23 Weeks Old - First Eggs HIDDEN!

[kellypepperk]

We found our first chicken eggs today!! Hubby and I were spending some time with the chickers when we got home from running some errands and I noticed one of our Pixie Girls (a Rose Comb Brown Leghorn) sneaking under an old chair we had in the yard with some building material leaning against it. I thought hmmm... now, mind you - I told hubby just the day before that we should do a really thorough ground search because our girls should be laying by now. Anyways, I went over to the chair and leaned it up and sure enough there were FOUR beautiful little eggs!! Three brown ones and one white one. The Pixie girls are the only ones we have that lay the white eggs. I would LOVE to know who is laying! We have one Barred Rock that seems to have a bit of a wobbly comb, but no one really seems to be showing the classic
I'm-laying-eggs-look."
Needless to say we're over the moon about this! Now we need to figure out how to get them to lay in their nesting boxes! And, maybe our nesting boxes aren't up to snuff - I'll have to do some more reading on that subject...

Here are our FIRST EVER Chicken eggs and today's REALLY HUGE duck egg (this picture makes the duck egg look much smaller than it really is!)

 

[beausonge]

Congrats! It is so much fun to find those first eggs! We had the same thing happen with our Black Jersey Giant. We didn't expect her to lay for several months when my husband found nine small dark brown eggs up in the hay. All the other pullets had been laying in the nest boxes so we knew what their eggs looked like. She still lays in the stacks.

i have always kept fake plastic eggs in the nest boxes. It does seem to help them lay their eggs in the nest boxes. Right now I have all the nest boxes without eggs in them because I have a broody pullet determined to set. Now that the nests have no "eggs" in them we are finding eggs from the other chickens in the hay stacks. The broody is still setting.

Hope that helps.

 

[6littlechicks]

Congrats!!! The brown do look like my barred rocks eggs.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Congrats!

 

[kellypepperk]

We have fake eggs in the nesting buckets, but I'm wondering if they're too high? The buckets are about 36" off the floor with the roosts being even taller than that - and the most popular roost is probably 6' off the floor.

I've been reading about maybe keeping the girls in the coop until Noon or so. Any thougths on that? I would love to be able to walk in the coop and gather the eggs - not wonder if there are any hidden on the property...

 

[kellypepperk]

we've made a little progress...
while cleaning the coop today hubby found an egg under the table!

 

[Happy Chooks]

You have a table in your coop?

 

[OnewChook]

You have a table in your coop?

Wait?! A table?!

 

[kellypepperk]

The table...

a gift (dontation) from my boss who bought a new property that had a massive chicken coop (now a storage shed)



This is an old picture before the roosts went up. We also have a slanted board over the buckets. Now we just have to put a board up in front of the buckets... only a couple of the bigger roosters (soon going in the freezer) stay on the roost under the table - all the others are up high...

 

[Happy Chooks]

Aha..............now I get it. How funny!