First egg from our Ideal welsummers. 2nd egg today... [updated pics]

[verlaj]

Nice speckled egg! I have Ideal Wellies that are about 4 mos now. One or two of them have developed red combs and wattles - should I still expect to wait another 2 months for eggs?

 

[jossanne]

Mine have had red combs and wattles for at least a month. I've been thinking I'd have eggs for the last few weeks...

 

[Freyja]

Very pretty!

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

Cool egg!

My Wellie from Ideal was incorrectly sexed. I can't have roos, so he's living on farm nearby with some real Wellie ladies.

As happy as I would be with the speckled egg, real Wellies should lay really dark eggs. Evidently as he's matured, his feathering isn't true to type either, although he's sweet as can be.

I love my hatchery girls all the same but isn't it frustrating when mutts are sold as heritage breeds?

 

[jossanne]

Quote:
Well, I've read that breeder wellies often lay speckled eggs. And I'm not frustrated with these birds at all. The egg is at least as good as I was expecting. Their coloring looks just like the birds on EweSheep's website. They're not quite as thickly built as hers, though their shape is close. But their color is identical. I ordered 10 welsummers, and lost 3 of them. The chicks didn't seem as hardy as some of the others. But the 7 remaining were all correctly sexed as pullets.

I wouldn't call them mutts just because they don't match show standard perfectly. I posted these pictures because I've read several posts on here saying hatchery welsummer eggs often aren't any different than "regular" brown eggs, and to me this is significantly different. I am encouraged by that, and hopefully others will be too.

 

[fowltemptress]

Pretty egg! I like how much more character it has than a plain ol' dark egg . . . it's like children's pictures of dino eggs.

 

[BarkerChickens]

How pretty! I have 5 Wellsummers pullets that are about 5 months old. I figure they should start laying any week now. Mine are hatchery stock as well, so, as you mentioned, I am not expecting anything spectacular. So, if I get an egg that pretty, I will be HAPPY!

Congrats!!

 

[Tailfeathers]

Quote:
I thought I'd quote the above as evidence that beauty certainly is in the eye of the beholder and that there are different strokes for different folks.

I recently had a family come by to buy some birds from me and I was showing them the difference between the eggs my SQ Welsummers lay and those that I am culling (which they wanted). The cool thing was they actually liked the speckled eggs better than what I'm working on. You can see pics of my Wellie eggs on my website.

Jossanne, just FYI and nothing else, even though that Wellie egg is darker than your other brown eggs, for a Wellie, it is still very light. If you do a search on BYC, you can probably come across pictures of other speckled Wellie eggs and see what I mean. Just as a suggestion, if you plan to breed your Wellies, I would not carry on those genes.

God Bless,

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

Quote:
I actually LOVE the speckled egg, and would be very pleased to have one in my egg basket. Come to think of it, I would be very pleased to have any eggs in my egg basket. Despite my pleading, none of my 8 who are old enough seem to have any interest in starting.

I guess their genetics vary widely. Maybe you can select for it and start a line of pure breeding speckled eggers! Sign me up.

Are your Wellie hens sweet? My roo from them was the sweetest little guy- much nicer than any of my assorted pullets. I hear from his new owner that his temperament hasn't changed as he's matured. If I could have a roo, I think I'd pick him in a minute.

 

[lauralou]

I have also heard that Welsummer eggs will get a bit darker as the bird matures and gets into the groove. I don't know if that's actually true or not.

Regardless, all "first eggs" are very exciting, so Congrats! First egg! Hoo wee!