lay in, with a separate roost for sleeping? If they're sleeping in the nest boxes, you're going to wind up with either intense daily cleaning or poopy eggs

As to breeds,looks like a production red, I'd say the white one is a white Rock, just cause they're more common, but she could be a RIW. The brown hen is an Easter egger, and the black and white is not a mottled bantam but a full size barred Cochin. The EE's comb isn't developed enough for her to be laying yet. The Cochin, I can't see her comb but the full sized birds are traditionally slow to mature and I'd really not expect her to be your first layer.

Nice little diverse flock

 

[ruby2zdaze]

Donrae,
Thank you for enlightening me with all that!
They have 4 (2 on top/2 on bottom) boxes to lay in, but at night when we close them in, they choose to all bundle together on the top bunk and sleep, which is where we found the egg this morning when letting them out to run for the day.
I didn't know the comb was an indicator of egg laying readiness, so thank you again. The white one has also been extremely vocal lately. We just though she was annoyed with us. Lol
She's also the one that hunkered down & started patting her feet this morning, which she has never done.
All in all, everyone is super excited!
Thanks again.

 

[lazy gardener]

Do a google search for "the egg song". I expect that's the vocalization you're hearing from the white one. The "hunkering down and stomping her feet" is squatting behavior. A female chicken does so when she's at point of lay. This is her way of telling a rooster that she's ready to be bred. if you give her a bit of a deep feather massage on her low back, she will then stand up and do a little feather shake, and go about her business. (much as she would do after being bred by a roo.)

 

[aart]

They have 4 (2 on top/2 on bottom) boxes to lay in, but at night when we close them in, they choose to all bundle together on the top bunk and sleep, which is where we found the egg this morning when letting them out to run for the day.

The 'top bunk' is one of the nests?
Do you have boards/poles for them to roost(sleep)on?
Ya don't want them sleeping in the nests.....poopy eggs or a lot of cleaning everydamnday.
they need about a foot of roost length per bird, and roost should be about a foot higher than the nests.