First Egg Countdown

[krysta73]

question!!!!!! help! i have 6 hens, all within a month of age, they are about 4.5 months old, and the 1st 1 layed her 1st egg 3 days ago, then the 2nd yesterday... they fisrt 1 has no tail feathers, so i bought ointment to put on her bottom, the other has layed her 1st egg, now she has no tail feathers,,,,,,,whats the deal??? the 2nd on had all her tail feathers 2 days ago,,,,, i dont get it... at first i thought the 1st one was being pecked at by her sisters, now that 2nd one has none, and so quickly, i dont know what to do????? any suggestions??? PLEASE!

 

[Happy Chooks]

question!!!!!! help! i have 6 hens, all within a month of age, they are about 4.5 months old, and the 1st 1 layed her 1st egg 3 days ago, then the 2nd yesterday... they fisrt 1 has no tail feathers, so i bought ointment to put on her bottom, the other has layed her 1st egg, now she has no tail feathers,,,,,,,whats the deal??? the 2nd on had all her tail feathers 2 days ago,,,,, i dont get it... at first i thought the 1st one was being pecked at by her sisters, now that 2nd one has none, and so quickly, i dont know what to do????? any suggestions??? PLEASE!

Somebody is picking at her. Get either BluKote or No Pick and put that on her until her tail feathers grow back in. The no pick is purple and if you get it on your hands, it won't come off easily.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Got a first egg from a 23 week old wellie pullet yesterday.

I had just moved her to the breeding flock too.

 

[Skittleinaustin]

got our first today from my black sex link. 24 weeks old and i was really starting to stress out! Still waiting on her 6 sisters (one more black sex link, two ameracaunas, and one buff...all 24 weeks and two golden sex links at 18 weeks), but I am hopeful that this means that I won't ever have to buy eggs again!

 

[Pele]

Pele - here are some photos I took today of our girls. Small combs & wattles, no?


One of my RIRs.


Two Buffs and a Rhodie eating bread - note the small combs.


A profile shot of one of my Buffs. She is the redder-faced of the two Buffs.

Any idea of age now?

Btw, the coop in your Avatar - I have that one for my four girls, modified slightly to give more interior room. How did you get yours to notice the nesting boxes in there? My girls never go into the coop during the day, so how will they know to go in there for laying?

cheers
Ursa

Oh my goodness, I just saw that I completely missed this post, sorry about that Ursa!

I'd say your girls are probably around 16 to 18 weeks, and probably will head into developing into laying form in the next month or so. They're all very pretty!

The nesting boxes in the coop have pingpong balls in them to give the girls the idea to lay there. Your girls are too young to think much of them, so don't worry if they ignore them. Believe me, when they start thinking about laying, they'll really start eyeing them close!

 

[Pele]

Here you go Pele:

Icelandics lay a medium egg, but these are really small, probably close to bantam size. (not positive though since I don't raise bantams

)


And some older pictures of a couple of the girls - I need to get some new pics:


And this girl is the drama queen. No, she's not dead.:

Ok, that is one hysterical chicken. I lol'ed for like 10 minutes. I like the eggs too, thanks for sharing the pics!

 

[ButchGood]

Here's what my BuffOrps ans Astralorps are looking like at nearly 18 weeks. 1 Australorp looks very red.

 

[Happy Chooks]

The Australorp is close. You have a bit longer on the Orp though.

Glad I could give you a chuckle Pele.

Skittle.........you do know that chickens molt, right? If you don't want to have to buy eggs again, start hoarding eggs in September for the first year they will molt. (or get more to come into lay in winter) They usually lay well through their first winter, it's the 2nd winter that you have to worry about.

 

[Pele]

Omg my second Faverolle girl laid her first egg this morning! Woohoo!

And um... my sister laid her first egg today....kinda. 7 lbs 11 oz, name to be determined!:

 

[HappyHenMama]

Omg my second Faverolle girl laid her first egg this morning! Woohoo!

And um... my sister laid her first egg today....kinda. 7 lbs 11 oz, name to be determined!:

Awe...that's the cutest "peep" I've ever seen!