First egg surprise - who laid this?

AussieJen

Songster
Nov 22, 2018
50
146
101
Canberra, Australia
My Coop
My Coop
On Monday I went to feed my girls some scratch and checked their nest box, actually saying to them "I don't know why I'm doing this, I'm not expecting you to lay yet", but there it was, a teeny tiny bantam pullet egg!!!!! :celebrateTotal weight a "whopping" 16g (half an ounce). Yesterday (5 days later) there was another egg at 20g. I'm pretty impressed cos we're in the middle of a heatwave with temps above 35°C (95°F) every day for weeks.
So who is my clever girl? Half my flock I incubator hatched 17.5 weeks before the first egg - all brown egg layers so it's not them. The other half I bought as "day-olds" the next day, with only a couple of wing feathers developed when I bought them (I always assumed they were up to 1 week older, so around 18 weeks old). All are heritage breeds that I didn't expect anyone to lay so early. So lucky me :wee
My question is, who laid them? Could these tiny eggs be the pullet eggs from my bantam light sussex (reddest comb) or is it one of my mottled d'Uccles? The hollowed out space they made in the nesting material was d'Uccle-sized, and I got my first squat from one of the d'Uccles yesterday.
Any thoughts?
IMG_20190127_083220606.jpg
 
On Monday I went to feed my girls some scratch and checked their nest box, actually saying to them "I don't know why I'm doing this, I'm not expecting you to lay yet", but there it was, a teeny tiny bantam pullet egg!!!!! :celebrateTotal weight a "whopping" 16g (half an ounce). Yesterday (5 days later) there was another egg at 20g. I'm pretty impressed cos we're in the middle of a heatwave with temps above 35°C (95°F) every day for weeks.
So who is my clever girl? Half my flock I incubator hatched 17.5 weeks before the first egg - all brown egg layers so it's not them. The other half I bought as "day-olds" the next day, with only a couple of wing feathers developed when I bought them (I always assumed they were up to 1 week older, so around 18 weeks old). All are heritage breeds that I didn't expect anyone to lay so early. So lucky me :wee
My question is, who laid them? Could these tiny eggs be the pullet eggs from my bantam light sussex (reddest comb) or is it one of my mottled d'Uccles? The hollowed out space they made in the nesting material was d'Uccle-sized, and I got my first squat from one of the d'Uccles yesterday.
Any thoughts?
View attachment 1654260
The tan one looks like the d’uccle to me looks like mine
 
I was wondering how common it was for d'Uccles to lay at 18 weeks, then thought I need to check actual age. Turns out I bought them 18 weeks ago yesterday. The black and white chick in this pic shows feather development when I'd had them 4 days. I think it's possible these birds are now around 20 weeks old - does anyone concur? Still pleased to see eggs that early from d'Uccles! Go girls!!!
IMG_20180926_173114750.jpg
 

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