Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

At work

Working hard

I am grabbing a quick lunch break and then more meetings with the big boss and camp

Love my job! but I sure do miss the kiddos, yesterday I had a lovely chit chat with one of the inspectors who also has 4 chickens - we laughed over my kiddos antics.

Just checked on them and they are all in their favourite gathering place in Truly's stall

I sang to them a bit, now off to my meeting! Catch you all later

 

[Ponypoor]

I also ate the 4 eggs I had 4 breakfast. The smallest egg laid by Maleficent was fertile So I'll be saving her eggs

How long has she been laying ? I would wait at least a couple months until the eggs were full sized - small eggs size can cause chick hatching issues. I waited for 3 months with the Silkies.

will you incubate them?

 

[rural mouse]

I also ate the 4 eggs I had 4 breakfast. The smallest egg laid by Maleficent was fertile So I'll be saving her eggs

Don't save the eggs until they've been laying for at least a couple of months. First eggs are small and take about that long to grow to the hens adult/normal size. Chicks develop to normal size, so get decidedly cramped/squished developing in those small eggs. It leads to a much greater chick mortality rate, either in the egg or soon after hatching.

 

[Ponypoor]

So I saw on facebook one of my cousins who I'm not really that close too complaining about the price of eggs in the store. I do know for them money is tight and she claimed on her post that eggs were a big part of her and her 1 1/2 year olds diet. I tried to be nice and mentioned to her I had a couple dozen eggs from my girls. I fully intended to give her the eggs. Yeah nope not happening now, she threw back in my face that fresh eggs are eww and gross and she would never eat them. Ok fine I'll let it go and keep my gross eggs. Next thing I know someone else who had been posting about egg prices locally messaged me about them. The eggs I was going to give away are sold and leave tomorrow afternoon. She also told my cousin she should not have looked a gift horse in the mouth and how could she call them gross if as it turns out she had never tried them.

Oh I love Karma - bites one in the tushie!

My sister won't eat my eggs because she knows my hens - what??!! OK well my cousin and her kids love them, esp when I write the hens names on the eggs and what day they were laid haha

 

[Ponypoor]

My cup is full. Green legs!!!

Love it!

 

[ValarieF]

How long has she been laying ? I would wait at least a couple months until the eggs were full sized - small eggs size can cause chick hatching issues. I waited for 3 months with the Silkies.

will you incubate them?

1 week yea i will wait to see if her eggs get bigger. And ill need to by an incubator

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

1 week yea i will wait to see if her eggs get bigger. And ill need to by an incubator

Please wait at least 2 months before incubating. Trust me I know the excitement of getting fertilized eggs and wanting to hatch. This is even more intense if one of your young hens go broody. I made the mistake of allowing my girls to incubate their own pullet eggs. These were eggs that to me looked to be ok in size. How wrong I was. They were Marans eggs which I've found to be huge chicks. Everything was going fine until it came time to hatch. Huge chicks in smaller eggs left me with several assisted nerve wrecking hatches with mal-positioned chicks. I did manage to save several but also lost some. You do not want that guilt on your conscience. Even now with full size eggs I worry with my pure marans and sometimes the marans mixes. Those chicks are just huge and if I have to assist a chick, it has marans lineage.

 

[ValarieF]

Ok I went back through my calendar and got ages
the EE's are 26 weeks old (some laying colored eggs)
the Anconas are 18 1/2 weeks old (should lay soon white eggs)
and the tweens are 12 weeks old (have awhile before they lay)

 

[RoyalChick]

Oh I see her russet highlights on her back now - very snazzy! Babs has very pretty feather patterns also - what breed are they?

This is where @bgmathteach explained their breeding
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...es-stories-of-our-flock.1286630/post-26430877

 

[ValarieF]

Please wait at least 2 months before incubating. Trust me I know the excitement of getting fertilized eggs and wanting to hatch. This is even more intense if one of your young hens go broody. I made the mistake of allowing my girls to incubate their own pullet eggs. These were eggs that to me looked to be ok in size. How wrong I was. They were Marans eggs which I've found to be huge chicks. Everything was going fine until it came time to hatch. Huge chicks in smaller eggs left me with several assisted nerve wrecking hatches with mal-positioned chicks. I did manage to save several but also lost some. You do not want that guilt on your conscience. Even now with full size eggs I worry with my pure marans and sometimes the marans mixes. Those chicks are just huge and if I have to assist a chick, it has marans lineage.

Glad you let me know ahead of time or I would have made a horrible mistake.