Of my four barred rock pullets, three are doing the egg squat and two of those are laying. My husband and I have noticed a difference in how they squat though. The two that are laying flip their tails up in the air when they squat, but the one that is not yet laying holds her tail down against the ground. It would seem that flipping the tail up would signify that they are more sexually mature if you get my drift My husband and I developed the theory that if tail position when they squat is an indicator of sexual maturity, then perhaps it is also an indicator of proximity to laying, especially since our layers hold their tails up and our non-layer holds her tail down. These are our first chickens, so this theory isn't exactly based on in-depth research. I thought I would throw the idea out there and see what people think....
That's an interesting observation and thank you for sharing. Of the current flock I have, all of my layers are tail down. I'll have to see in the future when I have new ones or different breeds what I will observe then.
This is good information. I still have about 5 weeks to go before mine start to lay and I am curious about what signs to look for. Thank you.
Hmmm... all my layers don't raise their talil until the roo hops on their back and grabs hold of their neck feathers. They've been laying for over a year now. One of my pullets who is laying squatted in front of me today and she didn't raiser her tail either.
It's a good theory (and I wished it was just a matter of watching the tail to see when they lay), but unfortunately the girls do both tail positions during the squat. The next time you ruffle their feathers, scratch closer to the base of their tail. It'll go up like she's getting ready to sail the ocean blue. I've found this to be true for both girls close to laying and non-layers. However, it is true that girls who just started squatting are rather half-interested in it. They don't go as low, or hold their wings out as much. Maybe it's training wheels squatting.
