First Egg Countdown

[Flowerbh]

I will neither confirm nor deny engaging in this activity... All I can tell you, is that, given the choice between a nest with 1 existing eggolf ball or many (2 or more) existing "eggs", my leghorn chooses the more empty nest. My wyandotte prefers the left nest box, and my easter eggers do not have a preference.

So... when I come to collect, and I find a white egg in with a brown, blue or green egg and the gold ball...and the other nest box is empty, I know who laid first. And this quite obviously falls under the "too much time on my hands" category, but I am also tracking laying schedules in a spreadsheet, so... between that and the distribution of eggs in the nestboxes, I have a fairly accurate picture of these hens' laying cycles.



So, in this chart, I've turned on Zoe's and Inara's symbols so you can see their laying cycles more clearly amidst everyone else's... and you can definitely see that there's a pattern to a hen's laying schedule... Zoe's brown dots indicate that I should expect an egg from her today around 4pm... and then, tomorrow, she will take a break. Inara's pink squares indicate that I might not see an egg from her today. I don't seem to get an egg from her if she laid after 12pm the day before. But, it was close... so, there's still a chance... if I do, she's off tomorrow, if not, I'll get one from her before 8am tomorrow.

Obviously, if I had more than 10 hens, this kind of tracking would be ridiculous and totally impractical. But, for the first time, small flock owner (like me,

), it's been extremely educational.

OMG! I will have to show this to my husband who thinks I am nuts for marking my calendar who laid an egg that day so I can keep a tally! Maybe he won't think I'm so bad now! Love what your doing!

 

[Gifa]

Zoe... like clockwork... right at 4pm. Also... Inara did lay today (3:30)... as did Yolanda (3:00)

Since Bridget laid first thing this morning, and Kaylee took today off... I know I'll get eggs from them tomorrow... all before noon. Since the others were so late today... nada for tomorrow out of all of them.

 

[gwenirish11]

Thank you off grid hen....and thanks for dealing w my insanity

 

[Pele]

I will neither confirm nor deny engaging in this activity... All I can tell you, is that, given the choice between a nest with 1 existing eggolf ball or many (2 or more) existing "eggs", my leghorn chooses the more empty nest. My wyandotte prefers the left nest box, and my easter eggers do not have a preference.

So... when I come to collect, and I find a white egg in with a brown, blue or green egg and the gold ball...and the other nest box is empty, I know who laid first. And this quite obviously falls under the "too much time on my hands" category, but I am also tracking laying schedules in a spreadsheet, so... between that and the distribution of eggs in the nestboxes, I have a fairly accurate picture of these hens' laying cycles.



So, in this chart, I've turned on Zoe's and Inara's symbols so you can see their laying cycles more clearly amidst everyone else's... and you can definitely see that there's a pattern to a hen's laying schedule... Zoe's brown dots indicate that I should expect an egg from her today around 4pm... and then, tomorrow, she will take a break. Inara's pink squares indicate that I might not see an egg from her today. I don't seem to get an egg from her if she laid after 12pm the day before. But, it was close... so, there's still a chance... if I do, she's off tomorrow, if not, I'll get one from her before 8am tomorrow.

Obviously, if I had more than 10 hens, this kind of tracking would be ridiculous and totally impractical. But, for the first time, small flock owner (like me,

), it's been extremely educational.

Ok you are officially one of the coolest people I know.

 

[Crafty-Duck]

I will neither confirm nor deny engaging in this activity... All I can tell you, is that, given the choice between a nest with 1 existing eggolf ball or many (2 or more) existing "eggs", my leghorn chooses the more empty nest. My wyandotte prefers the left nest box, and my easter eggers do not have a preference.

So... when I come to collect, and I find a white egg in with a brown, blue or green egg and the gold ball...and the other nest box is empty, I know who laid first. And this quite obviously falls under the "too much time on my hands" category, but I am also tracking laying schedules in a spreadsheet, so... between that and the distribution of eggs in the nestboxes, I have a fairly accurate picture of these hens' laying cycles.



So, in this chart, I've turned on Zoe's and Inara's symbols so you can see their laying cycles more clearly amidst everyone else's... and you can definitely see that there's a pattern to a hen's laying schedule... Zoe's brown dots indicate that I should expect an egg from her today around 4pm... and then, tomorrow, she will take a break. Inara's pink squares indicate that I might not see an egg from her today. I don't seem to get an egg from her if she laid after 12pm the day before. But, it was close... so, there's still a chance... if I do, she's off tomorrow, if not, I'll get one from her before 8am tomorrow.

Obviously, if I had more than 10 hens, this kind of tracking would be ridiculous and totally impractical. But, for the first time, small flock owner (like me,

), it's been extremely educational.

I do something similar

I also have a small flock and too much time on my hands

 

[Happy Chooks]

One less slacker. My lavender ameraucana laid her 1st egg this morning. She has the funniest egg song I have ever heard - I'm going to have to video it. I was shocked when she got up though to see it's olive green in color. Guess I'll have to wait for my Cream Legbar to give me blue eggs.

This picture doesn't do the egg justice - green eggs are so hard to photograph.

 

[Crafty-Duck]

One less slacker. My lavender ameraucana laid her 1st egg this morning. She has the funniest egg song I have ever heard - I'm going to have to video it. I was shocked when she got up though to see it's olive green in color. Guess I'll have to wait for my Cream Legbar to give me blue eggs.

This picture doesn't do the egg justice - green eggs are so hard to photograph.

That's a beauty

Congrats

 

[wickedlees]

Yay! Happy days start out with eggs!

 

[gwenirish11]

Yay!!! Congrats Chooks!!!

 

[rlhagan56]

I am SO excited! Just last week I was wondering if my banties would start laying in winter, they are all 21 weeks this week. I went out in the snowstorm an hour ago or so and opened the mini coop up;





And my Barred Rock Banty hen was in the little nest, stood up, and dropped her first egg right in front of me talk about perfect timing! Then she walked a couple of steps over to me for her reward lol! She is such a sweetheart anyway and the BR banty rooster has turned out to be such a good rooster too with a gentle personality. Sooo, presenting my first mini egg, ta da!

And on another note, we wormed twice thinking they would all stop laying so much since it is dark thirty all the time now and cold. Nope! Only my EE has stopped laying, and she is molting a little bit in her first winter. I really have hated throwing those eggs out. But starting today we are back in business. Oh, I write on the calendar when my girls lay too.