Our oldest baby squatted!!

[Sin City Chicks]

We have 3 girls, and they are all around 20 weeks. Our Buff Orpington is the oldest, and yesterday she squatted for the first time for daddy!! She did it again today when I got to see it It really is an exciting and fantastic experience for a novice chicken family. We are curious now approximately how long will it be before we see our first egg from her?? We have been waiting so long, and we are dying to share pictures of the first egg we find!!

 

[ozu]

I love the egg squats! Pretty much all of my chickens that are old enough to lay/are laying do it now. It's so cute to watch them drop to the ground really fast, spread their wings, and stamp their feet really fast! I read on a thread here that someone would tug on the neck feathers/tails to "appease" them, so I do that too, and rub their backs. They seem to like it. It's funny because two of my girls are REALLY noisy so we... call them our "super horny girls" ahaha.

Before my chickens laid their eggs, they started screeching a lot and becoming rowdy, squatting, crouching down, etc. I went off of how their comb and waddles color and size were coming along in addition to the behavior

 

[lilypad]

One of my young Faverolles started squatting last week and she laid her first egg yesterday!

Surprisingly though, she didn't get noisy and didn't keep going in the nests so I thought we would still have to wait another week

My Cream Legbar X took about a week after squatting too

 

[travis5292]

I'm on my 3rd round of chickens, this bunch being a wide variety of breeds, and I must say, I have really noticed each one coming in to maturity based off of vocals. They have each gotten so loud and cranky sounding, although they are well taken care of and very happy. It's a pretty cool time when they begin to squat because you know they are reaching egg laying maturity, and they are able to be caught and picked up. Since I don't have a rooster, I ALWAYS reach down and rough them up when they squat. It helps to solidify the fact that I am the MAN!!! Now if I go out afterwards, and see them all smoking cigarettes after they squat, I may rethink my strategy. But I also feel like it helps to convince them that they have a job to do in the nest box. Whether or not that makes any sense, it sounds good to me.

 

[Sharon Bee]

I noticed one of my white chickens sort of squatting with her wings out a bit. What does this mean? They are 4 months old. I pat her back when she does this. She seems to just sit there for a minute.

 

[travis5292]

After you pat her back, she should stand up and ruffle her feathers.

 

[Sharon Bee]

Yes she does. Does she think I'm a rooster? Lol. Seriously i don't know what it means. The others aren't doing it.

 

[travis5292]

Not sure how to explain why they stand up and shake/ruffle their feathers in a "PG" way, but it has to do with what the rooster left behind in order to help with fertilization of the egg. (Hope no one flags me)
And yes, if they squat, they see you as the rooster.

 

[christie22701]

I think all the above is true but I also believe the squatting is a submissive act.

 

[Sharon Bee]

Oh yes that makes sense. So it's a "coming of age" kind of thing. I don't have a rooster so I hope they won't be too frustrated!