Penny laid an egg!

[Young MacDonald]

We got our first egg. She was doing the squat for a few days. This morning before we got any eggs, she started doing the egg song. Strangely, another pullet who had never laid an egg or sung the song also began singing it this morning.

Penny started jumping in and out of all the nestboxes.

Penny in the nestbox.

Then, she started making a terrible sound. Poor thing, it was like labor. And it took several hours.

Eventually, we heard a final egg song and the terrible gutteral sound stopped. She jumped out and we found this in the box:

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Here's a picture of it next to a supermarket egg.

 

[gritsar]

Congrats!
It's not unusual for other hens and the rooster if you have one to join in the egg song. Not sure if their songs are congratulatory or saying shut up already!

 

[Patchesnposies]

Congrats! We have over 200 hens and I still get a thrill when I find a "beginner" egg. It is always a cause for celebration!

I agree, the "Egg Song" is a sing-a-long here at our house too.

 

[c'mon eggs]

Congratulations on your first egg! How exciting!

How old is Penny? I cannot wait till my girls start laying. Woohoo!

 

[kimloveschickens]

Congrats! We just got out first egg yesterday. Isn't it exciting!

 

[b.hromada]

Quote:
I know, mine do that ALL the time. I love it though, its hilarious! Congrats too!

 

[Young MacDonald]

She will be 22 weeks tomorrow.

Right now, my husband and I are very concerned. That gutteral sound is continuing and it's like she's in great pain. She's panting too, even though the temp is in the mid-70s. There was some blood on the egg. Could this kill her?

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
I would check her vent area to make sure there isn't copious amounts of blood, but a little blood on the first eggs is not unusual. Laying eggs is hard.

 

[Ducklove334]

that nest looks like a birds nest, is it one of those ready-made nests or did she make it??


as for roosters singing the egg song, our head roo Big Bertha is the only one who does that, I say that it's cause he's so happy to possibly be spreading his genes again LOL

 

[Young MacDonald]

that nest looks like a birds nest, is it one of those ready-made nests or did she make it??

We built the nestboxes. Then to make it more attractive to her, we placed some branches around it. There is hay inside. She moved the hay to suit her. Here's another shot.

Regarding blood, there isn't a lot of blood, but she's still making that noise. I wonder if she's just excited/stressed. I've seen that a lot of people get those mini-eggs for their first egg, but this was a good size egg.​