Should I buy eggs or wait it out?

[okallthis4eggs]

Roger had no where near that much comb when she started laying. In fact that Golden Comet next to her has only about half as much comb as Roger does and she has been laying for over a month longer than Roger. In my experience the comb size and color was not a good indicator. Instead the "squatting" was the best indicator for me. Seems like the Comets laid within a week or two of their first squat. The BO's and BR's best I remember took a little longer to lay after the first squat. I tested them everyday by reaching my hand toward their back to see if the would squat. So in my opinion if they are squatting you are very close to eggs regardless of their comb size and color. Some just have bigger combs than others. Just my opinion and i'm still a rookie at this.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Roger does have a big comb! Maybe trying to live up to her manly name!

You're right, I forgot about squatting as one of the signs. I saw a little bit of everything with my mob. No single pullet had all the signs at once.

This is Spot, my BR. (Her face is dirty from eating apples and plums.) I think some of her comb/wattle growth did happen after she started laying. She has the best temperament, so calm and friendly, but 2nd in command of the mob, so not a push-over either. Picked her out of the chick brooder at the feed store on March 9, and she's been laying for about 4 weeks, so I'm sure your girls are close, Cheeka! If you had a terrible time with the heat this summer, that could have caused a little delay too. Once those eggs start coming, they pile up fast! Make room in the frige!



Oh, forgot to say I put golf balls in the nest boxes for motivation. It worked!

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

I think behavior is your best clue. Mine just became more interested in poking around in corners and sitting in my chair on the poarch...they also started 'talking' more instead of just peeps. They all laid through the winter, no long breaks, so i doubt that will keep them from starting...as long as we have good daylight for most of it..getting some double yolks now too...plenty of good weather ahead for eggs.

 

[cheeka]

as soon as I got home from work, grabbed Ruby (Pug) and went outside to visit the Chicks... Betty's comb and waddles are larger than this morning! significantly... so weird. not as big as Spot, but like a quarter inch bigger than this morning...! and my Wilma... after I set her back down from flying up to have a nuzzle... i reached out to give her another stroke of her ever so soft feathers and I got the BIGGEST squat! I'm thinking they will be first, and I also think it will be soon... but it wasn't today... I gave them some millet to hold them over til i get some pie ready...
i have so much stuff to do, hate to tear myself away from reading all the threads that piled up while i was working... but i'll bbl !

 

[okallthis4eggs]

Try laying the palm of your hand flat on their backs. If they are squatting they will squat almost every time you do that. Sometimes they will do the little stomping routine too. That cracks me up when they do that. (AKA....the island dance)

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Mine have never squatted for me..no, not ever! Wonder why.

 

[okallthis4eggs]

I went back to the beginning of this thread and read my comments. On 6-3-12 I wrote that one of them squatted for the first time. On 6-8-12 I got my first egg. Some great comments back there cheeka if you have time to read them. Any day now for you. And thanks again to my personal trainer Achickenwrangler for holding my hand thru it all.

 

[okallthis4eggs]

Mine have never squatted for me..no, not ever! Wonder why.

Probably because you have several roosters you think? Isn't the squat the submissive position they assume for the rooster to breed them? I have read that if you don't have a rooster then they will squat for who ever takes care of them. But with several roos around poor things are probably careful about that squating

 

[cheeka]

lol OK... I did read the whole thread from the beginning before i made my first post, lo' those many weeks ago... and wondered if what little Wilma was doing was considered "squatting" even tho' she was a tiny hiney... and what it was, was a tiny version of what she did today! she was magnificent and glorious, plopped down on her feet, spread her wings, puffed her feathers... unless that's the sign for mounting...? and she thinks I am her mate???
But she did do that beautiful maneuver when i reached out to place my hand on her back and stroke her feathers... she does do something very similar when she lets me preen her feathers and give her a little massage under her wings, similar, but not the same. My BH laughed the first time he saw me giving her massage and said I had learned how to "tittilate" the chicken... so it's probably the mounting thing... i do not have a clue.

10 minutes has just elapsed since writing the above...

i just came in from tucking them in, had to give Isis a boost, cuz the rest of the gang are roost hogs... and she let me stroke her beak with my fingertip through the hardware cloth on the little coop window... so very sweet! but that made Wilma jealous and she stuck her beak tip through the hardware cloth and said "bwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa", so i gave her some too... i'm thinking it's the mating pose and not the egg one... darn!

 

[cheeka]

hahaha ok, i spent so much time dilly dallying that i missed your last post... so it is the SAME ! then she IS squatting ! and she has loved me the most since she was a bitty thing!

(cuz i do have roos... or did, now i have 1)