England-Farm
In the Brooder
- Feb 8, 2021
- 19
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Good morning!
Over the weekend, I was out in the coop cleaning up and letting my six birds free-range the front yard in-between rain storms. We have two black Astrolorp's, three Americauna' s and one Silver Laced Wyandotte. Purchased from Rural King as sex linked in May 2020 (one of the only positive things to happen in 2020! haha)
I'm outside with them a lot, almost every day for at least an hour. Our coop/pen is within 50 feet from our house so we can normally hear when one of the hens gets a little territorial and starts squawking. Our neighbor across the street raises roosters and hens and we can hear them from the wee hours of the morning till almost 8 or 9 o'clock at night.
Yesterday morning, I went out to the coop for a few eggs for breakfast. The two eggs I cracked were still slightly warm, assuming they were laid within the hour of harvesting them. Their yolks each had a tiny white pin-prick dot and a very faint outer circle around it the dot creating the classic "bulls eye" which typically means "fertilized" ...
Here's the kicker though: we don't have any roosters and there's no way for a rooster to get in with our hens and then back out again without a human opening the door to their pen. They're in an entirely enclosed pen! And I know that our neighbors would never tread on our property AND I keep our gates locked so no one can even get to our chicken pen, anyway.
Could it be that our eggs were just THAT fresh? Or could one of my hens be a "he"? None of them row. I've never witnessed any mating or mounting. We seem to get six fresh eggs on days that are sunny, clear and warm. Should I separate each one for 24-48 hours to make sure they lay an egg? Should I just leave the eggs out there for a few weeks and see if we have baby chicks? Any advice would be great!
Over the weekend, I was out in the coop cleaning up and letting my six birds free-range the front yard in-between rain storms. We have two black Astrolorp's, three Americauna' s and one Silver Laced Wyandotte. Purchased from Rural King as sex linked in May 2020 (one of the only positive things to happen in 2020! haha)
I'm outside with them a lot, almost every day for at least an hour. Our coop/pen is within 50 feet from our house so we can normally hear when one of the hens gets a little territorial and starts squawking. Our neighbor across the street raises roosters and hens and we can hear them from the wee hours of the morning till almost 8 or 9 o'clock at night.
Yesterday morning, I went out to the coop for a few eggs for breakfast. The two eggs I cracked were still slightly warm, assuming they were laid within the hour of harvesting them. Their yolks each had a tiny white pin-prick dot and a very faint outer circle around it the dot creating the classic "bulls eye" which typically means "fertilized" ...
Here's the kicker though: we don't have any roosters and there's no way for a rooster to get in with our hens and then back out again without a human opening the door to their pen. They're in an entirely enclosed pen! And I know that our neighbors would never tread on our property AND I keep our gates locked so no one can even get to our chicken pen, anyway.
Could it be that our eggs were just THAT fresh? Or could one of my hens be a "he"? None of them row. I've never witnessed any mating or mounting. We seem to get six fresh eggs on days that are sunny, clear and warm. Should I separate each one for 24-48 hours to make sure they lay an egg? Should I just leave the eggs out there for a few weeks and see if we have baby chicks? Any advice would be great!
