Icelandic Chickens

[debs_flock]

Someone on here once described store bought eggs as...................."They taste like sadness".

I thought that was such an apt description. We go to a resort in OR every year that gives you a dozen free eggs in your condo. I always bring eggs with me. The ones they give are brought back home and fed to my girls.

Deb

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Someone on here once described store bought eggs as...................."They taste like sadness".

I thought that was such an apt description. We go to a resort in OR every year that gives you a dozen free eggs in your condo. I always bring eggs with me. The ones they give are bought back home and fed to my girls.

Deb

well said

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Got another egg yesterday from my mystery "white layer". I no longer think it's my BO playing a joke on me. I am 90% sure it's my Icelandic, and if it's not her, then I think it's my Leghorn. The only thing is......they're both such small girls! I don't know how they'd produce eggs this size. Ow! I'm going to take a picture of the most recent one and upload it when my computer is working again. It definitely looks whiter than the others, and it's HUGE. Do Icelandics normally lay large eggs, for their body size?

probably your leghorn though I do get some large eggs from time to time from my icelandic's

 

[Mahonri]

Out of my 9 hens, I only have one that lays a nice sized egg. She is black with a small crest... she'll be two in July. Can't wait to see how many of my eggs hatch that an AZ friend will be incubating for me. This Friday will be two weeks since the roo was sent to Heber.

 

[RedIII]

Mahonri, that is exciting

I'll be very excited when all three of my pullets are old enough to lay and have gotten into the swing of things so that I can start breeding and hatching.

I was looking at those mystery eggs today. The most recent one is definitely longer than the other four, but they're all still smaller than large store-bought eggs. Oh well, guess I'll be staking out and spying on the girls for a while....

For those of you that breed Icelandics - how old do you let the pullets get before you start incubating their fertile eggs? I've heard that you don't get really good quality hatching eggs until the pullet is a year old. That seems like kind of a long time to wait.

 

[Mahonri]

I only have the one girl that is older. All of the others were hatched at New Years and Easter. I believe I've hatched plenty of pullet eggs and most of my Icelandics have started laying at 5 months.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Mahonri, that is exciting

I'll be very excited when all three of my pullets are old enough to lay and have gotten into the swing of things so that I can start breeding and hatching.

I was looking at those mystery eggs today. The most recent one is definitely longer than the other four, but they're all still smaller than large store-bought eggs. Oh well, guess I'll be staking out and spying on the girls for a while....

For those of you that breed Icelandics - how old do you let the pullets get before you start incubating their fertile eggs? I've heard that you don't get really good quality hatching eggs until the pullet is a year old. That seems like kind of a long time to wait.

if it is large but smaller than store bought it could easily be a icelandic egg.

 

[RedIII]

Awesome. I think I'll give my girls a few weeks or so to get the hang of laying, then see how the eggs do in a test hatch (Like I need more chickens, naughty naughty....)

I put a little cayenne pepper into their food last night, so today I'll be watching closely to see if there are any results. I'm really hoping that I find two little white eggs - that would mean that both the Leghorn and the Icelandic are laying

 

[lmatvey]

cayenne pepper really? That is so cool, I was interested to know if pepper has any effect on chickens!!!! Please post your results??!!??!!

 

[Farmerboy16]

cayenne pepper really? That is so cool, I was interested to know if pepper has any effect on chickens!!!! Please post your results??!!??!!

I have read here that it helps hens to lay, and keeps rodents away from the feed. I grew some to try on the feed for the chickens, but forgot to harvest them before letting the American Guinea Hogs in the garden for the winter.