First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[duluthralphie]

SUNNY LAID HER FIRST EGG THIS MORNING!!

It was a little bigger than the silkie egg. It was a light brown with white speckles.

Impossible!

My little babies are older than yours and mine are not even close to egg laying age!


Either that or I have a mess of eggs hiding somewhere.









Oh and Grats on the long awaited for egg.

 

[LindaB220]

Looks like my little chubby rooster will die a virgin...dang...


He is upset with me anyways, probably would go on strike and refuse to do his duty. He is not happy about having to move to a new coop. I went to feed them this morning and they actually walked away from me and huddled in a corner instead of greeting me.

Oh man, you have spoiled them.

Relax. They pout for a day or so and then it's all good. I moved my immature White Plymouth Rock rooster into the growout pen along with 2 small 3 or so months old mutts. Some kind of rock. He pouted for a day and now is fine. The new pretty fellow is super fine with his 6 girls. They'll all settle down and start breeding sooner or later. Do you have lights in your coop? I don't and every single one of my hens stopped dead in a 3 day period. The others never started laying and they are over seven mo old. I'll be put up a strand of white lights in each coop in a day or so. I think I'll set the timer for 4 hrs coming on at dusk.

 

[LindaB220]

SUNNY LAID HER FIRST EGG THIS MORNING!!

It was a little bigger than the silkie egg. It was a light brown with white speckles.

Now you know, and it will get bigger fairly fast. Congrats.

 

[mountain mom]

Impossible!

My little babies are older than yours and mine are not even close to egg laying age!


Either that or I have a mess of eggs hiding somewhere.









Oh and Grats on the long awaited for egg.

Ralphie I think you are in denial... maybe?
I wonder if you do have a secret nest somewhere?!

On the white egg front, I have no clue who could be laying such a small white egg. Are all your layers, except the chubbies, the same ages? Is there anyone just getting to laying age who would have smaller white eggs?
All our eggs were whitish and smaller at the start, then just the silkie continued to lay eggs like that.

Pearl was quite angry with me for a bit too when she had to move houses. I bet they will shape up and start greeting you again

 

[mountain mom]

Oh man, you have spoiled them.

Relax. They pout for a day or so and then it's all good. I moved my immature White Plymouth Rock rooster into the growout pen along with 2 small 3 or so months old mutts. Some kind of rock. He pouted for a day and now is fine. The new pretty fellow is super fine with his 6 girls. They'll all settle down and start breeding sooner or later. Do you have lights in your coop? I don't and every single one of my hens stopped dead in a 3 day period. The others never started laying and they are over seven mo old. I'll be put up a strand of white lights in each coop in a day or so. I think I'll set the timer for 4 hrs coming on at dusk.

I am planning on putting lights up in the coop too. I am so annoyed with our one egg every other day or so. I don't expect 8 a day like in the summer, but I was sure hopeful for more than I am getting!

 

[Morrigan]

SUNNY LAID HER FIRST EGG THIS MORNING!!

It was a little bigger than the silkie egg. It was a light brown with white speckles.

Woot woot! What a good chicken.

 

[JessicaThistle]

Sunny's egg on the right, the silkie egg on the left.

Yes, Ralph is certainly in denial. They aren't babies anymore and the haven't been little since the were 4 days old. Lol!

Linda: I'm so glad you rescued that vodka. I could have never looked at you the same if you hadn't.

I agree that not getting eggs daily really stinks! I have 11 hens for goodness sake. I should get 6 at minimum. I added a light to each of my chicken runs. I don't do the morning light though. I leave the light on until 8:30 pm and then it goes off on a timer. I don't want the lights going on at 4 am. I don't like 4 am. This is why I got rid of my roosters. Unfortunately, 4 of my rescue babies are roosters. Ugh! Anyway, I have a buff orpington that is a major complainer. She complains when she gets up, wants out, lays an egg, and sometimes for no apparent reason. Being that the coop is 20 ft from my bedroom window, I do NOT want them getting up at 4 am. Besides, in the summer they always stayed up until 8 pm before going in. Seems silly to put them to bed and 5 pm.

I know that people say you are supposed to do morning light and not evening but it doesn't really make sense to me and I am not seeing an adverse effect on them. Plus I am now getting at least 6 eggs per day.

 

[Morrigan]

Jessica, the egg is beautiful! She was 20 weeks old? I can't remember.

I've got 11 hens as well, and I'm only getting a couple of eggs of day, if I'm lucky. I had one 3 day stretch of going 0, 1, 0, before getting 3 eggs yesterday. I've not been giving any supplemental light, however. About 7 are just coming off a molt, and 3 still need to molt (they are really late), and my youngest hen is 19 weeks, so we are still waiting on her first egg. I figure it's just going to be a low egg stretch for another month.

We've been doing a lot of yogurt, toast and pancakes for breakfast, but I've got a nice egg stash put away for Christmas breakfast.

 

[JessicaThistle]

Morrigan - Sunny will be 20 weeks old on Monday.

I was having days like that with no eggs or just 1. That's why I decided to add the light. I would say it took about 3-4 weeks before the egg increase happened though.

At what age do hens start having a molt? Mine are all under a year old. I see feathers all around but no one looks molty. I'm curious to know when I need to prepare for that?

 

[Morrigan]

This was my first molt, Jessica. 9 of my hens were all born in June 2013. They all laid well throughout the first winter (no molting) and then started to molt around Sept/Oct of this year. You can't miss the molt, there are feathers everywhere. For some, the feather loss was very rapid and the hens looked really raggedy, others it was slower. Their combs went pale and they stopped laying as they regrew their feathers. Now the ones who are finished, look beautiful and and fluffy. All of the rooster-damaged feathers and bare spots are gone and they are full of new, shiny feathers. Some of hens are getting red combs again and have given me occasional eggs.

One of my hens was born in April of this year. I fully expected no molting and eggs throughout the winter from her, but she surprised me and molted right along with the others.