The "Chicken Announcment"???

[SussexInSeattle]

When your pullet (who is just the age to begin to lay) makes her first laying announcment, does this mean that she has laid her first egg, will be laying the egg sometime today, or that she will begin to lay in the next so many days? She was purchased from a feed store and labled as a "Gold Sex Link" in May -08 and she has just started doing the squats for the past few days.

Well this morning I (and all the neighbors) got her message at an ungodly hour of the morning and on Sunday of all things, that she is thinking 'eggs'. I checked all 5 nest boxes but found nothing. the barn has no electricity and my flashlight batteries have convieniently croaked so I was anable to search the far corners of the floor since her announcment came so early today.

I locked everyone back in the barn to keep my neighbors from skinning me and wondered when to get excited? I do know it's going to be tough to split that 1st egg between 4 disgruntled neighbors....

 

[cmom]

Are you certain she is she, a pullet?

 

[cmom]

Some of mine make an announcement when they are laying and others don't. Squatting is a good sign and it is a sign of submission. Is the comb and wattles getting nice and red? Do you have any pics?

 

[sunnydee]

My daughter and I just watched our hen lay her very first egg. She was totally quiet and did not make one sound!!

 

[SussexInSeattle]

Aren't all the sexlinks automatically the correct sex since the color difference at hatching? I don't have a picture but I am about positive this is a girly-girl. I have also heard that many chickens go through a load of cackling when laying time was imminent, I just wondered if I get the egg first or the noise?

Also what she kept repeating was Bok, bok, bok, BWOCK! Not the Er, er, er,er, ERRRRRRRRRRRR! of a roo.

 

[miss_jayne]

Quote:
yes, you cannot confuse them easily at all. the girls are goldish-red and white. the males white with a few reddish or golden feathers and then when they get their 'big boy' feathers, a golden or red bunch of feathers from the neck to the back and sometimes wings. they are extremely easy to figure out.

do you have any males with them? one could have been mating her. or she may have wanted in a nest box and was chasing someone off.
my experience is that they make the 'I made and egg' sound AFTER they lay. it is the way to call to the flock to find out where to go afterwards. if you have a cockerel or rooster, they will answer her to let he know where they are.

check this link, it will show you a picture of a golden comet male. (it's closer to the bottom of the page)

http://feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Sex-links/BRKSexLink.html

 

[SussexInSeattle]

Oh yes, thank you Miss-Jayne, I remember seeing either these pictures or another set way back when I first found BYC and was sure she was female, she has the white flecked shawl around her neck and white tipped tail feathers and her full body is a deep golden, she is beautiful, of course me being the mother, I may be partial...

No rooster, just girls, I live in the city. IF I could have a rooster, I would be on it like yesterday. Anyway what she did this morning was to walk out the barn door, and over to the open wire gate on the chicken run pen, and stood there, in the open gate way, just bwocking her head off. And I went to bed VERY late so the fact that she woke me out a dead sleep, I can tell you she had her decibles up there!

I had experienced this before with my first set of pullets and I knew it was a call about the egg laying, I just wondered if it was usually pre-egg or post-egg?

 

[Wildsky]

You might find the one laying the egg will be quiet and the OTHERS will make the announcement.
My RIR Always anounce whats going on, even when its not them.

 

[miss_jayne]

Quote:
if you have no boys, she may be leading the flock. sometimes pullets can take the male lead. also, there is always a boss hen. she may have seen something she felt was a threat. she may have been calling the rest of the flock together to let them know it's time to get moving, girls!

my guess is it wasn't the egg thingy.
now, that being said, neither of my girls that are laying right now do the 'i laid and egg' song.

 

[SussexInSeattle]

Teeny tiny picture of her added. Tried to use my cell phone to upload a picture into the thread but my new avatar is as big as the picture would go so if you all can make it out, that is her scratching at a leaf. Now have to figure out what is wrong with the cell phone, if I can figure out how to enlarge this image, I will get it on here ASAP.


Funny thing was I could NOT figure out how to shrink any of my images to make an avatar and then when I wanted a BIG picture, I get this tiny little stinker! Ughhhhhhhhhh