Welsummer loses her mind when laying

[azygous]

Major Cluster is sure one weird, little Welsummer! Good for you for figuring out how to manage her weirdness!

Now, if you could give me some idea as to how I can convince my Welsummer Maude to use the nest box instead of the floor to lay her egg, I'd be real happy. When she began to lay her very first egg on the floor, I gently lifted her off the floor and placed her into the nest. A minute later, she was back on the floor. I repeated the process a few more times a gave in. She laid the egg on the floor.

Next day, she and I went through the routine all over again. Finally I gave up and let her lay her eggs on the floor in the very same spot every time just below the nest box. the trouble is that unless I pick up her egg right away, two other Welsummers also lay their eggs on the floor with hers.

Welsummers do seem to have their quirks.

 

[TeamBigfoot]

When we first opened the nesting boxes as our hens were nearing laying, we placed fake eggs in them to indicate where to lay eggs. Why a hen knows what an egg looks like before she's first laid one, I have no idea, but various books we've read indicated using fake eggs. Our Welsummer was hen 3 of 4 to lay, so she'd already had a good idea where to go. Our first, our EE, tossed the fake egg out when she got in to lay her first, but has never tossed out a real egg, so they surely knew it was fake!

That said, our Welsummer's very first egg was a pretty dramatic experience for her, and I do recall having to go into the coop and place her in a nesting box since she wanted to drop it on the floor. Since that time, however, she's always laid in the nesting box. Other than leaving an egg in a nesting box ahead of her routine laying time, I don't have a good suggestion.

 

[tehachapichick]

My welsummer makes a lot of noise too, it echoes down the street. She is about a year old.

 

[azygous]

Yes, I did try the fake egg-in-the-nest trick to try to teach Maude where she was supposed to lay. Did no good. And I have seen the fake egg kicked out of the nest on occasion. They aren't really fooled by it, but it does entice them to lay in that nest. It's a subliminal thang. Except Maude is immune.

 

[Sarevan]

With our welsummers and Ee's I had no luck using fake eggs, wood or porcelain to get them to use nesting boxes. The fake eggs were kicked out and used as toys in the run, they kicked them all over the place. They lay on the floor in the corners, refuse the nesting boxes even after changing them from buckets to wood boxes. I gave up and get the eggs from the corners.

The 2 Welsummers are crazy, they pace, run, cackle, go in circles, stick head through wire, until they finally settle to lay. This goes on for nearly an hour. I have come to laugh and watch the nutty things they do to lay an egg, the song is loud and long. The other hens just watch them like they are insane, the Roo will even pace with them and talk to them like he is trying to calm them down. Cheap chickenyard entertainment.

 

[azygous]

As an aside, have any of you people with Welsummers noticed any of them yanking feathers from other chickens? Also, a couple of my Welsummer newbies are challenging the pecking order with an occasional knock-down, drag-out fight. At eight months, it seems like they're awfully young to have so much confidence.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Major Cluster is sure one weird, little Welsummer! Good for you for figuring out how to manage her weirdness!

Now, if you could give me some idea as to how I can convince my Welsummer Maude to use the nest box instead of the floor to lay her egg, I'd be real happy. When she began to lay her very first egg on the floor, I gently lifted her off the floor and placed her into the nest. A minute later, she was back on the floor. I repeated the process a few more times a gave in. She laid the egg on the floor.

Next day, she and I went through the routine all over again. Finally I gave up and let her lay her eggs on the floor in the very same spot every time just below the nest box. the trouble is that unless I pick up her egg right away, two other Welsummers also lay their eggs on the floor with hers.

Welsummers do seem to have their quirks.

I have one of those too. She's about to be moved to the breeding flock, so it will be interesting to see where she lays there.

As an aside, have any of you people with Welsummers noticed any of them yanking feathers from other chickens? Also, a couple of my Welsummer newbies are challenging the pecking order with an occasional knock-down, drag-out fight. At eight months, it seems like they're awfully young to have so much confidence.

Nope, I've never encountered that.

 

[TeamBigfoot]

Our Welsummer is the most dramatic, but least confrontational hen of our four. The pecking order changed from when they were chicks, but our Welsummer has stayed out of it all. Ironic, since she's such a drama queen otherwise...