Nesting Instincts

Hazel in a nest box

Quite often when a hen lays an egg she sings an egg song, which declares her achievement to the world, or perhaps warns everyone to stay away from it!

As I watched Hazel lay her egg (and caught it on camera) I thought I would be able to share her egg song with everyone, however she was a very quiet hen. Perhaps she knew she had broken it on the bare boards after pushing aside all the straw. She stood over it for a little while, then sat back down and started straightening her nest. That was adorable as well, so I took a video of it.

Hazel Lays an Egg

Hazel explores the Laundry

Chickens are surely one of the most amusing creatures. This afternoon I had a visit at the back door from Hazel (with the red tag). She was clucking and standing on the back step and when I opened the door to say hello she came straight inside! After surveying the kitchen and the laundry she got a fixation with the shoe rack. Her behaviour made me think she wanted to lay an egg, but then she decided to head back outside with the other girls.

Not long after I walked outside, I had 6 hens following me around the garden, so I got them some grain and took them back to their pen. Clucky Hazel didn't want to come inside, and then spent some time walking up and down the fence wanting to come back out. Her behaviour made me think she may have laid an egg somewhere in the yard and wanted to go back to that "nest", but we haven't been able to find one.

Soon she started heading in and out of the coop and I peeked inside to see her hopping in and out of each nest box. She was scraping the straw aside down to the bare wood, so I got her some more and straightened out the boxes thinking she didn't have enough to make a nice nest. That got kicked out and pushed aside as well!

Hazel chooses a nesting box

I watched as she finally settled into a nest box and the other girls filed in to offer support. Harriet actually took a snooze next to her on the floor during her egg laying ordeal. I had been taking a couple of photos and videos and I noticed her stand up, so I pressed record and was surprised when I heard an audible *clunk* and realised I'd captured her egg laying. Listen out for the clunk at about the 6 second mark. She pushed aside too much straw and broke her beautiful egg when she laid it.

Hear the Egg Break

So now we know that Hazel is definitely laying eggs. I don't think she is the only one. We had one egg this morning as well, so that makes two for today!

Readiness to Lay

Hazel does the Chicken Squat

How do you know when you're due for your first egg? Watch for a chicken squat!

We first noticed this behaviour in one of our girls about 2 or 3 weeks before we received our first egg, however it is very hard to photograph!

The hen will lift both wings slightly, squat down to the ground and may also lift her tail.

Squatting seems to be an indication of readiness to lay (that is that they are ready for a rooster's attention), as well as a sign of submission. This behaviour is less common if there is a rooster present or if it is a dominant hen.

You can see the photo larger on flickr, or have a look at this video.

Three out of our six hens are now squatting and we have had 4 eggs in 5 days. Usually the squat will happen when I bend down to pat them, however on some occassions just walking up to the coop has initiated a squat from one of them. They quite like a pat on the back and will shake themselved happily afterwards.

Another sign that your hen is nearing laying age is to keep an eye on their wattles and combs. Young chickens have quite small, pale combs which get larger and redder over time.

Installing a Wider Perch

New Perch

A few days ago I discussed how Elsie was shunning the perch in favour of the nesting box and it was suggested that my perch may be too narrow for them to comfortably sleep. Everyone seems to agree that while a chicken will perch in some peculiar places as high as possible, they prefer a wider perch to a small one as while they will grip, they relax during sleep and sometimes even fall off thin perches!

Yesterday I installed their new perch. It was recommended that I put in something around 4 inches wide, however the widest length I had in the shed was about 4.5cm so in that went. I installed it approximately 10cm higher and a few cm closer to the back wall so they have more room behind the nesting boxes.

To install it I drilled 4 holes, two in either side of the walls, and then I lined up the beam and secured it with wood screws. My beam was about 1mm too short after I cut it to size so I had to wedge it into place with a little scrap piece of wood as I didn’t have anyone to help me hold it. A cordless drill with a screw driver attachment made this job super easy. I also had chicken helpers to inspect that the job was carried out properly.

Last night they got to test it, and while Elsie went straight for the nesting boxes she didn’t make as much of a fuss when I kicked her out and once she jumped onto the perch she stayed there. I think there was less wobbling while they settled themselves for the night.

This morning we received another egg! It was sitting right in the middle of a nest and is about the same size as yesterdays.

First Egg!

The First Egg!

That's right! I found our first egg this morning. It was tucked right into the corner of a nest box so it may have been laid yesterday and I didn't notice. I shall have to ensure to look right inside every morning now!

It is a beautiful light brown egg with white speckles and quite a reasonable size for a first egg. I am not sure who laid it but my guess is the purple one. I think the red one will be next! Time to find some egg recipes!

We've had our girls for 8 weeks exactly. What a lovely way to celebrate 2 months of chickens!

Perch vs Nest

Inside the coop

A couple of days ago Elsie decided that she liked sleeping in her nest box better than perching with the other chickens. Aside from broody hens I haven't seen a chicken do this before so I had a look for advice on the internet.

The consensus seems to be that while there isn't anything damaging they probably shouldn't do it. The most common argument is to keep the eggs clean so they do not need to be washed, though some people say that as long as you don't mind cleaning the nesting straw every day or two instead of once a week then it is not a health problem. If the straw isn't kept clean and they are sleeping on top of faeces then it can lead to potential parasite problems, which is also the case if chickens are sleeping on the floor of the coop instead of a perch.

In order to re-train Elsie there are a couple of things I can do. Firstly tonight when it was dusk and they had put themselves to bed I took Elsie out of her nest box and put her on the perch. Hopefully after a couple of days of relocating her after dark she will be in the habit of perching again. This takes me back to our first week when I had to pick up all 6 chickens from the floor to their perch for 2 days as I don't think they'd ever seen a perch before!

One reason why Elsie may have chosen the nest box is if she has decided that the perch I have is a little bit small or uncomfortable. This weekend I shall have a look to see if I have a flat beam in the shed which could replace their round perch as I have seen suggestions that chickens have trouble on something too round and slippery. Another suggestion is to make the perch higher as they like to roost as high as possible and if the nest box is the same height it will look appealing.

Free Birds

Purple One enjoys the garden

After the previous success I had a whole day Sunday which I intended to spend outside as much as possible, so I used this opportunity to let them out. Of course, my gardening plans went out the window while I enjoyed watching the hens explore and do their chickeny things.

I let them out at about 11am and let them do more or less their own thing for 4 or 5 hours and only closed the pen up when they all went back in of their own choice. Half of the chickens chose to have a dust bath in the garden bed (watch the video) while others used the time to explore as much as possible - bushes, garden, pot plants...

Surprisingly the white one was fine this time, and it was Harriet who was a bit unsure and had to keep herself close to the pen. Elsie discovered how to go under Mark's vegetable garden fence this time and had to be evicted three times.

Our neighbour poked his head over the fence and was delighted to see we'd finally let the hens out of their enclosure. We're lucky to have a neighbour who has turned his backyard into a vegetable patch and is understanding about our chicken love.