At first i thought my kids were playing tricks on me! My first backyard egg!

This afternoon when I went outside to check on the chickens and ducks I was standing at the door of the chicken pen and all of the ladies were acting nonchalant.  There was no excitement or celebration going on.  Just the normal scratching and sunbathing and dust bathing activities.  After checking the water and talking to the girls for a few minutes I happened to glance under the old wheelbarrow that was propped against the wall of their coop.  Nestled in the pine shavings was one perfect brown egg.  I begged the girls to tell me who had left this wonderful little treat here but none of them would even give me a hint.  I have seen no squatting and heard no egg songs.  I bought these 5 red stars from TSC on Saturday, April 7 and I had guessed that they had hatched the previous weekend.  That would make them 18 weeks old this past weekend.  I really was not expecting any eggs for a couple more weeks so this was really a delightful surprise.  I'm gonna be watching closer tomorrow to see if I can catch one of them under that wheelbarrow.  Tonight I also spent some time walking around the yard looking in cozy little areas for more eggs since my little flock has the run of the yard for around 6 hours each afternoon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TnMama 

 WooHoo!!!! Congradulations!

 

I'm from Vicksburg originally. I named one hen Missy!

Thank you.  I feel like a chicken nerd by how proud I am of this egg.  

So far, our first laying hen has laid an egg every other day since she started.  Her second and third eggs were smaller than the first one and my mom told me that granny said that pullets usually lay double yolk eggs first.  Well granny kept chickens and my mom grew up with chickens, but I was skeptical because I had never heard anything about that before.  Well this morning I cracked that first egg and......(drumroll please).......it was a double yolker.  And fertile too.  I guess granny was right.  I wish she was still alive, I would love to talk to her about chickens.  I don't know what the little black specks are but I picked them out before cooking the egg.

I just went to the coop and today is the first time to find a morning egg, the others were all laid in the afternoon.  I believe this morning's egg is a first egg from another one of my pullets because it is huge and shaped differently.  Probably another double yolker.

First Egg.

Second, third and fourth eggs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wastintime202 

WOW !! Beautiful eggs..I understand about talking to everyone about our chickens. I can't make anyone understand how addictive having chickens can be..My red stars are a year old now and they are laying machines..Congrats

Thanks. 

I just checked on the chickens again and  today is my first 2 egg day.  My other 3 red star pullets are now getting a lot of encouragement and pleading to pitch in and help feed the family. 

I believe today's second egg (on the right) is from the first pullet laying, if so this is her first consecutive day egg.