a first egg at 10 wks?

[Mom2Cool]

Hi all. Ok so it was this past Tuesday that I was taken aback to find a egg in the chicken coop when I went to let out my 2 pullets. Originally I'd had 4 & I believe the 2 the bear ate were my roos. I had 2 Barred Rocks 1 of which had just started crowing & was proud to show off his new found voice. The other 2 are Black Austrolorps and I hadn't "seen" him crow but there was no denying he was a he.

Anyway the 2 hens had been spared but were truamatized for at least several days & it was exactly 1 week later I'd found this egg. I read that the Black Austrolorps mature early but an egg at 10 wks? And of course I don't at all know that it was the black Austrolorp & could very well have been the Barred Rock. I know at the start the egg laying is sporatic and I haven't seen anything since. I thought maybe if I brought this here some of you all could help to shine some light &/or their experiences with these breeds and their egg laying?

 

[Mahonri]

Someone's playing a joke on you. 10 weeks is too early or you have a visiting hen.

 

[ChickenToes]

Check out this thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=64048&p=4

 

[Mom2Cool]

Mahonri well you know normally I'd be thinking the same thing because the boys here at my house (hubby included as one of the boys) they all have a sense of humor where they'd pull a gag like that. the thing is that none of them were around really either not here or just preoccupied with work etc. It was actually the first thought I'd had that morning & I'd done a run down of where everyone was etc. And honestly last week & this week weren't the best days for us here. They weren't earth shattering with people with illness but just finacially depressing you know? No one would have been of the mind set or mood to pull such a thing & hubby (the ring leader) assures me he did not.

We've never had chickens before and I'd thought several times that the girls kind of look like they're setting into the nesting boxes with intent. I watched them the night before get into 2 seperate nesting boxes & they'd been getting in together I think for security/reassurance after the bear attack & the truama had been such that I'd just let them go ahead. But that night when I saw them get into seperate boxes I'd thought "wow they look like they're serious or like they have business" but dismissed the thought because well they're only 10 wks old. LOL

Anyway here's a pic of them

And here is the egg.

it was a full size egg when I set it next to "farm fresh" we'd bought from some one who sells her own chickens eggs. It's wild really.

 

[Mom2Cool]

Quote:
Chicken Toes

Thanks so much for the link to that thread. At least I know now that I'm not the only one experiencing this. Frankly my pullets seem to be pretty healthy & given the experiences they've recently had I was kind of happy they were the size they are. It never occured to me they could be growing "too fast". I haven't seen any more since that one egg & so I'm hoping that it'll be a while before there's anymore. The last thing we need right now is a prolapse &/or a sick chicken.

 

[ChickenToes]

No problem! As soon as I read your post, I knew I had read another thread about really young hens laying eggs.