maryn7
Songster
I've got two birds - a BR hen that will be two in April and a Light Brahma pullet. The Light Brahma's face has been reddening and she just started squatting in the last week. She's about 6-7 months, so right on schedule.
When our original two girls got to POL in 2020, we did *way* too much work showing the girls the egg boxes, putting them in the egg boxes, checking to see if they'd been shifted, etc. I was excited that my hens would be able to show younger girls what to do without my intervention (or, rather, me feeling like I should help).
However, my (now) remaining original hen had a bad molt while also losing her bestie (which is why we added the LB), so we haven't seen an egg out of her since October - and she's showing no signs of squatting or returning to lay. I doubt she'll be back in an egg box before the LB needs to use it. There is a fake wooden egg in each box.
I went out and put the LB in the egg box today, and she looked at me like I had two heads. It's clearly never dawned on her to go in one of them before. And she didn't seem to like what she found there, as she left immediately.
She's also... I don't know why I'm being polite, she's not going to read this - she's not exactly the brightest chicken I've ever met and is a little over the top about everything she does. Even her squats are extremely extra - she's vibrating and waggling everything under her wings. It would not surprise me if she laid an egg in the middle of their feeder or something; many of her decisions are perplexing to me (and, seemingly, to the other hen).
Do you think my hen will kind of point out the egg boxes to her? Or should I give her a few more trips to the egg box? Or just let her figure it out?
(She's truly such a lovely little weirdo. I think she's trying to play with my BR; she'll look real hard at her and then do something to make the BR chase her. It really seems intentional, and she seems to adore the subsequent running around, flapping her wings.)
When our original two girls got to POL in 2020, we did *way* too much work showing the girls the egg boxes, putting them in the egg boxes, checking to see if they'd been shifted, etc. I was excited that my hens would be able to show younger girls what to do without my intervention (or, rather, me feeling like I should help).
However, my (now) remaining original hen had a bad molt while also losing her bestie (which is why we added the LB), so we haven't seen an egg out of her since October - and she's showing no signs of squatting or returning to lay. I doubt she'll be back in an egg box before the LB needs to use it. There is a fake wooden egg in each box.
I went out and put the LB in the egg box today, and she looked at me like I had two heads. It's clearly never dawned on her to go in one of them before. And she didn't seem to like what she found there, as she left immediately.
She's also... I don't know why I'm being polite, she's not going to read this - she's not exactly the brightest chicken I've ever met and is a little over the top about everything she does. Even her squats are extremely extra - she's vibrating and waggling everything under her wings. It would not surprise me if she laid an egg in the middle of their feeder or something; many of her decisions are perplexing to me (and, seemingly, to the other hen).
Do you think my hen will kind of point out the egg boxes to her? Or should I give her a few more trips to the egg box? Or just let her figure it out?
(She's truly such a lovely little weirdo. I think she's trying to play with my BR; she'll look real hard at her and then do something to make the BR chase her. It really seems intentional, and she seems to adore the subsequent running around, flapping her wings.)