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Our White Star produced her first egg today (whoopee!)... this appears to be correlated with the comb on her head growing rapidly in the last week or so... is this a reliable sign of a hen reaching sexual maturity and being about to lay?

Some of the other chooks are larger and look more "hen-shaped" but there is only a small comb.

Yes, in my limited experience of point of lay birds. When they are laying their combs are usually nice and red and get bigger as they get older. When they go broody the comb can go quite pale looking and reduce in size significantly.

Oh and congrats on the egg!

Yes I think so too. In my flock of girls I can tell which one isn't laying as her comb will be paler and limper than her sisters'.

Cheers
Zoe

yes - the comb will grow if a pullet. if a mature hen who has just had a break (say winter or after being broody) the comeb wont get bigger but will become more red

other signs I have noticed are: visiting the nest box for a few days before hand even if nto producing anything, and we have a cockerel.. he treads the ones that are either laying or about to.. he ignores those that aren't

OK thanks - looks like we'll have to wait a while for the others then!

Meanwhile here she is:

How did you get her to pose for such a great close up? My girls just won't stand still to have their photo taken!

absolutely - they are always moving - so just take lots of pics in the hope that one is in focus... in the old days that would just waste film, but who cares these days?

I did take gazillions of photos of my lot and they're nearly all either blurred or of hen's backsides sticking up in the air or parts of them just moving out of the photo.... and for the closeups they're either like cats and walk towards you or run away!