Fairy egg annoying easter hunt

[BigBlueHen53]

Yes, pullets may lay smallish eggs for several weeks but they are still healthy and delicious. They will get bigger in time, a few weeks or maybe a couple of months.

To determine whether your rooster is fertilizing the eggs, you have to look carefully at a yolk after you break one into a bowl. Every yolk will have a little white spot on it. But in a fertile egg that spot will be bigger and look like a bull's-eye. Sometimes you have to carefully turn the yolk over to see it.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Some people have suggested that she might have been stolen.
There was so many people that came here to delivery things yesterday, in beat-up cares only here for 30 minutes, and two trespassers.

I can’t say for sure yet—but there is a suspicious listing someone came across. Someone is selling a single Rhode Island Red in Frenchman Hills (not an area anyone wants to be). They claim she’s “super tame” (which is unusual here—most birds are raised in small cages for livestock, not handled like pets), and they mention she “looks pure RIR” (also rare here unless someone paid to import them from the mainland). They’re asking for a big bucks (100 bucks), and she’s being kept in the back of a pickup truck, inside a dog kennel, covered with a tarp being sold with local catch fish and used power tools.

I keep telling myself she has to show up for at least one meal in a 24-hour window, right?

I’m honestly freaking out. I am a white woman, not welcome in that area. I will know her by her comb in a instant.

How much are they asking for the RIR hen? Do you have any workers/ co-workers/ acquaintances who are POC (persons of color) who would go buy her back for you?

It might not feel like winning, as in justice being done, but it would be winning if you got your girl back.

Edit to add: oh sorry, I just saw the $100. That sounds like a ransom demand. Your call, though. I'm really sorry!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Nobody's going to pay $100 for a chicken they plan to eat though.

 

[CabritaChicks]

Nobody's going to pay $100 for a chicken they plan to eat though.

No- multiple people pool the money.... they use it for eggs, will breed it to create meat in cages. It is a thing. To get a chicken from states here of any quality.... is many hundreds of dollars, only a couple months of the year and then you need to raise it to breeding egg/laying age. If you steal one, mix it with your own flock, you make hybrids plus edible eggs.

She has been confirmed stolen, she went up for auction.
I saw the pictures- It is her. Even the scar on her toe from when my parrot bit her.

Police were no help. Unless some kind sole comes through, she is gone. I posted online- all the posts got flagged, even the 'lost chicken' got removed in seconds.

So I guess I focus on my remaining flock now I have 5.5 chickens, soon to have 5 since gyspy has a home worked out.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I'm so sorry this has happened. Apparently you must keep your precious birds under lock and key. What a horrible experience.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

No- multiple people pool the money.... they use it for eggs, will breed it to create meat in cages. It is a thing. To get a chicken from states here of any quality.... is many hundreds of dollars, only a couple months of the year and then you need to raise it to breeding egg/laying age. If you steal one, mix it with your own flock, you make hybrids plus edible eggs.

She has been confirmed stolen, she went up for auction.
I saw the pictures- It is her. Even the scar on her toe from when my parrot bit her.

Police were no help. Unless some kind sole comes through, she is gone. I posted online- all the posts got flagged, even the 'lost chicken' got removed in seconds.

So I guess I focus on my remaining flock now I have 5.5 chickens, soon to have 5 since gyspy has a home worked out.

Wow, I guess you’ve identified a predator to defend against. I’m so sorry.

 

[Sherrie H]

My own experience is; I bought fake eggs, put them in the nesting boxes - nope, not interested. Nesting boxes period - one used it once; then one of the girls laid an egg in the safety of the roost (which is raised by using cinder blocks on either side). Now everybody loves that area and all the girls are using it multiple times a day. (No problem, it isn't even where there is danger of pooping.)
As for the size of the eggs: they start small and as time goes by I've found they increase in size. Each lay for my girls is gradually increasing. It's just nature and is perfectly natural.

 

[Carontheroad]

Oh man, sorry about your chicken. Something most of us don’t have to contend with. It must be beyond frustrating knowing where your chicken is and you can’t do anything about it. Maybe you could hatch some chicks and sell them yourself if they are in such demand. Beat them at their own game and undercut them.

I have a chicken over a year old that is still laying yolkless eggs. They are small but not as small as a fairy egg. I don’t know which chicken is doing it but I’m guessing a reproductive defect.

 

[CabritaChicks]

Oh man, sorry about your chicken. Something most of us don’t have to contend with. It must be beyond frustrating knowing where your chicken is and you can’t do anything about it. Maybe you could hatch some chicks and sell them yourself if they are in such demand. Beat them at their own game and undercut them.

I have a chicken over a year old that is still laying yolkless eggs. They are small but not as small as a fairy egg. I don’t know which chicken is doing it but I’m guessing a reproductive defect.

Thank you—it's definitely frustrating. But on the bright side, it pushed me to order more day-old chicks (some fun, unique breeds), and the gate is now permanently shut—no more people wandering in and out like it’s a public transit hub.

As for the eggs, they’re not yolk-less—just on the small side for now, though they’re growing steadily. One of the two hens left (the others are too young to lay) lays eggs with such a thick bloom that they come out pink from time to time. The shells are tough as nails and the yolks are bright neon orange (thanks to their herbal tonic and special diet). My husband grumbles that they’re “too hard to crack” and asks if the shells get thinner as the eggs get bigger—ha!

I find that they really like to lay first thing in the morning, so I open the coop around 8-9am now (instead of 5:30am) and then they use the nest boxes. So I guess it just takes some time, encouragement- and a bit of being grounded in the morning.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Beautiful eggs! Can you lock your gate as well as just keeping it shut? I would not trust those chicken thieves farther than I could throw them. I truly hope you have no more losses!