Very curious with my X when we may see an egg

[Devon07]

We have a total of 10...one is an americana I believe and one is the Roo....the other 8 are supposed to be a X of BA and RIR....7 of those eight look like they are just that, but, one looks like she has the chocolate chip thing going on on her breast....another thing is they very in size and the look of the age....some look older by a week or two and some look pretty young.

anyway we are at 22 or 23 weeks for the whole clan here. Havent seen any squatting yet, but, just today I seen what might have been a brief squat from one. I'll post some pics in the morning of this interesting group.

 

[Odelia]

Any time now. They are old enough, but they don't work like machinery. They should lay in the next couple of weeks. Maybe they already are and you don't know where they are hiding their eggs.

 

[krista74]

I agree with Odelia - they shouldn't be far off laying However, mine never did the squat and still don't - I have no idea why, as everyone else's seem to do it! I feel a bit left out to be honest, ha ha!

Anyway, I knew mine were close to laying when their faces went bright red. Their combs and wattles grew bigger and were also bright red, and sort of plumped out a bit.

All the birds started showing an interest in the nesting boxes prior to laying their first egg. They would sneak into the coop during the day and have a quiet peak into each one, almost like they were trying to decide which room was going to be theirs!

They would also hop into the nests from time to time, and flick a bit of straw around over themselves, often with George (our cockerel) looking on supportively. They were 'nesting.'

The last sign was that they all started screaming a day or two before their first egg! It sounds strange, I know, but they did a weird angst-ridden scream for a couple of days, like they knew something was about to happen. They were also a bit antsy, just agitated in general with a lot of pacing and in/out/in/out of the coop! I would come in from the coop and say to hubby RIR # 4 is about to start laying and true enough, a day or two later she would.

The wait for the first eggs can be painful, I know! It will happen when the girls are ready Krista