First eggs!

[kodster]

LOL! Just me to check... so far, 3 eggs today, and I'm waiting on the 2nd Black Australorp to finally lay hers... I saw her lay her first one yesterday, so I know she's laying. I now know exactly which ones are laying. However, since it WAS her first one, she may miss a day before she gets into the swing of things. She was in one of the nesting boxes this morning, and she's the one that was bitching up a storm because it wasn't the one she wanted to use. So she never laid another one, yet. It's only me and my DH, and this is my project. He has raised birds before, but he's a full-time truck driver, so doesn't have the time to do it. He's very supportive of me, though, so that helps a great deal. So, I get to check for eggs all day long! LOL!

That's the only reason why I have a scale... I also incubate eggs, and I weigh them to check for weight loss and growth of the air cells. So, now, another purpose... to check the progress of the eggs as they get bigger.

Funny you should mention the Ameraucanas! I just hatched 5 of them a week ago! So, 18-24 weeks from now, we'll have the blue eggs, too. I have 3 pullets out of the 5 hatched, and 2 cockerels. Two black ones, two splash, one blue.

 

[Webechickens]

The difficult part for me is we have 8 Buff Orp, 1 black sex link, 1 GLW, 2 light brahma, 2 RIR, and 1 Barred Rock, and 1 BO cockerel. I know that the 2 laying are BO but they all look alike! Can't tell them apart. Even watching one lay her egg yesterday, today I have no idea. Oh well, guess it doesn't really matter. It would be fun to know, though.

 

[kodster]

I can appreciate that on the BOs. I have 5 pullets & 1 cockerel, 4 weeks old, and have a hard time telling them apart. I also have 4 GLW pullets, and 1 GLW cockerel, 4 weeks old, as well as 5 Ameraucanas, 1 week old, 1 English Lemon Barred Cuckoo Orp, 1 week old, and 1 that I believe is a White Rock, 1 week old.

My now laying flock, consists of 5 RIR hens, 1 RIR cockerel, 4 Black Australorp hens, 4 White Jersey Giant hens, and 1 GLW cockerel, 20 weeks old. I also have a Black Australorp cockerel, 1 White Jersey Giant hen, 1 Black Australorp hen, and 5 Dark Cornish hens, 16 weeks old. The 20-week old GLW cockerel is destined for freezer camp this weekend... he was a hatchery free exotic rare chick, and we thought he was a hen, until I found him mounting 1 of the older hens the other day. That cinched it... he's too aggressive for my tastes, even bullies and has torn the tail feathers off my RIR cockerel that is very sweet, but he is so skittish now because of the GLW. I know when I isolated the GLW into the animal crate, harmony returned to my flock, and the rest of the birds are much calmer now.

I can tell the difference between my older birds (coloring of the feathers, conditions of the feathers... 1 of my RIR has "frizzled" feathers on her back, and she's a much darker, richer brown than the others... she's the one that started first). Since I'm the one that deals with them the most, I'm very observant, too, as you can probably tell. I'm also a SAH housewife, so a lot more time to spend with them. My older birds will stomp their feet, and then lower themselves on their haunches, when I'm around, too, being submissive to me as the dominant "hen" and I pet them a LOT!

 

[Webechickens]

I'm a SAH wife/mom, too. Definitely allows for lots of time to hang in the coop. I'm in there every day. Love spending time with them. We also got 4 rescue mini donkeys the other day. They need a lot of TLC but for now just letting them get to know us. They weren't handled much so it will take some time.

 

[kodster]

I know the feeling... if DH calls during the day, he knows that if I don't answer the phone, it's because I'm out with the chickens and ducks. I also have 12 ducks, 6 jumbo pekins and 6 rouens, and all but 2 of them are the same age as my laying chicken hens... so I'm expecting the duck hens to start laying soon, too.