Question I can not answer for my son? Fake egg song.

[mbrock]

My 10 year old son asked now that his girls are old enough can he make them start laying eggs? I quickly answered with "no things will happen in there own time". I thought that this would satisfy his need to to know. It did not. About an hour later his says that he has not heard them sing the egg song(had on YouTube) . I explain ed that they may or may not do that. He then asked if I play the egg song from YouTube will it trick them into starting to lay. I told them if don't think so but let's look. We looked here and googled it and could not see if the "trick " would work. I told him not to do it just incase it would slow them down. Does anyone know if this will set them back or not. If it would not harm them or delay laying I was going to let him try. What does everyone think?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

How old are the chickens?

Playing the egg song won't stimulate ovulation. It was a good guess though. This time of year POL pullets take longer to start.

Though they sing the song in relation to laying an egg, it is actually a call to gather the flock together. Roosters will even do it if they can't see the flock.

Ovulation is primarily stimulated by light reaching the pineal gland behind the eye.
The egg song has nothing to do with it. I posted this on another thread yesterday.

"From an evolutionary standpoint, the eggs song comes from when they were jungle fowl foraging and a hen decided she needed to go back to the nest to lay an egg. The rest of the flock would continue to forage so she wouldn't know where they were. In an effort to rejoin them, she'd call out, "Hey, where are you guys?"
The rest of the flock makes the same call in return, "Here we are".
They still do it even if they're in the same pen."

Here's some further reading for you.

http://www.nutrenaworld.com/knowledge-center/poultry/when-pullets-start-to-lay-eggs/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16687306
http://umaine.edu/publications/2227e/
http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/avian/pfs14.htm
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/1/egg-quality-handbook/2/formation-of-the-egg

 

[mbrock]

Thank you. Sorry I missed it the other thread. They are 24 and and 22 weeks. We had one hen lay start to lay Sunday. He has read about the song and heard on YouTube, so I think that he wants hear his girls do it. As long as it won't set them back I'll let him turn on the iPad and have go to see if they will join in. Kids ask great questions and it so easy to not give answer or say I don't know. Everyone here has helped us and is teaching him to ask because Someone will know or will help. When he gets home from school I'll let him do it and let everyone know how it goes.

 

[mbrock]

They may be a week or two older

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Providing all else is fine, nutrition, etc.. He can stimulate laying by adding a light to the coop on a timer to come on about 4 AM. Are all their combs and wattles enlarged and bright red? That's the sign of sexual maturity.

 

[mbrock]

The blacks are the younger

 

[mbrock]

He wanted to play the song, but at rained all day on and off all day. He said that after school today he would play it.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

He'll have better luck adding a light. But, it's cute that he's thinking and thinking of all possible connections. There is a lot of research on this topic.

 

[mbrock]

Think at this point he just want to hear them sing. The neighbors from 4 and they are much more vocal than yours. Really the only time we heard much was from them was the roo. The girls are super quite and right next door the girls are lets say chatty.

 

[mbrock]

Also he called grandpa to try and rig a solar light in the coop because there is no power out to it. I looked( trying to get better at it) in the forum to see if the was a way to rig a timer so that the daylight starts early and roost with natural light. I'll post in the coop and maint. also. So far I have only seen really large, expensive, or overkill.