Can't believe I got my 1st egg!

[Rowdy5150]

My girls are only 15 weeks. I didn't expect them to start laying this soon, but I had a nesting box in the coop just in case, and an egg just happened to be in there today! I wish I knew which girl it came from. . . . .Now what do I do with it? I'm afraid to eat it!

 

[gumamelachick]

Congratulations! How exciting!

What kind of chickens do you have? Would a sex link, Australorp, or other production hen lay sooner than other breeds? Mine are coming up on 13 weeks and I wasn't planning on introducing them to the next box for at least another month. I guess I can set it up for them and then wait and see!

Yes, you should eat the egg... although I'd be so proud of it I'd probably hold on to it to show it off. Then again, there'll always be more where that came from.

 

[PineappleMama]

Ohhh that is AWESOME!! And it's a big pretty one too!

We have four GSLs that are 15 weeks today... so we figured on beginning The Great Egg Watch next Monday... 16-20 weeks is normal starting range right... so I went and got a bale of straw and tucked some on top of shavings that are in the nestbox and topped the thing with a plastic egg... can't for the life of me find all the golfballs that were driving me nuts a few months back...

Oh yes, most excellent news...

 

[gryeyes]

You have heard of blown eggs? Blowing egg shells? (Jeez, this sounds odd in type.) Anyway, that's what I did with MY first egg! I scrambled the insides and preserved the shell.

 

[Rowdy5150]

These are a few of my girls (a couple months ago), they are Red Sex Links.

Now I am wondering if I should change their food to laying feed instead of this organic chick starter (no meds included) that I just bought last week.

 

[felidaet]

Congratulations! The first few eggs are really exciting. I am still excited to gather eggs every day but it is not the same as the first few.


Last year I had questions about when I could start eating the eggs. I saw lots of messages that if you are feeding medicated feed that you should not eat the eggs until something like 2 weeks after switching to a non medicated feed. When I saw the first egg I switched to Layena pellets within a couple of days. By the time 2 weeks were up I had a couple of birds laying.

This year I am considering switching my new young flock to Purina Flock Raiser when the oldest ones are about 17 or 18 weeks old to get them off the medicated feed. Then switching to Layena pellets when 1 or 2 start laying. I suspect that I will only use one bag of Flock Raiser.

Maybe someone more knowledgeable about medicated feed will reply.

gumamelachick - I recommend setting up your nest box(es) when you see the first birds doing the egg squat. Your first egg will probably be a few days to a couple of weeks after that. Also watch for the combs to change to a bright red. This is a sign that they are ready to lay.

You asked if a Australorp would lay early. It was a definite no for the two I had. They did not start laying until they were about 1 year old! And then I was only getting about one egg a week. I was very disappointed in them. Hopefully they are laying better at their current home. My first layer was a white Leghorn. It was closely followed by a Gold Comet. Next to lay was one of my EE's. I know that many people report that EE's don't start laying until about 24 weeks. I guess I was lucky last year. All three of them were laying by 20 weeks! They layed nearly every day throughout the winter. They are still laying large to x-large eggs every day or every second day. I hope my 4 new ones are this great of layers.

 

[gumamelachick]

Rowdy5150- Cool... red sex-links. Go figure they'd be laying so early! I also was wondering what to do about switching the feed when my first hens start laying. Right now at 13 weeks they're on Modesto Milling chick starter. Maybe when the first ones start laying I'll keep them on it and supplement with calcium (oyster shell, finely ground eggshell, etc.) until most are laying, then switch to layer. Not sure yet... still lurking BYC to see what works.

feliaet- What is an egg squat? Does it look anything like when they squat to poo? If not they haven't done it yet.

And the Australorps are disappointing enough that you rehomed them? Shucks, I was hoping they'd at least be average layers.

 

[buffbuttercup]

just gotta say that the chobani is hekka good yogurt. i feed the plain nonfat to my chookies

 

[Rowdy5150]

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Same here. They love that stuff with strawberries!

 

[feathersnuggles]

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Congratulations!!

And yes, you should change to layer feed now. Actually, when my first girl started laying, I started mixing the grower and new layer together, until my grower bag was empty. Of course, I ALWAYS supplemented with a dish of crushed oyster shell always available to the pullets, so they could eat what they need. Especially your new layer, needs a lot of extra continuous supply of calcium carbonate now that she's laying. And the pullets that aren't laying yet will probably surprise you and start chowing on the oyster shell, too, even before they lay their first egg.