White leg horn hens

[Sarahbalcombe]

We have 4 white leg horns. We got them the weekend of easter ehen they were just tiny little yellow peeps. It was the last batch and they wouldnt sex them and didnt know how old they were. (Tractor supply chicks) anyways.. One of them started clucking a bunch early this morning. However none of them were in the nesting box or even in the coop. They were all on the ground. I dont know which one was clucking, but i checked the entire area and no egg. Will she start laying soon? 3 of them have almost no comb, but one has a bright red comb, i do not believe she is a roo though. We had 2 roos we got rid of and she was much smaller and isnt cackling or crowing. But i believe she might be the one that was clucking this morning. Are they getting ready to start laying?

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

Lets hope so!

Gary

 

[Sarahbalcombe]

Our girls

 

[rebrascora]

Yes, that's your girl. Eggs should be happening very soon. You might find that the nest boxes start getting messed up with the contents getting kicked out or ruffled about and they often become more vocal and sometimes more cheeky and may practice the egg song for a few days before you see a result, but she is definitely very close. Really nice looking birds.

 

[Sarahbalcombe]

Why thank you! I try to keep their enclosure very clean. They have a coop with enclosed run then during the day i open up the doors and they have a fenced off section of the yard around their coop that they get to forage in during the day. We just built the fenced area, so they are very pleased about being able to wander about now. Before we couldnt because we have a small yard and 4 dogs, so we fenced off part of the yard and thankfully the dogs have adjusted to them. But ive noticed with them being able to roam now, they stay much much cleaner and appear much happier. I was thinking maybe the one with the big comb was older than the others?

 

[rebrascora]

Yes that's what I was wondering although it is normal for some to mature quicker than others just like people and those other combs could grow and go red within a week. Leghorns particularly do like plenty of space.... keeping them in can be a problem as they are quite good fliers and like to be up a height.
I counted back after I posted and if they were newly hatched when you got them at Easter, they would only be 14 weeks now which is incredibly young to be looking so ready to lay, but there is no sign of male feathering....she looks like a pullet. Am I misunderstanding and they were older than newly hatched when you got them?

 

[Sarahbalcombe]

I have no idea how old they were. We waited for the leg horns to come in and they called to tell us they were finally in. They said they just got them in the day before, so theyd been there for two days when we picked them up.

 

[Sarahbalcombe]

This was them the day we got them.

 

[rebrascora]

Well they certainly don't look more than a week old in my opinion although I only have experience of broody reared chicks. They don't look significantly different size wise as chicks so I would say they are all the same age and she is just a very early developer.

 

[Sarahbalcombe]

Is that normal? She is about the same size as the rest of the girls, just she has a bigger comb and waddle. I started freaking out thinking we were getting another rooster, but looking at her saddle feathers, they are the same as the other girls. If she is more developed, will she be laying sooner? She just started her clucking today. It was first thing this morning. I was in my room on the opposite side of the house in bed and my husband said something to me about it and i could hear her. It was just a constant clucking for about 3 minutes on and off. My husband just said to start watching the coop for eggs and listen for her, incase she does lay. I know that leg horns are early layers compaired to other breeds, but i was told not to expect any eggs until the end of august maybe September?