- Feb 26, 2009
- 98
- 0
- 39
We've been outside watching Chicken TV for 2 hours now, no eggs - but here's the back-story:
We have 2 hens that are maybe 4-5 months old (EE & cochin) ... one just started laying eggs 6 days ago (3 "little" eggs now). We purchased (2) 7-month hens last night (barred rock & black sex link), and their flock is definitely laying. We didn't expect anyone to lay eggs today, what with all the changes. But they are acting like they WANT to lay eggs.
Our original two are free-ranging today, but they have access to their roosting house. They've been in & out, digging around in the hay, making nests and squawking. They don't have nesting boxes - we had put milk crates in, but they were digging nests next to them, so I removed the crates.
The two newbies are in the enclosed/attached run, which is under the house (it's a tractor set-up). They have a dog crate in there, filled with hay, which is where we put them last night. They've been in & out of the crate, digging around, making nests, sitting on them, squawking ...
At first, all four were squawking at each other, generally introducing themselves. You never heard such a racket - sounded like a bunch of silly high school girls/cliques complaining to each other.
But right now, the 2 new girls are sitting on their "nests" - and the 2 original girls are nowhere to be seen.
We plan to keep the new girls in the enclosed run for a few days before letting them free-range. They came from a free-ranging farm, and we're worried that they'll wander to the neighbors. I suppose we'll need to figure out how to make some nesting boxes - the milk crates seemed like the perfect size ...
thanks!
--janis,etc
We have 2 hens that are maybe 4-5 months old (EE & cochin) ... one just started laying eggs 6 days ago (3 "little" eggs now). We purchased (2) 7-month hens last night (barred rock & black sex link), and their flock is definitely laying. We didn't expect anyone to lay eggs today, what with all the changes. But they are acting like they WANT to lay eggs.
Our original two are free-ranging today, but they have access to their roosting house. They've been in & out, digging around in the hay, making nests and squawking. They don't have nesting boxes - we had put milk crates in, but they were digging nests next to them, so I removed the crates.
The two newbies are in the enclosed/attached run, which is under the house (it's a tractor set-up). They have a dog crate in there, filled with hay, which is where we put them last night. They've been in & out of the crate, digging around, making nests, sitting on them, squawking ...
At first, all four were squawking at each other, generally introducing themselves. You never heard such a racket - sounded like a bunch of silly high school girls/cliques complaining to each other.
But right now, the 2 new girls are sitting on their "nests" - and the 2 original girls are nowhere to be seen.
We plan to keep the new girls in the enclosed run for a few days before letting them free-range. They came from a free-ranging farm, and we're worried that they'll wander to the neighbors. I suppose we'll need to figure out how to make some nesting boxes - the milk crates seemed like the perfect size ...
thanks!
--janis,etc
