Is my beer settling out?

Seems I can't make a batch these days without something going awry with the gravity...

I'm making my first-ever witbier, using a very simple recipe from my local shop: 5lbs wheat malt extract (syrup) and 2lbs light honey are all the fermentables. According to the resources I've used, the OG should be around 1.046-1.050, but my sample reading was 1.003! There were no problems in the boil, everything went as normal (except that I FINALLY had a batch that didn't boil over), and my hydrometer appears to be working fine. The only potential reason I can think of for this is that my wort settled out in the fermenting bucket while cooling (I don't have a chiller, gotta use a cold water bath which takes several hours). Is that a common occurrence with wheat beers? Never happened with any of my previous brews that I know of.

Was it a full boil, or did you top up with water in your fermenter?

It was a 2.5 gallon boil, topped up to 5 in the fermenter.

did you mix it after you topped off? You may have been reading the water you added only. With extract, it's impossible to miss your SG unless you miss your volume.

BTW. Nice to see another FoCo brewer.

Yep. It wasn't mixed completely so you got pretty much just water in your sample. Your wort is very heavy compared to your top up water, so they don't mix easily. I have my assistant brewer (aka my daughter) stir vigorously for a good minute or so, and then I take my sample while she is still stirring. Works every time.

Ok, cool. Good to know I didn't (necessarily) do anything horribly wrong.