2014 breeding season begins, post your results

[zazouse]

It sounds like mabe your hen is younger than you were told, most of mine have laid late in the season just after turning a year old, they laid anywhere from 2 to 4 eggs each and they were not fertile due to the fact that my male no longer had a train,.

Some of my first eggs from my peas were not fertile but as they laid more i got 100% fertility for the rest of the season.
Please share some photos of your pretties

 

[frenchblackcopper]

I had a MAJOR miscalculation occur here today. My large bssp pen with Roadtrip as the breeding peacock has a total of 5 peahens with him. One is a new 2 yr old Peach hen. I put her inside this pen because I have not yet made a seperate pen for my 3 Peach Peas. Since she is just turning 2 this year I never expect much from them as far as egg laying goes,thats why I put her here instead of with my Peach male,and other Peach hen.
As always,last nite at dark I did my egg collections per pen. None was inside the BSSP pen which I thought was strange because the night before(Wednesday) I didn't get any from this pen either. Well today around 5pm,wifey and I are feeding and watering and wifey accused me of just using the excuse to collect eggs for a reason to have a cigarette outside. I asked where her blonde brains got that idea and she said come to the bssp pen and look. There was 5 eggs all in one spot the hens had hollowed out of the grass straw on the ground. This means the new Peach hen has laid an egg with the other 4 bssp and pied hens. I marked all these eggs as BSSP-P and one of the eggs is rather long and very pointy compared to the other 4,and it's lighter in color.
Now I know some can sex peachicks within seconds of hatching,,but is anyone here able to scientifically by photo alone tell me which egg came from the Peach hen? I can get pics,and as much as I've witnessed Roadtrip doing his "High T" it's just a number dance,,I'm bettting he has bred this hen. Problem is,whats the chances of positively identifying it,if it makes it to hatch?

 

[casportpony]

You're too funny!

-Kathy

 

[MinxFox]

I had a MAJOR miscalculation occur here today. My large bssp pen with Roadtrip as the breeding peacock has a total of 5 peahens with him. One is a new 2 yr old Peach hen. I put her inside this pen because I have not yet made a seperate pen for my 3 Peach Peas. Since she is just turning 2 this year I never expect much from them as far as egg laying goes,thats why I put her here instead of with my Peach male,and other Peach hen.
As always,last nite at dark I did my egg collections per pen. None was inside the BSSP pen which I thought was strange because the night before(Wednesday) I didn't get any from this pen either. Well today around 5pm,wifey and I are feeding and watering and wifey accused me of just using the excuse to collect eggs for a reason to have a cigarette outside. I asked where her blonde brains got that idea and she said come to the bssp pen and look. There was 5 eggs all in one spot the hens had hollowed out of the grass straw on the ground. This means the new Peach hen has laid an egg with the other 4 bssp and pied hens. I marked all these eggs as BSSP-P and one of the eggs is rather long and very pointy compared to the other 4,and it's lighter in color.
Now I know some can sex peachicks within seconds of hatching,,but is anyone here able to scientifically by photo alone tell me which egg came from the Peach hen? I can get pics,and as much as I've witnessed Roadtrip doing his "High T" it's just a number dance,,I'm bettting he has bred this hen. Problem is,whats the chances of positively identifying it,if it makes it to hatch?

So the other hens are older? I am pretty sure that from what I have noticed this year, each hen lays different looking eggs, although I have no idea which type of eggs belong to which peahen... Do you remember what the other hens eggs look like or have photos of their eggs from past years? I got some smaller, darker eggs and wondered if the small eggs are from a younger hen and the big ones are from a more mature hen. Also, seeing as the older hens are more dominant, that could also be the reason why they have bigger eggs because they get more food. I would say if some eggs are smaller it could be the Peach's eggs, but that is just my theory right now regarding eggs.

I just thought it was neat how this year when I went to collect up all the eggs after finding out that I need to just sell the eggs, when I found groupings of two eggs in three different locations, it was always the same match: 2 Big, almost round eggs in the dog box, 2 normal shaped large eggs under one roost, and under a different roost 2 small, dark eggs. It is really annoying me trying to figure out who I am not getting eggs from though. If only they laid eggs with their name and color on it.

 

[casportpony]

MinxFox is right, they do lay slightly different looking eggs, but mine might lay one that's 100 grams one day and 125 the next, so I can't tell by size, lol. I say get a camera set up and watch to see who lays what, that's what we did for our foaling stall and I've been thinking about moving it to the pea pen.

-Kathy

 

[MinxFox]

That is a good idea with the camera!

 

[frenchblackcopper]

The white super pointy egg does not "fit" the other girls eggs types. Yes I too have a good idea who lays which egg but this pen is just getting warmed up and I'm a year outta practice. I took one pied hen out of this group and put her in with my bronze but these hens will outlay any other breeding group. Like comparing a Leghorn to a French Maran in a laying egg contest. ~~ And I'm very sure they once again will have the highest hatchrate percentage of all breeding pens. I'll get pics of all 5 of them Sunday nite when I take this weeks bunch out to the incubator.

 

[MinxFox]

Good luck with your eggs!

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

I noticed my Peach hen laid pointy eggs too,

comparison between my peas eggs, from left to right: peach, spalding cameo, and bronze

.

 

[DylansMom]

Heard an "Old wives tale" once that said pointy eggs will be boys. No idea if there is any truth to this or not. If you could separate that peach hen until she lays another egg, and that egg is also pointy, I would say you could be pretty sure the first pointy one was hers. Sometimes I cannot tell which hens are laying so I will separate them on the next evening an egg is due and then whoever has laid the next day gives me my answer.