It sounds like your Dark Cornish needs a Naughty Cage!20 weeks today, and no eggs! I have 12 pullets of varying breeds. My old hen laid an egg the other day and immediately the Dark Cornish pullet jumped on it, broke it and ate it with the speed of lightning, so I am wondering if she is eating eggs that they might have laid.
19 and a half weeks old and still no eggs :( egg countdown anyone??
- Thread starter Debs55
- Start date
tottally need a naugthy cage
My hens are 20 weeks tomorrow and still nothing,,,,,,,,,,,,,,BUT one of my 18 week old banties did it today So EGGCITING And so tiny!!
awwwww thats cute aint it exiting getting that first eggMy hens are 20 weeks tomorrow and still nothing,,,,,,,,,,,,,,BUT one of my 18 week old banties did it today So EGGCITING And so tiny!!
That is one cute egg !!!!!!!!! Congrats!
its the best feeling when you get that first egg
Our Flock:
On 13 April 2012 we started a mixed flock with day-old chicks, and added some more the next week: Easter Eggers, Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps, Barred Plymouth Rock, Brown Leghorns, Silver Laced Wyandottes, Gold Sexlinks, one Cukoo Marans, and some White Leghorn we eventually re-homed ... which leaves us with a total of about 60 hens.
First eggs:
We started getting eggs about a week ago ... 13 August 2012 ... we figured that was 18-19 weeks. We get about 4-5 eggs each day. We didn't notice any eggs without a shell, though maybe we wouldn't because the hens have such a large outdoor area and the inside of our coop is deep pine shavings which hide things very well.
Who is laying:
We're pretty chicken crazy, so have been able to sit and watch who lays; most of our eggs are coming from the Gold Sexlinks. We've only seen one Brown Leghorn lay (easy to pick out those eggs, but sometimes another breed lays a VERY pale egg that looks white, so ... ?). Yesterday one Buff Orpington gave us a tiny pinkish egg, and today a second is sitting in a box (practicing? laying?). And we've gotten one egg from a Silver Laced Wyandotte. Good girls!
When do they lay?
There are usually a few eggs waiting for me when I go to open the gate to the pasture pretty early in the morning. Throughout the day we get a few more. It has been quite hot, but now cooled off, and maybe the heat doesn't help the hens establish a schedule.
Where do they lay?
We were caught unprepared, thinking we had another month to get the nesting boxes set up -- and were thinking that was just an "in theory/if they ever do lay/let's hope/maybe our hens are special" thing, so we found our first eggs in the run and the pasture. Oopsies! We knew something was up because there was a lot of extra clucking going on out there so we kept checking, but even then it took all day (maybe 1.5 days) to find our first eggs -- there were 8 total! We scavenged an old triple-hole nesting box, seeded it with golf balls, and the next day the hens made their deposits there, though there were fewer eggs. We're busy adding the official nesting boxes. Some hens use the old nesting boxes, some use the new, and already seem to have favorite holes. They seem to like to lay where there is another real egg already laid. They do push the duds around, gather them under themselves while they're waiting to lay, and sometimes scratch them out of the boxes (maybe it is the roosters who do that?).
What do the eggs look like?
The colors range from a medium brown speckled egg, to pale pinkish, to white. They are pretty clean and smooth. They are nicely tapered, though occasionally one is more rounded.
How big are the eggs?
Mostly the first eggs have been peewee, though occasionally they are medium/large. Yes, we weigh them all cuz we're nutty like that. The smallest egg was 1.06 oz, the largest was 1.96 oz.
What is inside the eggs?
The yolks are a nice deep yellow color, there are two distinct layers of white, the center layer is very thick and surrounds the yolk, so covers the yolk when cooked sunny-side up. They definitely have more flavor than store-bought eggs, and the texture is creamier (less plastic). The shells are hard to crack because they seem to be thicker and because they have a strong membrane inside the shell. They are much harder to scramble because they are so fresh. There have been two double-yolkers so far (though we did gift a dozen eggs, so who knows what was inside those shells) ... one of the double yolkers was from a pretty small egg, so size doesn't seem to matter for that.
These are the eggs we collected for Sunday Brunch yesterday. That tiny pink egg on the top left is the Buff Orpingtong's first effort. Isn't it sweet?!?
Thank you, hens!
On 13 April 2012 we started a mixed flock with day-old chicks, and added some more the next week: Easter Eggers, Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps, Barred Plymouth Rock, Brown Leghorns, Silver Laced Wyandottes, Gold Sexlinks, one Cukoo Marans, and some White Leghorn we eventually re-homed ... which leaves us with a total of about 60 hens.
First eggs:
We started getting eggs about a week ago ... 13 August 2012 ... we figured that was 18-19 weeks. We get about 4-5 eggs each day. We didn't notice any eggs without a shell, though maybe we wouldn't because the hens have such a large outdoor area and the inside of our coop is deep pine shavings which hide things very well.
Who is laying:
We're pretty chicken crazy, so have been able to sit and watch who lays; most of our eggs are coming from the Gold Sexlinks. We've only seen one Brown Leghorn lay (easy to pick out those eggs, but sometimes another breed lays a VERY pale egg that looks white, so ... ?). Yesterday one Buff Orpington gave us a tiny pinkish egg, and today a second is sitting in a box (practicing? laying?). And we've gotten one egg from a Silver Laced Wyandotte. Good girls!
