Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

I need to remember to complain about my chickens when I want them to lay eggs. The past two times I have they laid eggs the same day or the next.

Olivia laid an egg today!
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Here are the 3 eggs from yesterday and today. I still am not positive that the lighter brown one is Big Mama's or not, but you can see the two shades of brown in the picture. Isn't the green egg so pretty! She laid it on the ground in the run, so she needs to work on that still.



mountaindog66: Welcome to the thread! My EE lays green eggs and the other one I had before laid green/blue eggs, more a teal color. I added two more EE's to my order that I get in a couple weeks. Hoping they'll lay a variety of shades too.
 
I need to remember to complain about my chickens when I want them to lay eggs. The past two times I have they laid eggs the same day or the next. Olivia laid an egg today!
wee.gif
Here are the 3 eggs from yesterday and today. I still am not positive that the lighter brown one is Big Mama's or not, but you can see the two shades of brown in the picture. Isn't the green egg so pretty! She laid it on the ground in the run, so she needs to work on that still. mountaindog66: Welcome to the thread! My EE lays green eggs and the other one I had before laid green/blue eggs, more a teal color. I added two more EE's to my order that I get in a couple weeks. Hoping they'll lay a variety of shades too.
Thats such a pretty egg basket!! :love I'm pretty sure that light brown egg is from Big Mama. All 3 of my adult Buff Orps lay eggs that exact same color.
 
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I need to remember to complain about my chickens when I want them to lay eggs. The past two times I have they laid eggs the same day or the next.

Olivia laid an egg today!
wee.gif


Here are the 3 eggs from yesterday and today. I still am not positive that the lighter brown one is Big Mama's or not, but you can see the two shades of brown in the picture. Isn't the green egg so pretty! She laid it on the ground in the run, so she needs to work on that still.



mountaindog66: Welcome to the thread! My EE lays green eggs and the other one I had before laid green/blue eggs, more a teal color. I added two more EE's to my order that I get in a couple weeks. Hoping they'll lay a variety of shades too.
Gorgeous!!!! Love all 3 colors. I hope I get a light one like yours.

My same 2 girls gave me eggs again today. So Izzy laid 2 days in a row and her egg today was so much bigger. Very close to a store bought large egg. She was an absolute basket case today for about 2-3 hours. Just pacing and pacing then going into the coop and coming back out again. Squawking and hollering the whole time! After I saw the egg I could understand. But she kinda was a little baby about it... Sheesh, I birthed 2 babies over 8 lbs each and I didn't scream that much!!
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mountaindog66, your assessment is correct in that breeders tend to breed toward the standard and not for egg production. Hatcheries are more for egg production, though with the fancier or more desired breeds, they seem only to work on putting out as many chicks as possible, and so you lose quality as with Kalalyn's Marans. If you're just looking for pretty birds that lay lots of eggs, then by all means, Meyer would be a great place to order from. :) Their black copper Marans reportedly lay nice dark eggs as well.

As far as long-living birds, you pretty much have to choose between lifespan and egg production. Laying eggs takes a lot out of these birds, and the ones that I have had the longest are the ones that 'retired' early from egg laying or never really laid that many eggs in the first place. Because I keep my birds as pets, I have stopped buying production birds, such as red and black sexlinks, production Rhode Island reds, white Leghorns, and the like, since they tend to succumb to egg laying issues and pass away earlier than other breeds.

I have enjoyed the birds I've gotten from Meyer's and would suggest them to anyone that was just looking for backyard pets. I've even been told that some of my Meyer birds are of surprising quality for hatchery birds. I can give suggestions for what to pick for pet chickens, but I encourage you to do research and find the perfect breed or breeds for what you want to do with your chickening endeavors. :)
 
