You Can Always Tell When She’s Laying An Egg

It’s funny, you can always tell when a hen is laying an egg. All of a sudden the whole flock of chickens will start going crazy making all sorts of noise! Even the rooster gets in on it, not crowing, but clucking. Man, are they loud! And from within the commotion you’ll hear the hen that is laying making the most noise of all…

Bock, bock… BA-GOCK!!!

eggs in trees (Medium)

And then, just as suddenly, it will be silent again. The chickens have gone back to contentedly pecking around, and there in the nest sits a warm egg.

Lately, we’ve been outside in the garden when the hens start telling the world about their imminent egg. The kids and I will stop what we are doing, and see if we can find within the woods where the noise is coming from.

See, our hens have just recently decided that their laying boxes aren’t good enough anymore, and are now laying in the woods instead. This makes for fun daily egg hunts. But, the noise is helpful as it at least points us in the right  direction!

Fortunately for us, they’ve found one spot in particular to their liking- a shady place in the leaves, hidden underneath a fallen tree. And it helps that they all lay in the same spot, instead of finding their own little nests throughout the forest! It’s like the girls line up single file, and patiently wait their turn to lay their egg in the community nest.

Today we found the jackpot! Over the past few days we’ve collected some eggs from the laying boxes, so we haven’t bothered checking the woods. Boy, these girls have been busy!!

It never gets old either. Finding a whole clutch of eggs hidden within the trees is always fun, for me and the kids!

6 thoughts on “You Can Always Tell When She’s Laying An Egg”

  1. This is hysterical…chickens are so great. Mine are confined…so I always know where the eggs will be. And like you, I always know WHEN! Boy they sure like to spread the news don’t they? It’s a little nerve rattling for me as I live in town!! My neighbors can confirm what they’ve always thought…I AM crazy!

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  2. I love it! Chicken antics! I can’t wait until our chicks get big enough to do some laying!! Last night we got a surprise. We had one of our chickens out of their pen on the arctic entry when we heard a big fuss with all the other chickens. Went back in to see what was the issue, and one of the oldest had flown up and was perched on top of the side of the pen!! Yikes! We had to laugh, though … then we put the chicken wire on top of the pan so that won’t happen again!

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  3. We’ve also noticed that if the flock is out in the woods and the hen that’s laying comes out of the house and doesn’t see them, she’ll stand in the yard and make all that crazy noise so the rooster will come get her. Pretty funny to hear her raising Cain and see him come running like he’s in trouble!

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  4. You have noticed that your hens all like to lay in the same place so take advantage of it. If you buy some wooden, marble or porcelean eggs and place them where you want them to lay, you might not have to go on an egg hunt out in the woods every day. I’ve also thought that one could make an egg or two with Plaster of Paris and the leftover plastic Easter eggs that you can buy in the discount bin.

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  5. haha forget easter egg hunts, you get to do it daily! We had one savvy hen who laid eggs in an old unused doghouse and we never found them. She was apparently really broody so she hatched them luckily (versus us having to find them by their rotten smell lol). I walked out of the house one day and she was just sittin there so I nudged her with my foot, and out ran a dozen chicks! O.o Boy was I surprised!

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