Is your chicken squatting while walking? They’re doing the submissive squat!
When a pullet nears laying age, anywhere after 18 weeks old or so, she will most likely start to squat down when you approach. She will bend her legs, crouch, and sort of flatten her wings and back. So what does that all mean in her chicken world?
Squatting is a sign of submission – so she is shifting into the mating position for a rooster. If you don’t have a rooster in your flock, she will often see YOU as the rooster.
The squat also signals that she will soon begin to lay eggs. Many fans on my Facebook page report collecting their first egg within days of noticing their young hen squatting.
Squatting is also a defensive position against a predator attack. By lowering her body to the ground, she is protecting her vulnerable underbelly, making herself a smaller target and holding still to hope to avoid detection by a motion-savvy aerial predator.
Pullets lower in the pecking order will also often squat for a higher-ranking older hen to show submission.
Regardless of the reason for the squat, it comes in very handy when you need to catch or pick up your hens or catch them!
So now you know. The next time you’re outside with your flock, make it a point to notice among your young pullets who’s squatting and who’s not and you’ll have a pretty good idea who your soon-to-be-layers are!
Lisa Steele from Fresh Eggs Daily is an author, blogger, eggspert, cook, and gardener who raises chickens, ducks, and geese on a six-acre farm in southeastern Virginia.
