First egg!

[tuesdaylove]

I went out to check on the chickens this morning and I found an egg! I don't know who laid it. I have one standard hen and three bantams. The egg is just a bit smaller than the average grocery store egg. I think my standard hen may have laid it, because for the past week, her legs have been really pale and her vent area didn't look too good, but it's one of my bantam hens who is clucking in weird patterns - maybe that's an "egg song?"

Anyways, I haven't had chickens for long and I know nothing about eggs. I have a few questions that I would love to have answered!

1. How do I know if the egg is fertile or not?
2. None of the hens are broody. They're all ignoring the egg. Chances are, it was laid early this morning and it is now a little after noon (at the time of writing). If it was fertile, is it already dead because no hen sat on it?
3. Is it okay if I hold it and carry it around? (I've got some family members who really want to see it, and I'd have to bring it inside to do so.)
4. Is it okay if anyone eats it? Even if its fertile?

I'll get a picture of it later, as soon as I find my camera.

 

[sumi]

Congrats! Hope that's the first of many eggs. O.K. Questions...
1. When you crack the egg open look for a little white "bullseye" on the yolk. That's a sign of fertility.
2. Fertile eggs can stay viable for about 3 weeks, though the chances of it actually developing gets smaller the older the egg gets. Ideally you should incubate it within a week of it being laid. If you want to incubate it, in which case it's better to wait until the hen got the hang of the laying story and lays "normal" size eggs.
3. You can carry it around as much as you like. Show it off and enjoy!
4. You can eat it. A fertile egg needs to be kept at a temperature of around 99* for 24 hours minimum before the embryo will start developing. So throw that egg in a frying pan and enjoy!

 

[harleyguy927]

Congrats! I just started my first flock this spring and about two weeks ago I found my first egg. It was like Christmas! And every day since has been like Easter!

 

[harleyguy927]

oh, and if they are going to be laying then you need to be sure you have them on a good layers feed, or mix oyster shell in with the feed your using. they need lots of calcium.

 

[mini-micro rancher]

ETHEL WAS IN THE NEST BOX! Okay, I'll simmer down. Whewww. My Ameraucanas are nearly 20 weeks old. I have three hens from last year who are still laying, but three egg layers don't really support a family of four sometimes five people (oldest is living on his own, but often eats with us). I was just getting cleaned up for the day, when I heard Baby and Hermione singing the egg laying song like their lives depended on it, or, more like they were happy kids at a birthday party with a pinata. My husband and I went out there to see what was going on, and ohmydog! Ethel, one of the Ameraucanas, was in the nest box on top of Chipmunk's egg (I saw her in the box earlier today, otherwise I would have been totally confused as to why my ameraucanas are laying brown eggs). I quickly shut the nest boxes back up, and walked away, while Baby and Hermione continued to cheer her on. Imagine, two hens singing the egg song at the top of the coop ladder, while they new layer sits in the box going, "Come on, ladies! I'm working here." GO ETHEL!

Oop! Wait! My 9 year old son just ran in hooping and hollering! She did it! And it's BLUE! Not as small as I thought her first egg would be. I am impressed!

The first one on the left is Ethel's, then Chipmunk's (a Golden Wyandotte), Baby's (an EE), and Hermione (a blue marans). Chipmunk is a year old. Ethel's egg isn't bad for a first egg, eh?

 

[sumi]

Not bad at all! Congrats and enjoy!

 

[theoldchick]

 

[mini-micro rancher]

Thank you! Today has been kinda screwy, so no one has laid yet. Everyone got a lice/mite dip and the coop and run got cleaned up and treated. It was time, and Hermione was scratching. She is such a big meany girl I know that if she is itching, those bugs must have a death wish! The dog and cats are bumming, because THEY got treated too. Like, "Dang, I didn't do it! Why I gotta get washed?"

It's funny, the dog and the hens all got the same stuff, but I had to give the cats something different. I come from animal medical where you definitely had to make sure the shampoo was cat safe, but the dog could use anything. Problem is, the cat stuff requires egg withdraw, and I'M NOT going there. So, it's not like I can use the same stuff on all.

 

[tuesdaylove]

Thanks for the help everyone, and for sharing about your own chickens and eggs!

I went out a few minutes ago to check on the chickens, and there WAS another egg... But only the shell. :c I don't know what happened. Maybe someone ate it?

Here's the picture I took of the first egg, next to an egg from the store for comparison. Does this look like an egg from a really big hen (Cornish Cross/Plymouth Rock?) or a bantam?

 

[mini-micro rancher]

NOT a bantam. I have a picture somewhere of my bantam from last year. Their first eggs are puny and adorable. A store bought egg would dwarf it by comparison. I'm going to upload my sister's cochin's egg, for comparison. ANNNND weirdness abounds in my flock AGAIN. My nine year old went out to check for eggs, and the marans laid, Ethel (the new layer) laid, and there was an EGG IN THE RUN in the pea gravel, and it's not green. It's not olive eggy, it's super light brown. Not chipmunk's.

I was prepared to be disappointed in these "Ameraucanas" from the grange, but then Ethel's egg got my hopes up.

Here's my sister's cochin's egg, with another farm egg (blue marans).



I still have to take a picture of the new "odd" egg.