Another new chicken lady!

[Hemi-nay]

Hi everybody! I am new to chickendom, and have been reading your posts for several months now. Thank you for all the great info and advice! I have a flock of 18, with 8 Barred Rocks, 6 Rhode Island Reds, and 4 Easter Egger Ameracaunas that came from the local feed store as chicks this past April. I am in Western Colorado, at the foot of the Grand Mesa. I have an 8x8 coop, with 12 boxes, a 10x8 enclosed run, and a 75x80 fenced chicken yard for them to "free range." So far, I have about 5 who are laying. 2 easter eggers are giving me beautiful chocolate colored eggs (on two days, off one) and 3 reds have laid, one is quite regular, laying every day. They started laying 2 weeks ago this past Sunday. So far I've gotten about 2 dozen eggs. None of the rocks have laid yet, but most are doing the squat so they're ready. Love my girls and love this forum! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

 

[luvmypets]

Sounds like you have a colorful egg basket. Congrats on your first eggs and welcome to our flock!

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC! Sounds like you have a nice flock, Congratulations on your first eggs!

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

Sounds like you have a lovely flock! Congrats on those first eggs....how EGG-citing!!!

Enjoy this wonderful adventure you are on and welcome to our flock!

 

[Hemi-nay]

Thank you everybody! So far, so good! Got some soft shell going on right now, but they didn't like the layers pellets, so I replaced it with crumble and they seem to like that better. Fingers crossed it fixes it. Plus they're new layers, so they gotta get in their regular cycle yet too. Its very exciting to get the eggs everyday, I do love that! I could do without the soft ones though!

 

[Mountain Peeps]

Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

Congrats on those eggs!

Soft shelled eggs are very common in new layers. As long as they have calcium, their eggs should be normal in no time.

 

[Michael OShay]

Thank you everybody! So far, so good! Got some soft shell going on right now, but they didn't like the layers pellets, so I replaced it with crumble and they seem to like that better. Fingers crossed it fixes it. Plus they're new layers, so they gotta get in their regular cycle yet too. Its very exciting to get the eggs everyday, I do love that! I could do without the soft ones though!

Welcome to BYC! Glad you decided to join our flock. You might ought to put a dish of crushed oyster shells in your coop as well for your hens to have access to any extra calcium that they may need. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck with those eggs.

 

[drumstick diva]

Are you sure they are easter eggers, I have never heard of them laying chocolate eggs.
They have pastel colored . Hmm, I wonder what they really are. A lot of people love dark chocolate eggs.

 

[Michael OShay]

Are you sure they are easter eggers, I have never heard of them laying chocolate eggs.
They have pastel colored . Hmm, I wonder what they really are. A lot of people love dark chocolate eggs.

X2 on the chocolate eggs. The only hens that lay chocolate eggs are Barnevelders, Empordanesas, Marans, Pendesencas, and Welsummers.

 

[Hemi-nay]

No soft eggs today! Whoohoo! I do have oyster shell out there for them as free choice, they just don't care for it. Some do, some don't. With 18, i needed to do something more as a blanket coverage, so I replaced all of feed in their their feeders with the Dumor Layers crumple and they're all eating it like crazy! I also cut out treats for the rest of the week, so they're just eating the layers crumble and whatever they find in their yard.

As far as the EE, all I can tell you is what the feed store sold them as. As chicks in the feed store, they were in the EE brooder, with a sign that said they could lay green, blue, pink or brown eggs. You know how reliable that is. I'm sure they're all mixes of some sort or another, none of my flock being purebreds, but, they lay darker brown eggs, that are almost milk chocolate in color. I'm not all into the science of the breeding process and have no need to get all technical. Their eggs are beautiful, and tasty. Maybe in years to come I'll really care about the breeding process, and but as a newbie, I just care about having a healthy flock who gets along well with each other. So far, so good. And three beautiful eggs this morning, 2 from those who were laying the soft eggs. They were eating the crumble yesterday like it was candy. I'm a happy camper.