Did My Pullets Mature Too Early?

[ParadiseChickens]

I have had hens for 2 years now but only started out with 8 and 3 of them died so I needed to add to them to get enough eggs to share with my grandkids. Got 6 "red pullets" from TSC first week of March. From looking at pictures on the internet, they seem to be red sexlinks. They looked less than a week old when I got them. They matured faster than my first 8 hens did (those didnt begin to lay until about 6 month old. Anyway, these new pullets are not but about 14 weeks old and have begun to lay this week. The eggs are ridiculously small. If I baked with them, I would have to use 2 when 1 egg is called for in a recipe. They are a rather dark brown color.

I fed them Starter feed until the last couple of weeks and began to feed them Purina Flock Raiser so that I could move them in with the older girls and they all be able to eat the same thing. So have my new pullets matured too early and begun laying too small eggs because of that? If so, did I do this by the feed I gave them? Or will these eggs get acceptably big enough with time? My first hens did not lay too small eggs to begin with.

 

[my sunwolf]

The red sex links will lay sooner than other breeds, usually around 16 weeks, but I've heard stories of them starting at 12 weeks! A pullet's first eggs will usually be a little small, and with time will get bigger.

Feed is not usually the culprit with young layers, but lighting is a very common reason that some pullets will lay sooner than others. If they hit laying age when the days are very long (summertime), they will start immediately with very small eggs. If they hit laying age while the days are still short (early spring), they may hold off laying until the days lengthen, and may start with larger eggs. I had a pullet wait until she was 8 months old before she started laying because she turned 6 months old in the dead of winter.

Of course, now that they're laying I would get calcium to them ASAP, either with the same feed and adding oyster shells (free-choice or into the feed), or a layer feed.

Good luck!