Newbie Questions - first egg!

[bones1949]

I have 5 RIR chickens. 4 hens and 1 rooster. Got them on April 22 (probably only a few days old). Found the first egg today, Sept 11, so that makes them about 17-18 weeks old.


As you can see, it is small.
Is this normal for a first egg? Is it time to start feeding laying feed, they are still on grow food? Is it ok for the rooster to eat laying feed?

I found the egg in one of the laying boxes, looked in the rest of the coop and run but found no others. Guess this is a good thing!
Is there a way to tell which hen laid the egg?

Thanks

 

[brownduck0234]

Your first couple of eggs will probably be deformed (that's normal). I put my chickens on layer feed as soon as I got my first egg or you can wait till the bag of grower feed runs out. The rooster can be on layer feed also.

 

[azygous]

Yes, it's normal for many young first-time layers to lay very small eggs. Do this. Take an egg carton and reserve it only for this layer. Number the slots from 1 to 12. Each day place the newest egg in its corresponding numerical slot. At the end of those first twelve days, examine each progressive egg and you should find that there is an incremental increase in size with each egg.

By the end of two weeks, the eggs this pullet lays should have reached pretty close to the size she will lay from then on.

 

[kerriv]

My RIR ladies were 22 weeks this past Thursday..got my first egg yesterday and woke up to another today..not sure who is laying yet but it called for a mealworm party... those girls love their mealworms..! The first egg is the size you show in the picture assuming 2 adult hands are about the same size, the one today was a tad larger but in a different nesting box so dont know if its the same hen or not. Waaaay too exciting either way.

 

[aart]

Congrats and Welcome to BYC!

It can take weeks, or months, for egg size to get larger....usually an individual bird thing.
With all the same breed, it's gonna probably be hard to know who is laying what eggs tho there might be small variances in shape and/or color.

Signs of onset of lay---I've found the pelvic points to be the most accurate.
Squatting:
If you touch their back they will hunker down on the ground, then shake their tail feathers when they get back up.
This shows they are sexually mature and egg laying is close at hand.

Combs and Wattles:
Plump, shiny red - usually means laying.
Shriveled, dryish looking and pale - usually means not laying.
Tho I have found that the combs and wattles can look full and red one minute then pale back out the next due to exertion or excitement, can drive ya nuts when waiting for a pullet to lay!

2 bony points on either side of vent:
Less than 2 fingertip widths apart usually means not laying.
More than 2 fingertip widths apart usually means laying.