Strange behaviour...is she going to lay?

[pigsinmud]

Got my pol chickens 2.5 weeks ago. Today one of them keeps sitting down. She has been rolling around in dust - looks filthy as she is the white one! She is eating ok - ran over to eat out of my hand, but then sits down again.

Is this normal? Is she going to .....lay?! Or is she unwell?

Her comb looks much redder today.

If she's crouching down when you come near that means she's going to lay.
The dustbathing is normal, that's to get insects out of her feathers. They do sit down sometimes. If she's doing it a lot I might check her legs are ok but assuming she's behaving normally I wouldn't worry.
If her comb's reddening up she probably is about to lay her first egg, how exciting!

Thank you. I have been checking obsessively and am convinced she's fine. They tend to have a group sit down around midday in the sun if there's any about! Today, she was running to the food, eating, sitting down for about 10 seconds and then off again, sit down..... I thought there was something wrong with her legs, but she is moving about normally.

She is now scratching around and looking her normal self, although sunburnt as her face is so red, bless her.

Perhaps she will lay on Thursday - it is dh's birthday and that will solve the problem of what to do with the first egg

It's nice that they come running to you for food, it's taken ages to ours to do that! We find that although they run to us, they are still a big scared and they sometimes stop and crouch down submissively when we're around (if, say they misjudge which way one of us will walk next and take a turn towards us, then they freeze and do this crouching.)

Ours have started to lay their eggs first thing in the morning now it's getting colder, in one of the nest boxes in the coop. When it was warmer, they would take it in turns in there.

Some days we get 2 eggs, sometimes 3. We're not sure if it's always the same hen not laying, or why one doesn't. Letting them out of the coop nice and early and making sure they have lots to eat (mealworm treats, mash and pellets and corn) seems to help.

Mine go mental for mealworms. They see the blue cup and come running!

I have a Maran that got very agitated as she came into lay. Constantly looking for places to hide, running around and not with the flock as normal. Watch out for eggs laid in random places. She grew out of it and eventually (with the aid of a plastic egg in the appropriate place) got the idea and calmed down!

We use a golf ball in the coop which helps them place their eggs there. Tried empty kinder egg toy casings and they weren't fooled - they kicked them out!

I have a plastic egg but they kicked it out.