11 week old chicks laying eggs!?

[the4heathernsmom]

That is sooo super neat!!! Thanks for the pics!!!

 

[MarinMama]

Wow. That is amazing!!!

 

[silverback]

Quote:
Here is a photo of them when my friend got them; and a photo of a few days before we got them. Both are dated: first one is 4/22/11 and the second one is 5/24/11. I will send a current photo as soon as I get one.
S.

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
Here is a photo of them when my friend got them; and a photo of a few days before we got them. Both are dated: first one is 4/22/11 and the second one is 5/24/11. I will send a current photo as soon as I get one.
S.

[URL]https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/70073_2011-04-22_13-29-34_105.jpg[/URL]

[URL]https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/70073_2011-05-24_15-19-47_991.jpg[/URL]

With THAT much fuzz (in the first pic), I don't think they could have been two weeks old when your friend got them

This is just wild...

 

[ChickenCanoe]

That's amazing. I'm really glad to have read this, the earliest I've heard of was 15 weeks.
I teach a chicken class and like to know about extreme possibilities.

This is what happens when breeding for early maturity. Very wild though.

The concern I would have is possible prolapse or other issues. I actually keep pullets on short days till at least 18 weeks.
If they start later they usually make up for lost time.

 

[featherz]

No other chickens in the household that could get in? My full grown leghorns have been sneaking into my growout tractor and laying eggs in there.. if I didn't already know the pullets in there are olive eggers and these 'intruder eggs' are white, I might not have figured it out.

 

[silverback]

I finally got current photos of the egg laying chicks showing their present stage of maturity. I also called the hatchery and talked to the guy who sold them to my friend to see if he had ever heard of 3 month old chicks laying. He say "no" but then remembered one guy who told him he had one who did but that he just thought that guy was crazy.... Anyway he said, of course, normal age would be 6 months for the sex-links.

Anyway, no more eggs since the odd one the day after the 3 little eggs. I still wonder is someone snuck them in - but no one I know has any access to pint size eggs. VERY odd. And there is no way the older girls got in - the babies are segregated with fencing and their own coop since they haven't been fully accepted yet.

If more eggs come believe me I will post them!

S.

 

[tball]

I dont suppose you have caught your husband chukling in the corner!!!!!!!

 

[silverback]

Mystery of 3 month old chicks laying eggs solved! They didn't. One of our neighbors has exposed another neighbor who snuck in the little eggs. I don't have a full confession yet but am working on the appropriate "punishment" for him. Funny thing is that this neighbor is one I would least expect to be up to such shenanigans - he is our favorite neighbor who looks after our cats and chickens when we are away. You just never know! Anyway I am actually relieved that we don't have "freak" early laying chicks and hope they will just develop normally. So - please - ideas on the "pay back" for my neighbor????

S.

 

[teach1rusl]

That's a good neighbor there - seriously!

Where'd he get such small eggs to plant??? Were they bantam eggs? My first pullet to lay was NOT early - just a bit before 20 weeks, and I STILL suspected that someone had planted her egg (they hadn't of course). I think you should tell him you baked him a cake for being such a good neighbor, hand him a cupcake, and tell him that's all the cake you could make with those tiny eggs

Or if you want to be "mean," tell him you got rid of those three little hens because it was obvious something was wrong with them, laying such tiny eggs and then just stopping altogether - see if he fesses up.