Before Autumn and then Red I have only previously had two bantam wyandottes. Many years ago I had Sparkle who was silver laced and Topaz who was gold laced. Sparkle was a good layer but didn’t live to much of an age. Topaz laid very few eggs, in fact only thirteen in total. She only laid now and again and then stopped completely.
Autumn started laying last October and laid her last egg on the first of February. Looking back at my egg records I see that there was a slowing down. She started laying every other day but in January she had slowed to laying every fifth day. Autumn laid a total of forty five eggs.
But the thing that is different about Autumn is that she sits in the nest box every day for between fifteen minutes to half an hour. She has a very red comb, face and wattles and she squats if I hold my hand behind her, all things that normally point to a laying girl. She has her daily sit in the nest box and sometimes even gives the shout when she comes out and yet there are no eggs. It’s as if Autumn thinks that she is laying.
Autumn is happy to allow another girl to join her. Storm once again has her beak open as she constantly chats.
I have never come across this before. Usually the girls either lay or they don’t but only occasionally have a false alarm and sit in a nest box without laying. This is usually a day or so before starting to lay or occasionally a day or so after stopping laying. I have never had a girl sit in the nest box every day like clockwork without laying. Autumn has done this since she laid her last egg on the first of February.
Then we have Red who has yet to start laying but I am sure that she will start some time over the next month and it remains to be seen what sort of layer she will turn out to be. I hope she turns out to be a normal layer.
I am assuming that Autumn will resume laying next spring but of course that remains to be seen. I am also assuming that Red will lay through her first winter but after Autumn that also remains to be seen. Only time will tell. We do seem to get the odd anomaly.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
It is most bizarre – I wonder if it would be worth posting on one of the forum sites, to see if anyone can share a similar experience?
I look in on the chicken experiences on reddit every day and have found that almost everything I have experienced someone else has too. It’s more common than I would have thought for a hen not to lay. I have come across people who have a hen lay few eggs like Topaz and some that have hens that have never laid at all and reached a good age but no mention of a hen sitting in the nest box every day.
Very strange, maybe she just feel comfortable sitting there.
It is unusual to sit in a nest box though. All the other girls sit outside. I really believe she thinks she needs to lay an egg.