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

[RedDrgn]

Our five hit 21 weeks tomorrow. Our welsumer had been looking like she'd be the first with her combs and wattles developing faster and larger than all the rest earlier on. But then she seemed to just stop developing and remains pinkish. Our BA swept right past her last week - her wattles came in and filled out FAST and this weekend were bloody, bloody red. Her comb and face are only slightly less red. The BR, DOM, and EE are all just meh...very pale, small combs and very small wattles.

I opened the nest boxes up last week, piled them with straw and added some wooden eggs, but the most interest anyone has shown has been the BR...who pecked the eggs a bit (that had BETTER not become a habit ).

I think our BA will be first, though. We'll see....I wanna see! XD

 

[lorain's fids]

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My 5 girls will be 21 weeks on Wednesday......we are playing the waiting game here too!! I did see that one of the plastic easte eggs I placed in their nest box had ben moved, so maybe they had been checking it out.

 

[murdeb]

tick......tock.......tick........tock........

 

[ki4got]

just found this thread... here's my story...

I have 8 bantam hens, all hatched mid April. My oegb hen laid her first egg 1 day shy of 16 weeks (yes, i said 16 weeks...) and the d'anvers started about 2 weeks later, followed by a dark brahma about a week after that. those are the ONLY hens i've gotten eggs from.

granted, they are free ranged, so i'm sure there's a ton of eggs somewhere on my property, but danged if i can find them LOL the big coop should be finished this weekend, and everyone's going inside for a few weeks. penned even! LOL then i'll know for sure who's laying what. or at least what', if not who. LOL maybe i need to get one of those wireless webcams. maybe santa will visit.

then again maybe all my shipped eggs will hatch tonight too. i'd like that even more than santa visiting right now. day 20 and still no pips...

forgot to say... we're on week 33.

 

[Candy6224]

My Lavender Orpington laid her first egg one day before she turned 6 months old! So proud of her! She and one other hen are still laying, the rest of the flock have taken the winter off, I guess. I have 12 birds, one is a Rooster, 1 is only 4 months old and 1 is 8 years old. So don't know what is up with the other 5, but I don't care they are all pets.

 

[kari_dawn]

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Here's hoping santa brings you lotsa awesome stuff!

 

[kari_dawn]

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I know how you feel! *sigh* spring needs to hurry up and get here so my girls will lay LOL!

 

[bobbieschicks]

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Squating is what they do for a rooster to mount them, but in a rooster-less flock, POL and older will still squat. Look for her to kindof "sit" with her keel parallel to the ground, slightly lifted wings, and they also seem to kindof shift their weight back and forth, almost as if they are trembling...it's hard to explain. They may do this if you walk up to them, or put your hand over them, etc.

Can anyone get a pic of their girls doing the egg squat and post it for us?

Okay - then Snow White did that yesterday because our Foghorn was spotted climbing off her back. They were outside freeranging and my son yelled out "Mom, what is Foghorn doing on Snow White" I turned around and he was just climbing off her. So that must have been what happened. I'll keep an eye out for more of that behavior and try to take a pic if I see it happen again. Thanks! Maybe we're close to getting our 1st egg

 

[MontanaChickenLady]

Isn't it enough to just drive you nuts? I was new to chickens this year (got them in April) and our first egg from one of the hens was mid-August. I swear I wore a path in the lawn from our house to the compound waiting for those first eggs. It's awesome though.

 

[bobbieschicks]

Guess the squatting was key because look what I found in the nest box this morning! OUR FIRST EGG! So proud of my almost 19 week old (this Saturday) white leghorn, Snow White. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!