First Egg Countdown

[BunnyLover44]

Congrats on the egg! It looks like the egg color my BOs lay. Congrats

 

[Happy Chooks]

I am new to the chicken scene. I am a biology teacher and we hatched eggs in class a part of a lesson. Out of the 9 that hatched 2 were girls so I decided to keep them to see if I could get them to lay eggs and THEY DID! They are 20 weeks old and lay 1 egg each every morning. My sons and I are so excited, they check every morning. One of them, Star lol, sings when she is ready. I tried to attached a picture but it didn't work. We have 17 eggs so far and ate 5 and they tasted good. I am not sure what to do next. Do I get the egg laying food, continue the grow food? I also give them some greens (broc, lettuce, kale) and dried meal worms. I read in a post that sometimes what you feed them can change the taste of the egg?

Any advise for me would be helpful?

You can continue feeding the grower until you run out. Give them a dish of crushed oyster shell on the side for them to take it as they need it for strong shells. Greens are very good for them and give you the dark orange colored yolks, so definitely continue with the greens as treats. Mealworms are great protein, so that is a good treat as well.

Feeding a lot of strong odor foods (onions, garlic and fish) can cause a taste in your eggs, though I've never fed enough of it to affect the flavor of my eggs. My chickens get anything and everything that is not moldy. They go crazy for noodles, especially spagetti and macaroni and cheese. They love milk that's past it's date, and it helps their gut with good bacteria. Melon rinds, leftover meat scraps, etc. They are pigs with feathers.

We got our first egg!! My girls are all 18 weeks. 3 have been squatting the past couple of days, 2 of my EEs and 1 BO. Looks like the BO won! My 9 year old was so excited. Here's the one I think was the layer:

Congrats!

 

[RunamokRanch]

Mine are 22 and e'er weeks no eggs, and they are hiding the fake eggs.I put a real one in there and I can't find it either. Why would they hide them?

 

[lisa67steve99]

Cracked open my first double yolker today. It was so exciting, almost like an early Christmas!

 

[jtn42248]

You think that is exciting. Just wait until you get an egg inside and egg. Now that is something to puzzle over.

 

[RunamokRanch]

Any one ?

 

[LadyCluck77]

Mine are 22 and e'er weeks no eggs, and they are hiding the fake eggs.I put a real one in there and I can't find it either. Why would they hide them?

22 weeks is around the point of lay, they may be laying, but they may not. You may need to go egg hunting on your property. Don't be worried if you find they do not lay in the nesting box right away.
Sometimes, they may decide the nesting boxes are not "just right" and they choose to lay elsewhere they find more appealing.
If your girls free range, look in bushy, covered, or corner-type places, gardens with lots of mulch, house corners, and wood thickets, those are favorites for secret nests.

I wouldn't recommend putting real eggs, they sometimes try to peck to see if it's something edible. You definitely want to tell them eggs are not edible, so plastic or wooden eggs are great, golf balls, ping pong balls, or egg shaped rocks are also fine. Any color toy Easter egg is great too.

Just make sure your nest boxes have plenty of fluffy bedding and a fake egg of some sort to look nice and appealing, some people even put in a privacy curtain. Collect any other eggs you find elsewhere and they will usually get the hang of it. Once the older hens do, the younger hens tend to learn by example pretty quick.

 

[RunamokRanch]

Put fake ones in too a week ago, they bury them and throw them out into the run

 

[LadyCluck77]

Put fake ones in too a week ago, they bury them and throw them out into the run

Ah yes. Sometimes that happens when they go in to the box to fluff it up and practice sitting in it. Just patiently keep grabbing the fake egg, dusting it off, and put it back. Some of my high ranking hens rarely will knock out other eggs from the box, but it's not very often. Usually they share well. Hope you see eggs in the box soon

 

[LadyCluck77]

Here is an odd problem. This may be a first egg, it may not. My little 19 week old EE Blackbeard has been red, squatting, and singing. I was away from home all day yesterday though, so I don't know if this is hers or a fart egg from her mom. I found it at 10:00 last night in the nest box, with all eggs accounted for except the mom. Her moms eggs are very blunt on both ends, though, and this ones pointy. Possible pullet egg on the left and her moms egg on the right. They are both slightly different shades of pale blue.