My Buff Orpingtons--Photos and the Submissive Squat

Pictures of my Buff Orpington hens at 24 weeks.  3 of my girls are now laying an egg daily unless we have major thunder storms.  Then I only get 2 eggs.  I have gotten 4 in a day twice now and have 4 out of 6 of "my girls" doing the "submissive squat" when I enter the run.  From what I have learned, a hen can only lay 1 egg every 24 hours.

Naughty Candy pecking at my shoe

My girls love to be hand fed

My girl Annie's "submissive squat"

I had the hardest time finding pictures of the "submissive squat" versus how they just lay down.  To the left is the "submissive squat" that Annie does when I first enter the run.  Notice that she is not in the relaxed position of laying down but seems kind of anxious.  Annie loves to be gently stroked from behind her neck down to her fanny feathers.  The squat is because the hen wants to have her egg fertilized by a rooster so it can develop into a chick.  When no rooster is around, they see me and my husband as their rooster and immediately squat when one of us enters the run.  I am working on a video of this to post soon.  People who have never heard of this think it sounds very weird, which it does.  But it is the way of things in the chicken world.  Not having a "real" rooster has no effect on egg production.  Please check out my link to Fresh Eggs Daily, a website by Lisa Steele.  It's a fantastic resource to almost everything there is to know about raising healthy chickens.  To locate the article about roosters, choose "topics" then "chickens".  Below that, choose "basics" Article 21.  Best I can direct you right now. 

Buff Orpington's have beautiful, soft low feathers on their fannies.  They are very delicate and small, and float on the tiniest breeze.  I'm still working on catching that image.

Click on photos to see closer.

Beautiful fannies