First Egg Yay!! But now what??

[Chickie Trio]

My Toffee just laid her first egg! Whoo hooo!! But what do I do lol? I gave her a treat to congratulate her (banana & scratch grain), but what else? Should I lv it there? Take it right away? Does she need anything? I cant believe it hadn’t occurred to me to ask these questions, I wasn’t expecting eggs til next spring!

Also, she’s been separating herself from the other 2 girls & wandering around alone in the yard for the past few days & none of the 3 girls seemed to be bothered by this. Was the pending egg the reason for this behavior? Will they go back to their normal trio wandering now?

& will she lay eggs every day now? Now that she’s started are the others close behind? Or all in their own time?

Thanks so much!

 

[Tclloyd0812]

Congrats on your first egg, it's always very exciting!

Should I lv it there? Take it right away? Does she need anything?

That's up to you. If you're looking to have a broody hen, you'd leave the egg there and let her make a clutch. But if you aren't looking for chicks or don't even have a rooster, I'd collect them right away or at least once a day collect the eggs you get so they aren't sitting there for no reason.

Was the pending egg the reason for this behavior? Will they go back to their normal trio wandering now?

It could have been. Sometimes hens go off on their own for a while when they first start laying. Especially if they're looking for the perfect place to sit and lay.

& will she lay eggs every day now? Now that she’s started are the others close behind? Or all in their own time?

She should gradually build up to laying an egg either every day or every few days depending on her breed and the weather as some hens stop laying more in colder weather. The others shouldn't be too far behind depending on their age and breed. Usually it's like domino's, once your first hen lays, the others follow shortly behind. But yes, it will be on their own schedule.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Yes you should take the egg - mainly to ensure it doesn't get broken. You can eat it, blow it out and save the shell, or even if you want to hatch it's best to let hens start setting on fakes first to ensure they're going to stick with it.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

You generally don't want to hatch pullet eggs right away, is my understanding, but wait a couple of months, to be sure all the kinks are worked out first so you get healthy chicks. The hens don't seem to be emotionally attached to the eggs so you don't need to feel bad about taking them out of the nest. Once they've laid the egg they usually get off the nest and go do other things and forget all about it. The whole thing seems (to me) more like they've just had a big BM and can now go do more fun and important chicken stuff, like take a dust bath or go hunt bugs..