Delaware...

[adrikeen]

Welcome! Hopefully more DE people will join in on here eventually. I started with 3 hens and a rooster, then 15 bantams and now I think I've just lost count. LOL! There is nothing like fresh eggs right from your backyard! Can't wait to see your post when they start!

 

[jp57]

Thanks. Hopefully I have some fresh eggs soon. My only apprehension is they free roam on 5 acres most of the day so I don't think they'll be laying in the coop. I leave the house every day at 7AM and don't get back until 6:30PM so letting them out later isn't an option.

 

[adrikeen]

Ooooh....yeah, I've heard about people finding eggs under bushes/brush and every other place. I've been lucky. My girls are prisses and will only go in the houses. My set up is 3 Snap Lock houses within an large run with extensions. I do let them out a bit (under supervision) during the day and they roam around the yard. I have found eggs on the floor of the houses...but mostly in the nesting boxes. I wouldn't be surprised to find one in a flower pot though...they seem to think those are their personal dust bathing facilities. I've lost several lilliums that way.

 

[jp57]

I got my first egg this morning and it was in the coop.It was brown so I know it was one of the buff orpingtons but not sure which one. I'll have to check the yard to see if I can find any more. I have way too many places for them to hide.

 

[adrikeen]

 

[jp57]

My son found another brown egg yesterday in the coop. So either one of them went back into the coop after I left, or I missed it when I checked in the morning. I usually have a lot going on in the morning before I leave for work between kids, animals, and the wife so I wouldn't put missing it outside of the realm of possibility, but I don't see how I could have missed and egg in the nesting boxes. Had my first true free range fried egg with dinner last night and cooked the second one for my son for breakfast this morning. No eggs in the coop this morning when I checked.

 

[adrikeen]

That's great! Mine tend to lay in later morning/early afternoon. I've noticed they are usually done by 3 p.m. Interestingly though...they seem to lay additional eggs when I clean out the houses/nesting boxes - spite that I removed the eggs???? I usually do my egg checks when I get home from work....so anywhere between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. I let the hens out of the run and into the yard so I can get into the nesting boxes and do clean up, etc. without tripping over a puff ball (there are 12 Silkies running around). I started to get my first "egg" from my newest additions Monday. The hens are 18 weeks this week. One hen I thought was an Easter Egger has turned out to either be a runt EE or some sort of Serama. She is no bigger than the palm of my hand and can fit in a pocket. I thought someone had just laid a stunted egg....but it's her. So now I have quail sized eggs without having a quail! The other 18 weekers are 2 Sebrights and an Porcelain D'Uccle...so curious to see what those eggs look like.

 

[jp57]

I only check early since it is my last opportunity until the evening. My kids are anxious and want to find them so I try to get any that might be there so they don't break them accidentally. It sounds like you have a lot going on. Post some pictures of your eggs when you get them.