the [egg] wait is driving me crazy!!!

[RedDrgn]

17.5 weeks here and not in any kind of hurry. Certainly excited about the prospect since these are our first chickens and will be our first eggs, but all five are such good companions that they can work out their egg-laying on their own time and hopefully surprise us one day. They've been checking out the nest boxes for about two weeks, but no other indicators of anything as of yet.

 

[Tracydr]

Mine are June 10 hatch. I have a bunch of supposedly early maturers like Fayoumis, leghorns, Hamburgs and Buttercups. They are all red in the face and I've seen some of them checking out the nest box. I saw the leghorn get bred by the banty roo a week ago. Still nothing!

 

[kari_dawn]

lorain's fids :

Quote:
So will we see them squat? Do they do that in the nest box or do they walk around squatting? Will I know it's a squat if they do squat? LOL!!!!

yep, you will see them squat...try putting your hand over them. If they squat, they are getting ready, if they run, you still got a bit to wait. RedDrgn has the right idea. Everything is on their time...Im just being impatient! Tracydr, I feel your pain! Same thing here!

usually, the redder comb indicates closer to POL, but hey, the dark horse may pull away from the pack...lol​

 

[drivingfive]

Hi Kari-dawn, thought I would chime in on your topic since you have been so sweet answering mine!

Out of my 6 hens (one went to a friend and they said no eggs yet) we have two laying. We have 2 cochins, 1 red star and the one we gave away was a BO, We got all of them at the same time. One started laying (you suspect the golden laced cochin) on Tuesday this week at 28.4 weeks old. We also have two EEs that we got two weeks after the original four ladies and one of those actually started laying two weeks ago! So she was 24.2 weeks old.

So far the EE has laid 16 eggs in 18 days, the brown egg layer has only missed one day out of 4.

So 24 and 28 weeks for two hens and the other 4 have not started yet at 27 and 29 weeks old.

The two that we suspect are the culprits do have very red combs, I have never heard of the squat test! I am going to go put my hand on all of them now and see what happens!

 

[kari_dawn]

ha ha keep us updated! When they start squatting, it is the funniest thing! They crouch down, raise their wings a little, and start kindof shifting their wieght back and forth. I can't WAIT for mine to start!...I suppose that was partly my fault for getting them so late in the season though

 

[drivingfive]

We put the nesting boxes in at 20 weeks (18 for the EEs) and put straw in there. They were curious and pulled all the straw out. We added more, they pulled it out. Our boxes have tops and we thought maybe our hens were too big to fit in there (the cochins are huge), so we took the top off and a couple days later the EE started laying. First egg was in the coop, next few were in the run, then back up in the coop, but not in the boxes. We changed the straw to pine shavings and put a golf ball in them and bam, she started laying in there instead. Five days in a row of the green eggs in the nest. She uses both of the boxes too

The brown egg layer has yet to make it in the box!

 

[kari_dawn]

ha ha That's what I fear too. I live in Texas, and usually, I have to be more concerned about heat than cold, so my coop is very open and airy...I would never find the eggs if they dont put them in the nest box! I have fake eggs in there, and Im ready! I just wish my girls were too!!

 

[cravenchx]

Ok, going out right now to do the squat test! LOL
It sounds like just about everyone on this thread
is anxiously awaiting eggs. Maybe we should start
a poll and see who goes first!
We are at 21 weeks today.

 

[cravenchx]

No squats!!!

 

[lorain's fids]

Quote:
Ok I did the squat test on the 5 girls, 2 stayed right where they were, 3 ran. So they'll be 19 weeks on Wednesday......maybe in another week I'll have my first egg. I know it's just an egg, but I am really "eggcited" about my girls laying their first egg. LOL!