Teenage rooster and “the deed”

[Deannak63]

Yesterday one of our girls (RRI) was loudly singing so of course I looked around—nothing. The same hen went into one of the nesting boxes and scratched around for a bit. I also saw our roo mount three different hens over the course of the day, one it appeared was our singing RRI. At 18+ weeks, are these signs that they’ll laying soon? What time of day should I be checking for eggs?

 

[chuckachucka]

Yes these are all signs of near laying. Your pullets should also have bright red faces when they are ready to lay. You can collect eggs whatever time is easiest for you because they will end up laying at all hours except in the night. I find it best to collect eggs at dusk before locking the chickens up for the night because I have found early morning boredom before they are let out again can lead to egg eating if eggs are left in the nest boxes.

 

[Deannak63]

Thanks...I wasn't sure what time they typically lay. I work from home, so I let them out of the run during the day and since I lock up the coop and run at night, I'll check then.

 

[chuckachucka]

I've read that chickens lay every 25 hours which is why they lay a little later every day than the previous day. So for example they lay their first egg at 8am. After a while they will get round to laying at 6pm evening and then they will likely skip a day and lay first thing the day after that.

 

[EggWalrus]

If they are close to point of lay, you may want to keep them penned up till they learn where to lay their rent payments. Ain't no fun providing a roof over their heads and feeding them, only for them to not pay their rent in egg dollars, or worse hide the rent they own you in all kinds of hard to reach places.
That's you working for your rent eggs twice.

 

[Deannak63]

If they are close to point of lay, you may want to keep them penned up till they learn where to lay their rent payments. Ain't no fun providing a roof over their heads and feeding them, only for them to not pay their rent in egg dollars, or worse hide the rent they own you in all kinds of hard to reach places.
That's you working for your rent eggs twice.

That's a good point!

 

[aart]

Yesterday one of our girls (RRI) was loudly singing so of course I looked around—nothing. The same hen went into one of the nesting boxes and scratched around for a bit. I also saw our roo mount three different hens over the course of the day, one it appeared was our singing RRI. At 18+ weeks, are these signs that they’ll laying soon? What time of day should I be checking for eggs?

Depends on the male and how savvy he is.
If he's young and randy, he'll mount anything.
Older and/or more savvy birds will not mount a female that is not ovulating.
When I have a savvy male his mounting a pullet is a sure sign eggs are near,
still could be a couple weeks out tho, just like squatting.
Messing around in the nests, IME, is the most sure sign that eggs are just days away.

Here some other tips to peruse about....
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/who-is-laying-and-who-is-not-butt-check.73309/


Oh, and, FYI.....semantics, maybe, but can be important communication terms when discussing chicken behavior.
Female chickens are called pullets until one year of age, then they are called hens.
Male chickens are called cockerels until one year of age, then they are called cocks(or cockbirds or roosters).
Age in weeks or months is always a good thing to note.

 

[Deannak63]

Well tonight WAS the first egg! It's smaller than it looks because I have small hands (ring size 4). It's about half the size of a large store bought egg. Happily she (who knows which one but I'd guess the singing RRI) laid in one of the boxes.

 

[NoFlyBackFarm]

That's awesome!