My First Egg! Almost 20 weeks to the day!

[GardenState38]

December 1, 2011:
As usual, I came home during my lunch hour to luncheon with my girls.
I noticed my Cuckoo Marans, Lidia, was sitting in a nest box and making a bit of a racket.
Could an egg be imminent, I wondered??
Hated to leave them, but had to return to the office.
Sure enough, there was an egg waiting for me when I got home yesterday evening!
Quite the Advent gift!

And it was delicious!

Not as dark as I imagined a Cuckoo Marans egg would be--it had a chalky white coating on it.
I read that it sometimes happens when the egg spends a longer than usual amount of time in the Oviduct, and is common with young layers.
I would have thought that a longer time in the oviduct might have made it darker...is her "paint sprayer" malfunctioning?
Or could it have been laid by another hen? Not likely, as Lidia was the one who was showing all the signs of getting ready to lay.

Can't wait to see what comes next!!

 

[chefchick]

Way to go Lidia!

First eggs are the best! I few of mine had a chalky appearance at first, but now they are perfect most of the time.

 

[debid]

The sprayer doesn't always work perfectly for the first few eggs. My Sussex had pink eggs with white speckles all over them for the first couple of weeks and now they're an even shade of pinky-brown.

 

[aoxa]

I found that my production red had eggs that looked like this when I brought her home (started laying in summer, brought her home early Oct). It is either stress or like others said, getting the hang of things. Once my girl was more settled in, they were perfect!