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I need to remember to complain about my chickens when I want them to lay eggs. The past two times I have they laid eggs the same day or the next. Olivia laid an egg today!
wee.gif
Here are the 3 eggs from yesterday and today. I still am not positive that the lighter brown one is Big Mama's or not, but you can see the two shades of brown in the picture. Isn't the green egg so pretty! She laid it on the ground in the run, so she needs to work on that still. mountaindog66: Welcome to the thread! My EE lays green eggs and the other one I had before laid green/blue eggs, more a teal color. I added two more EE's to my order that I get in a couple weeks. Hoping they'll lay a variety of shades too.
Really beautiful eggs, love the blue-green! I'm sure you're new EEs will also give you some gorgeous eggs. The video Meyer has on their EE sale page shows all those chicks hatching from some lovely light blue eggs, so it seems like they are selecting for blue as much as possible.
mountaindog66, your assessment is correct in that breeders tend to breed toward the standard and not for egg production. Hatcheries are more for egg production, though with the fancier or more desired breeds, they seem only to work on putting out as many chicks as possible, and so you lose quality as with Kalalyn's Marans. If you're just looking for pretty birds that lay lots of eggs, then by all means, Meyer would be a great place to order from. :) Their black copper Marans reportedly lay nice dark eggs as well. As far as long-living birds, you pretty much have to choose between lifespan and egg production. Laying eggs takes a lot out of these birds, and the ones that I have had the longest are the ones that 'retired' early from egg laying or never really laid that many eggs in the first place. Because I keep my birds as pets, I have stopped buying production birds, such as red and black sexlinks, production Rhode Island reds, white Leghorns, and the like, since they tend to succumb to egg laying issues and pass away earlier than other breeds. I have enjoyed the birds I've gotten from Meyer's and would suggest them to anyone that was just looking for backyard pets. I've even been told that some of my Meyer birds are of surprising quality for hatchery birds. I can give suggestions for what to pick for pet chickens, but I encourage you to do research and find the perfect breed or breeds for what you want to do with your chickening endeavors. :)
Thank you for the insight Pip, a lot to think about. I appreciate what you mean about the balance between longevity and egg production. I'm not really interested in most of the production hybrids as It is my understanding that the trade off for lots of eggs is they have a shorter lifespan and require a lot of feed as opposed to foraging well. This is where the standard/heritage breeds have the advantage. I just wish it were easier to figure out which breeders are more concerned with the breeds original purpose as a healthy vigorous utility animal and not too focused on, say, egg color or feather pattern at the expense of genetic diversity and good health.
 
Congrats on the eggs. I'm so jealous.

So we think Marble (our BR) is still our only girl laying. I'm sure the others will start while my daughter and I are out of town this week.
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It's interesting to see how her eggs are slowly getting darker. Here's her last 8 eggs. Closer eggs are oldest.
 
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Congrats on the eggs. I'm so jealous.

So we think Marble (our BR) is still our only girl laying. I'm sure the others will start while my daughter and I are out of town this week.
roll.png

It's interesting to see how her eggs are slowly getting darker. Here's her last 8 eggs. Closer eggs are oldest.
Those are some beautiful eggs. Don't you also have a Black Australorps from Meyer? I'm curious to know how the BA compares to your BR for eggs when she gets going.

Notable Nancy, I meant to comment quite a few pages back on how beautiful your olive egg from your Izzy is., and I also love the color of your RIR's brown egg too, I'd also like to know how frequently the two of them lay for you and how large the eggs are over time, if you happen to notice.

MsChickenMomma, I hope Sunni is doing well now.
 
MsChickenMomma, I hope Sunni is doing well now.
She is doing great. She is starting to get her energy back a little more each day. We thought she had gotten something stuck in her throat, but now we think she probably tried to eat a wasp and got stuck inside of her throat and got an allergic reaction. Poor girl... That's the only thing we can think of that would explain why her throat and tongue swelled up so much.
 
Congrats on the eggs. I'm so jealous.

So we think Marble (our BR) is still our only girl laying. I'm sure the others will start while my daughter and I are out of town this week.
roll.png

It's interesting to see how her eggs are slowly getting darker. Here's her last 8 eggs. Closer eggs are oldest.

Those eggs are beautiful! They are a really good size considering how Marble just started laying. My girls always lay really small eggs for the first month or so.
 
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I'm glad Sunni is doing better! She starting to eat on her own yet? Mine kept chasing a bee yesterday and I had to put scratch out to keep them busy till the bee got away cause I was afraid they would get stung. I figured chickens would leave them alone cause they sting but I guess not, I'm glad I got them focused on something else.
 

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