Okay, gang, family is waiting for me to get in the hot tub but got a couple of quick questions....Little Diane, Dustin, and Ken can all keep standing around laughing at me for posting while I'm sitting in my swim suit and I really don't care! A few pages back (well, okay, MANY pages back) I asked about how soon some of the girls would be laying if their combs and wattles were turning red, and I was advised that "squatting" is the behavior most of you rely on.
Just before supper I went out to add some PDZ to the poop board, and Matilda was acting weird. She is usually one of my flightier chickens - managing to stay as far from me as possible while not missing out on any goodies, and she wasn't one of the ones I'd asked about before. I just stood still and watched her as she came right up to me, then she flew onto the roost making this oddly pleasant kind of "churring" noise. When she got closer I could see that her comb seems to be a little darker all of a sudden. I slowly reached out to pet her and the soft noise got a little more intense, but it was still pleasant - almost like a cat purring. She not only let me pet her, she gently moved over closer to me and then she looked like she was trying to sit on the roost. Is this what I've been watching for? Does this means a first egg sometime in the next week or so? And what do I do about the boys? (I think we are up to 4 roos in this little chicken family, and frankly I was beginning to suspect Matilda was a Maurice until tonight.) Do I need to separate them if I have no plans for a breeding program or do the hens usually start laying before the boys are truly mature enough to mate? Do I need to get the nest boxes prepped? Anybody got a cigar?
