Odd “pre-laying” behavior.

[Thancock760]

So my girls are starting to lay. Shaka was the first- and today Caramel is displaying the same behavior as Shaka did for the first lay. I can tell as they both run around making noise and seemingly look like they are trying to find a place to lay. This seems normal. The weird part is that none of the chickens have ever tried to jump up on the fences before. Each of them has now kind of wigged out and they jumped up on the six foot fences. I rush over and whoosh them off because I clearly don’t want to lose my girls over the fence. I put Caramel in the run/coop so she can lay. Once Shaka laid, she totally calmed down and doesn’t get up on fence again. When she was going to lay again yesterday- back up on fence… what causes this? What are they doing?

 

[3KillerBs]

I use 48" electric poultry netting for my run and I find that my birds *mostly* stay in.

But when I have escapes it's most often the POL pullets who go wandering.

 

[3KillerBs]

My best guess is that their instincts are driving them to seek out a nesting site.

 

[Thancock760]

Should I clip one wing? They are in run and coop area now. I would just hate for them to get over fence and meet the neighbors dogs…

 

[3KillerBs]

Should I clip one wing? They are in run and coop area now. I would just hate for them to get over fence and meet the neighbors dogs…

That's what I did when I caught them out. But be careful not to clip any still-growing feather that has blood in the shaft.

One stubborn girl ended up with both wings clipped and a lecture on the fact that she'd better get used to not flying because she's a Marans and would soon grow too heavy to fly.