- Jan 18, 2010
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Yay!
My almost 23 week old Black Australorp, Hestia, laid her first good egg today! In the middle of our heat wave, I might add.
She follows our (assumed) Black Sex Link Antigone, who has been laying since July 30th 2010 and who has given us an egg almost every day even through the heat.
I figured neither of our Australorps would lay until it got cooler, boy, was I surprised! The reason I figured this was before the heat started (about a week ago) Antigone was laying her eggs as usual, but then I saw her egg and a shell-less one here and there. I switched them to layer feed and gave them some cottage cheese as a supplement, but we were back down to one egg.
Then it got hot. Really hot. And the poor chickens were not happy campers! Antigone kept laying, but I still didn't see any hint of other eggs.
That is, until today! It's still hot but Hestia must have decided that she wasn't going to hang about and wait on the weather, LOL.
Here are some pictures of her and her eggs:
This is the egg while it was still in the nest box. Thank goodness, Hestia has decided to use the R hand box while Antigone uses the L hand box. But one or the other is going to have to share with Cassandra when *she* starts laying! She's a few weeks behind the other two.
Here is the new egg on the left, a store-bought 'large' egg in the middle and our Black Sex Link's egg from today on the right. Please note the size difference! Although Antigone's eggs have pretty much doubled in size since she first started laying.
Here are the Australorps that we have -- Hestia is the one looking at the ground.
Whitewater
My almost 23 week old Black Australorp, Hestia, laid her first good egg today! In the middle of our heat wave, I might add.
I figured neither of our Australorps would lay until it got cooler, boy, was I surprised! The reason I figured this was before the heat started (about a week ago) Antigone was laying her eggs as usual, but then I saw her egg and a shell-less one here and there. I switched them to layer feed and gave them some cottage cheese as a supplement, but we were back down to one egg.
Then it got hot. Really hot. And the poor chickens were not happy campers! Antigone kept laying, but I still didn't see any hint of other eggs.
That is, until today! It's still hot but Hestia must have decided that she wasn't going to hang about and wait on the weather, LOL.
Here are some pictures of her and her eggs:
This is the egg while it was still in the nest box. Thank goodness, Hestia has decided to use the R hand box while Antigone uses the L hand box. But one or the other is going to have to share with Cassandra when *she* starts laying! She's a few weeks behind the other two.
Here is the new egg on the left, a store-bought 'large' egg in the middle and our Black Sex Link's egg from today on the right. Please note the size difference! Although Antigone's eggs have pretty much doubled in size since she first started laying.
Here are the Australorps that we have -- Hestia is the one looking at the ground.
Whitewater
