First Egg !!!! And a question

[gertiie]

My girls are 16 weeks , give or take a day or two .
Yesterday morning they got leftover bacon , eggs, hashbrowns and an english muffin with strawberry jelly . LOL
I went to take them out their afternoon salad and .........
We got our first egg yesterday !!!!!

Now how do I convince them to start laying their eggs in their beautiful nesting boxes inside their
very expensive chicken house, instead of outside in the dirt ?

 

[NottinghamChicks]

You can use golf balls in the nest or fake wooden eggs. They will get it in no time, fake eggs or not. They tend to like the comfort and privacy a box offers and will gravitate their at some point.

 

[luvinmychickens]

You can use a plastic easter egg too.

One of my chickens just started laying 2 days ago. 1st egg on the floor. I put a plastic easter egg in the nesting boxes. 2nd egg IN the nesting box.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Yes, golf balls or wooden eggs. Sometimes it takes a week or so to get them in the boxes. They get "surprised" about the egg coming and can drop it anywhere. I've had first eggs under the roosts, under the hanging feeder, in the run, by the ramp to the coop, etc. They all made it to the nesting boxes in time.

 

[TouchO'Lass]

Congrats, gertiie!! We're first eggers together!!

Guess my 16-17 week old gals didn't read the book either! Thought I had at LEAST another month, but went out last evening and found one in the sandbox, one in the temporary coop.

I REALLY have to stop answering my phone, learn to say NO, and get to work on my OWN stuff, huh??

Just curious; what flavor chickens do you have? I know it had to be one or more of my 5 EE's cuz the eggs are the most beautiful sage green. If anything, I thought it would be one of my BR's...

 

[P-Funk]

I found a first egg today too

and I also have a question. Cindy has been checking out the nesting boxes for three days now. Today she was in there for 3 hours. Several unusual things happened. 1. She laid a BROWN egg (she's a white leghorn) 2. It's tiny (she's my biggest girl) 3. It was on the floor in the barn (as if in had been pushed out of the box and rolled out of the coop). 4. I didn't get the usual announcement from the older girls.

Wierd???

Update. 3 days in a row now there has been a tiny brown egg on the floor. I locked the new girls in the coop/run this morning to see if they at least used the boxes. Nope. What is going on

 

[This_chicks_place]

Congrats to you all!! Did you do the Happy Dance??

 

[Karen 2739]

My first egg today too! I was soooo excited, I think I woke up all th neighbors!!. What a fun thing to find first thing in the morning. It was on the floor near the pop door. I just put a marble egg in one of the nest boxes. We'll see where the next one goes! Oh happy day.

My girls are 17 weeks old.

 

[TouchO'Lass]

Quote:

It's funny, because when I saw that perfect little egg in the sand box, I did a double (and triple!) take!! I mean, I started with chickens for the eggs, but now that the first one was sitting there, it was like I was looking at an alien or something! I just DID NOT expect them so soon, and thought maybe my sugar buggar was playing a joke on me, but he's not that calculating.

When it finally sunk in, OH YEAH! Happy dance!!

AND... I forgot to ask all you WAY more learn-ed ones: I have 6 BR's, 3 Polish, and the 5 EE's. They're all the same age (not quite 17 weeks) so I don't expect them to ALL start laying for another few weeks. Should I start feeding Layer since one or more have started? Or should I stick with starter/grower until they're mostly all laying?

I figured I'd mix the layer with the grower for now so there was a little something for everyone, but just curious what's best for the gals...

I mean, aside from getting in gear and finishing their REAL coop!!

 

[P-Funk]

It's time to start the layer feed/egg maker. That's usually @ 60 days. It may even say your bag of starter feed "Do Not Feed To Laying Hens". Congrats, you'll have more eggs than you know what to do with soon. On another note,this is the first time I've had to try the golf ball trick, so I'll keep you posted...