Bantam egg?

[mhegge]

I got two young bantams last fall, one will lay brown and one white. This is my first time with bantams. My girls just started laying again after their fall hiatus and I'm trying to figure out if my one bantam is laying. I've been getting one from one of my Easter eggers and one smaller brown one just about every day. My other girls are all standard and I know all of their eggs save one other young I got last fall. Is this a bantam egg or is one of my girls just laying smaller eggs right now?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Unfortunately there's no way to tell as some pullets lay very small eggs. You will have to see who's going in the nestboxes if you want to know who's laying what.

 

[mhegge]

The more I look at it, the more I think no. It's much larger than a quarter, maybe two quarters in size...I know that isn't a sure test, but probably better than just comparing to another egg. Since my girls didn't lay for about 2.5 months, could their eggs be smaller as the begin to lay again? It's never happened to me before, but my hens always surprise me

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

First time pullets will lay smaller eggs, and they will slowly get bigger. Older birds starting up again will generally lay normal sized eggs, but they can be slightly smaller.

What breed of bantams do you have? I keep d'uccle and bantam cochins and I can tell their eggs from other breeds based on size as well as color.

I also don't think it looks small enough to be a bantam egg, but as you said, you just never know.

I don't call who laid them until I see it come out. Than I generally can tell by looking at the eggs who it belongs to or at least which breed.