I went on vacation over the holidays and came home to 13 eggs!!! I'm a newbie chicken owner and these are my first chickens and eggs. I'm rather disappointed I wasn't here when they first started laying though. The pen has 4 bearded silkies in it and I suspect I may have all hens. I have some younger non-bearded silkies from McMurray that I've been able to tell the difference between the roos and hens for weeks now, but the ones that are laying came from local hobby farms. So my question is... over a (roughly) 6 day period there would have to be 2-3 laying wouldn't there to have that many eggs?
13 eggs would have come from at least 3-4 pullets, as they don't usually lay every day when they first start out.
Sweet. It's a relief to more or less confirm they are all hens, I'm shocked I got so lucky since they were stright run. The one of the four I thought might be a roo I caught sitting on a newly laid egg a few hours ago. That being said, I still have another 6 confirmed bantam roos that are 4 months old that I have to eventually rehome. **sigh** They're pretty quiet and well-behaved so for now I'm keeping them as house roosters (they actually have their own room) so I won't get neighbour complaints until I can find them homes where they won't become soup or dog food. I've already had to give away two stunning frizzle roos and a mille fleur d'uccle (my favourite bird) because of one neighbour being grumpy over the crowing. It's funny how there's always one neighbour in your neighbourhood that's a jerk over your birds.