Red combs and wattles but no eggs!

[wrybread]

My three EE girls are 25 weeks old and two of them (Mabel and Ethel) have had bright red combs and wattles for weeks now. Just this morning I've noticed the third (Mamie) is getting 'red in the comb', but no sign of eggs!

I haven't noticed any squatting or other signs (is there really a laying song they sing?

) so does this mean I should start searching our yard/woods for hidden nests? It's over an acre so I'm definitely not looking forward to fine-tooth combing that big of an area!

 

[annaraven]

Not much help here, but my Buffy seemed to take *forever* even after she got red before her first egg. I'm still waiting on Willow, who's been red for a few weeks now.

 

[wrybread]

Well, at least there's someone out there who's in the same boat/coop!!

 

[knjinnm]

Keep the hens penned in for a week, if they are laying they will lay in a nest box in the coop.
Joe

 

[wrybread]

I'll try it but it's gonna be hard when they start crying, "Mommy, let us out!!!"

 

[Ravishaw]

I had 12 pullets. I noticed one dashing to the coop, and later found an egg. I scratched one off the list in my mind and graduated her to hen.
The same day a barred rock was trying to lay an egg in my sons toy workbench... Nothing happened. The next day I found a tiny dark brown egg in the coop.
Scratch another off.

I have 10 pullets (I assume, though I saw one of my antisocial wynadottes heading for the boxes not long ago) and 4 hens.

Life is good.

 

[wrybread]

Life WILL be good when I find my first egg!

I thought they only lay in the morning. Is that not true?

 

[Pequena Bandada]

They lay at any time during the day, and I agree with the other posters. Keep your girls locked up in the coop for a few days to see if they're laying. You don't want them to get in the habit of laying in the woods because then you'll have to hunt every day for eggs, so teach them that the nest box in the coop is the best option by making it their only option for a while until they're confident layers. They don't automatically know to lay in the nest box, so if they're free ranging it's very possible they've created their own nest that you don't know about. Locking them up for a few days is the best way to break them of the hidden nest.

 

[wrybread]

Thanks -- starting tomorrow no more gallivanting about... they're grounded!

And I think I'll try to find a golf ball.......

 

[knjinnm]

Quote:
Good idea, they are visually stimulated to lay in the same nest box. I once had an outdoor laying box of 6 nests for the hens when we let them free range the yard. The box on one end had a plywood support six inches in front of it that formed a blind and the hens would line up to lay in that some what hidden box. It was a hoot to watch them, sometime if one hen was under pressure she would get in the box with another hen. Surprisingly there were few broken eggs.
Joe