Really early egg behavior?

[MIChickandGuinea]

We have a group of bantams right about 3 months old (we got them as day-old chicks the last week of March). They are D’Uccles (Mille Fleur and Porcelain), Sebrights (golden and silver), Cochins, white Silkies, and Old English (silver duck wing). We keep hearing something from that coop that sounds a whole awful lot like a squeaky tiny-bird version of the egg song, and we’ve noticed a few of the little ladies spending daytime hours up in the nesting boxes instead of out free ranging. That’s what we observed in our full-size flock leading up to eggs. But these guys are doing it much younger. Any chance any of those breeds would be very early to mature and lay?

 

[TheTwoRoos]

Most bantams mature early but a lot bantam breeds are not good egg layers,meaning they don’t start till served maybe eight months or later.Are you sure no one is crowing?If it is cackling maybe someone or something is bothering them?

 

[MIChickandGuinea]

Most bantams mature early but a lot bantam breeds are not good egg layers,meaning they don’t start till served maybe eight months or later.Are you sure no one is crowing?If it is cackling maybe someone or something is bothering them?

Well, we have a LOT of crowing. Those little dudes started crowing a long time ago.

There could be some squabbling that bothers some of the birds, but I have only observed it among the silly tiny roosters... but it could be happening out of view, I suppose.

 

[TheTwoRoos]

Maybe try recording the noise,that’s ould help.

 

[MIChickandGuinea]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/udJDeJKp6kkCf7KT6

Does this link work? It’s a video of the sound she’s making that sounds like the egg song.

 

[aart]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/udJDeJKp6kkCf7KT6

Does this link work? It’s a video of the sound she’s making that sounds like the egg song.

Worked for me.
That may be an alarm call, very similar to egg song.
Is she still peeping? 3mo is about the time they get their big girl voices.
They go from peeping to 'honking'(hilarious) to clucking and other 'adult' vocalizations

 

[MIChickandGuinea]

Worked for me.
That may be an alarm call, very similar to egg song.
Is she still peeping? 3mo is about the time they get their big girl voices.
They go from peeping to 'honking'(hilarious) to clucking and other 'adult' vocalizations

None of these bantams are still peeping. They make funny bip-bip-bip sounds, like big chickens who breathed helium
And some of the little roosters are crowing very well and all the time, while some have yet to make a sound. All the Old English and Sebright roosters are crowing but Cochin is not, and we can’t tell the sex of our two silkies - but neither of them has crowed.
What kinds of situations would make a chicken do an alarm call? She was just hanging out up in that playhouse, which she does a lot, and most of the other birds had already gone into the coop for the night. I did clean out the coops yesterday. Quite a few of the young birds were skittish about going back into the coop with all that “scary” fresh fluffy litter. Maybe she was complaining because chickens don’t like changes?

 

[aart]

What kinds of situations would make a chicken do an alarm call?

Could be anything...real danger or imagined.

Quite a few of the young birds were skittish about going back into the coop with all that “scary” fresh fluffy litter. Maybe she was complaining because chickens don’t like changes?

Have had this happen. You'd think we'd laid down hot coals!
I started saving a bit of the old bedding to spread across the new just to camouflage the color...that worked well.