One of my chickens did the egg song! A few questions.

Pet Duck Boy

Songster
10 Years
Dec 12, 2009
1,373
22
161
Orlando, FL
So I woke up at 7:15 this morning to "Bawk Bawk BAGAWWK Bawk Bawk BAGAWWWK BAWK BAWK BAWK BAGAWWWWWWK!!!" It scared the heck out of me, I thought something was eating one of them, but then I remembered those youtube videos of hens doing their song, it sounded exactlly the same as those videos! I head out there and my biggest pullet, Nugget, was the culprit. It only lasted about 5 seconds, but that was loud! The other 4 were running around, flying, and were acting crazy in their kennel. They didn't look scared, but maybe the sound of the egg song hurt their ears? LOL. No eggs, and I let them out in my yard and everything was normal again. But what surprises me is they turned just 16 weeks old on Monday! I didn't think one of them would lay this early, but does the egg song mean they're gonna lay? I also have no laying box at the moment, I do have a kind of cozy hide large enough for all 5, but they only go in there when it rains. And out of the 5, if one were to lay, I would expect it to be Nugget, my largest RIR/production red. I have 3 PR/RIR and 2 EEs. The EEs I heard usually don't lay a little later, after 20 weeks. They are still smallish too. Big red, my 2nd production red is no longer the biggest, but the second biggest. Runt Runt, my third RIR. Is well, a runt. She caught up quite a bit in size but is still pretty small. Her comb has barely grown too. So does this mean Nugget will lay soon? Should I get an egg box? I currenty feed them a starter/grower mix. In my opinion, they still have some growing to do. Nugget weighs 3-4 pounds, and Runt Runt, the smallest, is only 1-2 lbs.
 
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One of my sexlinks was the first to do that. We started to call her pollo loco(crazy chicken). Little did we know she was laying eggs under a downed tree in the yard. We hadn't put a nest box in the coop yet and so when we let them out for the day she ran over to that tree to lay her eggs. The others would follow her and soon were laying in the same spot. If you don't have a nest box now then get one in there asap because it wont be too long before you get your first egg.
 
Some of the production breeds will lay that early. And yes, get a nest box for 'em as soon as possible. Don't forget to put golf balls or ceramic or plastic or wooden eggs in the nest boxes, to "suggest" to the pullets that's the place they should be laying their eggs.
 

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