[Hilbillie]

After hearing the cacophany of noise coming from the barn around egg laying time and seeing the size of some of the eggs I've been picking up (huge!!  ) I thought it must be quite painful for the poor birds to lay.  The other day I decided to sit quietly and watch and to my surprise they just made gentle clucking noises whilst actually "producing", it was afterwards that they got up off the nest box and strutted around the barn "announcing" very loudly to the world that they had just laid an egg!  I wonder if they are just very proud of their achievements or relieved it is over for the day!    It also amused me the way they queue up for a nest box and even squeeze in two together even when there is a perfectly clean empty one nearby.

[Rosemary]

I know exactly what you mean - some of ours lay "ooyah" eggs. Do you think it's odd thay they announce the egg laying? You'd think it woudl be more sensible to keep quiet about it so that some predator doesn't come looking for it...

It's quite amazing the vocal range they have to communicate with each other - I really enjoy the sounds they make. One of our young cockerels has just started crowing and he sounds just like a cheap party hooter.

[Dave and Viv]

It’s funny, only a few of ours announce the deed, but they certainly make a good song and dance about it. The dog starts barking, running in and out believing they are in trouble (doing his lassie bit).

I was near to their coop the other day and witnessed a strange noise coming from the nest box. The hen sounded like a tiger growling, then I noticed why, one of the other hens had tried to enter her nest box while she was in there?

We have also had one or two eggs that are very large indeed, more like a goose eggs - wow!