When do they lay?
There are usually a few eggs waiting for me when I go to open the gate to the pasture pretty early in the morning. Throughout the day we get a few more. It has been quite hot, but now cooled off, and maybe the heat doesn't help the hens establish a schedule.
Where do they lay?
We were caught unprepared, thinking we had another month to get the nesting boxes set up -- and were thinking that was just an "in theory/if they ever do lay/let's hope/maybe our hens are special" thing, so we found our first eggs in the run and the pasture. Oopsies! We knew something was up because there was a lot of extra clucking going on out there so we kept checking, but even then it took all day (maybe 1.5 days) to find our first eggs -- there were 8 total! We scavenged an old triple-hole nesting box, seeded it with golf balls, and the next day the hens made their deposits there, though there were fewer eggs. We're busy adding the official nesting boxes. Some hens use the old nesting boxes, some use the new, and already seem to have favorite holes. They seem to like to lay where there is another real egg already laid. They do push the duds around, gather them under themselves while they're waiting to lay, and sometimes scratch them out of the boxes (maybe it is the roosters who do that?).
What do the eggs look like?
The colors range from a medium brown speckled egg, to pale pinkish, to white. They are pretty clean and smooth. They are nicely tapered, though occasionally one is more rounded.
How big are the eggs?
Mostly the first eggs have been peewee, though occasionally they are medium/large. Yes, we weigh them all cuz we're nutty like that. The smallest egg was 1.06 oz, the largest was 1.96 oz.
What is inside the eggs?
The yolks are a nice deep yellow color, there are two distinct layers of white, the center layer is very thick and surrounds the yolk, so covers the yolk when cooked sunny-side up. They definitely have more flavor than store-bought eggs, and the texture is creamier (less plastic). The shells are hard to crack because they seem to be thicker and because they have a strong membrane inside the shell. They are much harder to scramble because they are so fresh. There have been two double-yolkers so far (though we did gift a dozen eggs, so who knows what was inside those shells) ... one of the double yolkers was from a pretty small egg, so size doesn't seem to matter for that.
These are the eggs we collected for Sunday Brunch yesterday. That tiny pink egg on the top left is the Buff Orpingtong's first effort. Isn't it sweet?!?
Thank you, hens!
LeslieDJoyce - Great post! Thanks for letting us know all about your flock's first eggs! How eggciting
May I ask why you decided to begin with so many chickens all at once? That's pretty awesome you have the resources to do that! We started with a dozen and they just started laying last weekend, and now I want more! I'm quite addicted to our own fresh eggs 
you are gonna love the story lolLeslieDJoyce - Great post! Thanks for letting us know all about your flock's first eggs! How eggcitingMay I ask why you decided to begin with so many chickens all at once? That's pretty awesome you have the resources to do that! We started with a dozen and they just started laying last weekend, and now I want more! I'm quite addicted to our own fresh eggs
LeslieDJoyce - Great post! Thanks for letting us know all about your flock's first eggs! How eggcitingMay I ask why you decided to begin with so many chickens all at once? That's pretty awesome you have the resources to do that! We started with a dozen and they just started laying last weekend, and now I want more! I'm quite addicted to our own fresh eggs
Our Story:
I should preface this by writing that my father and I operate farm (nursery), so have plenty of space for animals and ideally some back-up labor. There have sometimes been chickens/other livestock on the farm, but not recently.
At first I wanted pigs, and began a heavy campaign to reclaim the pig barn for this purpose, which probably got everyone thinking about livestock again. But we are all busy every season and not super eager to take on extra work ...
About a year ago one of my facebook friends posted a gorgeous photo of the multi-colored eggs she had just gathered from her hens. I decided I had to have hens that produce eggs just like those beautiful eggs. But I had no clue what breeds lay colorful eggs. I began to google ... I fell in love with the photos of the Arucauna and Maran eggs ... I began to talk to my boyfriend and my father about could I please start an egg co-op with the rest of the farm staff, knowing I would need their help for building housing and other heavy lifting ... I talked to the other farm workers and some of them were excited about the idea, some not so much ... I showed everyone my friend's photo as proof that my idea was brilliant. Dad gave me one of his "patient" looks and said we could get 5 or 6 hens.
About February I was at the local feed store picking up cat food ... I saw a flyer that chicks were coming in April ...
In April there were baby chicks at the feed store. They even had EEs! Boyfriend, who is new to farming, went into fits of squeee! over the baby chicks. We tried to buy some, but they were already all pre-sold (duh!). We were heartbroken. We were devastated. We were kids in the cereal aisle at the grocery store. In our several shades of disappointment we picked up a pair of whatever they had left, which were straight run fluffys-footed bantams (at the time we had no clue what that was all about!). We asked if they had any other chicks coming in that weren't already sold. Yes, lots. But no EE, and only ONE Cookoo Maran. SO ...
In our disappointment, we ordered 5-6 of each of the breeds available. That makes sense, right? Dad said 5 or 6.
The staff at the feed store had quite a laugh at us. And still do every time we go in for supplies. "Come to get more chicks?" Hahahahaha. We're like the pet Crazy Customers down at the feed store.
(Clearly Dad should have put some fine print in his permission slip ... "total," not "each").
You can see details of our setup here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/700786/greenhouse-coop-conversion ...
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