First EGG!!! Wooo!

[sramelyk]

So, usually my chicken and rooster are out of the coop and in the run early in the morning ready to be released to free range. Today, around 11:00am my father came in and said that my chicken just came out of the coop for the first time today and she had been making "noises" all morning. So, I checked her box, reluctantly, and surprise!! First egg! She did such a good job!!




Its a little silly I know but I am so proud of her!

I have a few questions though, since I wasn't expecting eggs yet.

1.) Right now I have a modified egg crate with mulch and grass as a nesting box. I honestly wasn't expecting her to lay yet and just had it in there "just in case". Well, she used the crate and the egg was nestled right in the mulch. My question, what material besides hay can I use? The mulch seems a little rough and only used it because they seem to like to dig in it and lay in it. I didn't want to have to buy an entire bail of hay just for a little bit.

2.) I started with what I thought was 6 hens. 4 of them were eaten by predators before I had a secured coop finished. So I was left with two. As they aged it then became evident that I had 1 hen and 1 rooster. The rooster was my favorite chick (ALTHOUGH HE"S VERY UNFRIENDLY NOW AS AN ADULT MALE) and hated to get rid of him so I kept him. So, he fertilizes the egg I would assume prior to her laying it. So, can I still eat the fertilized egg? How long do I have before and embryo would start to form? Just very new to the egg laying and process, any help would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance!
Kyle

 

[TexasChickenUnv]

Congratulations!

We took photos of our first egg, then another of it broken in the bowl, then another in the pan, and finally the scrambled finished product.

You can definitely eat fertilized eggs. I didn't think our roo was even making contact with our banties...until one hatched out a fuzzy version of herself with a beard and short Ameraucana fanny.

With the price of hay so high, we got a small bale of pine shavings bedding from the pet store for a couple of bucks and the hens loved it. We have since used hay also, and one banty is now on a nest of leaves and dirt in my daughter's playhouse. Apparently not picky.

Can't answer your last question, sorry! We eat them as fast as we get them.

 

[Den in Penn]

Grass, leaves. pine needles, shredded paper, wood shavings, carpet are just a few of the things I've heard of being used for nests.
When the egg cools down after being laid the development stops at just a couple of divisions. Kept cool, under incubation temperatures, they can be used as long as unfertilized ones.

 

[Major_in_MS]

Congrats on your first egg today.

 

[OmeletMan]

Our first eggs came today too. Congrats!