Chiana (Easter egger) has laid her first egg!

[MacTech]

Chiana was sold to me by the Dover NH Agway as an "aumeracarna", but my research here tells me she's more than likely an Easter Egger, no biggie, she's still a gorgeous, if a bit skittish, bird

She's also finally laying, I got her as a chick a couple weeks after my initial flock of five (three BO, two PPR) so she was always a straggler, even though she seems to be one of the alpha hens

The day I brought her home

I named her Chiana after one of my favorite Farscape characters


A few months older, not a recent pic

She's a bit bigger now, and finally

Her first egg

Interestingly enough, her first egg is nearly full size, the PPR eggs started off small....

 

[MacTech]

She's now laid her second egg, and I think one of the Orps is starting to lay as well, as I have three distinct egg shell colors


Light brown shells that vary in size but are on the small size, I know these are from the PPR hens as I have taken them as they were fresh from the hen...

Light to mid peach-ish coloration, large, about the size of a jumbo grocery store egg, and vaguely football shaped, pretty sure these are from the Orps

Light olive green, large, about as large as the Orps , no doubt these are from Chiana

If these are their starter size eggs, I wonder how big the Orps and Chiana's regular egg size will be?

 

[b.hromada]

She's a beauty!

Congrats on the first egg too! As you probably know, the eggs do start out on the small size and will get larger as your chicken gets older.

Have fun!

 

[Kluk-Kluk]

Congratulations on the eggs! I'm looking forward to getting eggs from my young pullets really soon now...!

 

[Kluk-Kluk]

PS Chiana was a gorgeous little chick! What a cutie!

 

[MacTech]

Today was a really good day, egg-wise

I took today off from work, as I needed some time to de-stress, I.m a computer and printer repair tech, and we've been having a problem with the sales department making promises for us BEFORE checking to see if that's even possible, and seeing how many "emergencies" they can stack up at the last minute, I swear, they're trying to drive me insane...

So, before I snapped, and re-enacted the infamous printer-smashing sequence from "Office Space" (we actually use that term as a verb at work, when a printer starts acting up, we walk up towards it and whisper "office space" to it, usually scares it into submission

...of course, it doesn't help that these are color laser printers that never get packed properly, ending up covered in spilled toner (a toner bomb) and they weigh about 50 lbs each..... And they need them "yesterday".....

Anyway, back to the chicken content...

Today was a FOUR egg day!

Three in the one nesting box they all want to use** at 10 am, one from one of the PPR's, one from one of the Orps, and one from Chiana, later in the afternoon, I checked again, and there was a *HUGE* football-shaped egg, slightly lumpy tips, bit overall a slightly squashed football, from another one of the orps.

Maybe I should take another day off tomorrow, maybe I'll get five or more eggs




**I have three nest boxes in there, but they all want to use only one of them, and it's the one made out of the top half of a 55 gallon Rubbermaid trash can, the part I was going to throw out initially as it was a hollow tube, on a whim, I put hay in it, and it's their favorite, they like it better than the bottom half that actually has a bottom, maybe because it's deeper?

 

[got chicken]

My EE had just laid an her first egg yesterday and I was really excited. And my two hens do also lay their eggs in the same nesting box. I think maybe because since the first hen laid in that one, so I guess she felt safe in the only one being used.

 

[MacTech]

Found something interesting this evening, I was closing up their barn, and I looked for the two roosters that have been acting remarkably un-roostery, they're both bantam Silkie/Cochin crosses.

Tribble (my avatar) has more Silkie genetics, 90% Silkie feathering, wing and tail are the only hard feathers, and those are clamped and underdeveloped, black with a slight beetle green sheen, fully fuzzy feet with five toes per leg, he hasn't crowed or shown any roostery traits aside from chest bumping his brother

Raven is almost completely Cochin, jet black with beetle green iridescence, and yellow lacing on his hackle and wing feathers, very slight Silkie Mohawk, he has been crowing randomly

They are nest mates, brothers, and so far have not fought each other, in fact, they pal around all day and generally avoid the hens, as the hens are alpha, plus there's that bantam/full size size difference

So, I was trying to find the roosters, while I was searching, I found blood spatter ....

The roosters looked okay, no injuries, so I checked the hens....

Amelia, the PPR, had a small scabby area at the back of her comb, and a balding spot on the top of her skull...

Looks like Raven may have been spending "quality time" with Amelia, come to think of it, I did see those two palling around a bit together, which was atypical, as all the hens tend to chase the roosters off, as they were new additions to the flock