California - Northern

[MossyoakLane]

I am so excited! Matilda (my SLW) gave me a beautiful 4th of July present!
It is officially our first egg!

 

[debs_flock]

I am so excited! Matilda (my SLW) gave me a beautiful 4th of July present!
It is officially our first egg!

YAY!!! I still get that flush of pleasure with every egg I find, but nothing compares to that first egg.

I'd blow it out and keep it.

I remember the whole point was getting truly fresh eggs to eat. I was so excited about the first egg when I got back into chickens, I kept it in the refrigerator so long, it was aged like a store bought egg. I just couldn't bring myself to crack it open. Of course, it was still better than a store egg when we did eat it because of the feeding of my birds, but I should have just saved it.

Now the only thing I save are my collection of fart eggs and the one solid midnight blue egg that my quail laid.

 

[Grandmas Basket]

Off topic but timely. Our central AC downstairs began laboring and wasn't keeping up with this heat wave. It cooled, but not terribly well. Was a sudden change so we thought something failed (14 year old unit). At the same time, our upstairs unit did fail, probably due to coolant leak. We are waiting service but can make do since we figured out what was "wrong" with the downstairs unit - the day after we put in new high efficiency air filters, our troubles began. We removed the newly installed Filtrete super high filtration filters and replaced them with the less dense Filtrete version we previously used. CURED! Now our AC works perfectly. The denser filters cut the air flow too much for our old HVAC system to handle in this high heat. We are thankful that we figured it out before the pump burned out - not to mention the cost and discomfort of AC laboring at keeping the house in high 80s. Hopefully our lesson learned helps someone. I got the very expensive filters at Costco at a good price thinking I was doing a good thing for our interior air quality. Little did I know.

 

[Grandmas Basket]

Congratulations! A beauty! And in this heat. What a perfect day for you.

Our pullets are 3 months old. I only hope we are home and not away on vacation when we get our first egg from each. 3 breeds, 3 different egg colors, easy for us to tell who lays what.

I am so excited! Matilda (my SLW) gave me a beautiful 4th of July present!
It is officially our first egg!

 

[debs_flock]

The quality of the air filter truly does make a difference. Because of the old carpeting in this house, the four LARGE dogs that live in the house, the vast number of chicks brooded in the house for week+ and a DH that tracks in EVERYTHING, we have a very dusty household. I was always complaining about the suspended dust in the air and my difficulty with breathing at night because of it. I know the duct work was full of dust, because we'd get dust around the vents on the ceiling and just the smell of the dust. I am fanatical about keeping the filters changed out, even every 1-2 weeks, despite the recommended 3 mos.

I'm also a fanatical vacuum and duster, because the dust annoys me so much.

I bought some of the good filters and instantly my air quality improved and I can no longer smell the dust in the air when the heat/AC comes on. The old cheaper filters were letting the dust through.

For me, I need to stick with the good ones. Our heat/AC system is only a few years old, so it should handle it fine.

 

[Janeothejungle]

CONGRATS!! I am jealous. Still waiting on the first drop here!

I am so excited! Matilda (my SLW) gave me a beautiful 4th of July present!
It is officially our first egg!

 

[ronott1]

I am so excited! Matilda (my SLW) gave me a beautiful 4th of July present!
It is officially our first egg!

It is a very nice egg too!

 

[lawatt]

I am so excited! Matilda (my SLW) gave me a beautiful 4th of July present!
It is officially our first egg!

congratulations! what a nice way to celebrate the holiday!

 

[PetRock]

The one difference you'll find, peeling boiled bobwhite eggs is much easier than peeling boiled coturnix eggs. DH loves pickled quail eggs, so I do quite a few of them. I think it's because the inner membrane is thicker/tougher on the bobs, so the peel comes off like a zipper. On the other hand, it makes them harder to open fresh. I find the cot eggs are easier to open to fry.

Deb, My bobwhites are 13 weeks old now. This breed doesn't lay eggs until around 5 months old, correct? 2 days ago I caught one of the males doing his business with a female. They looked at me as if to say, "What?" Is this normal and do I need to think about separating them into smaller groups? I have 19 quail in two 4 ft x 8 ft pens. How do you separate monogamous breeding pairs? I have a hard time even catching one bird let alone a specific pair.

 

[PetRock]

I am so excited! Matilda (my SLW) gave me a beautiful 4th of July present!
It is officially our first egg!

Congrats!!! That's exciting!