Our Second Egg!!!

[CupOJoe42]

My 15 girls and 1 boy share the brooder right now, waiting for our coop to be finished. We got our first egg yesterday (I put it in the nest box in the cage with my D'Anver pair) and I just checked and there was another egg in the brooder (I put it in the empty sideways cat litter box with shavings.) They are only 19 weeks old (20 on Monday.) It looks the same as the first - small (length of my pinky) and peach in color. So pretty and perfect!

How do I tell who laid the egg??? Do I have to wait 3 days to tell if it's fertilized? Do I need to switch everyone over to layer food and Oyster shell? They are getting grower pellets right now.

Doin' the happy dance!!!!

 

[lotzahenz]

congrats, it's so exciting to get those first eggs. My favorite part of cooking, collecting the eggs!

 

[CarolJ]

At 19 weeks old - definitely start them on layer feed. Congrats on the egg. If you've got 16 19-week old chickens in a brooder, it sure must be a BIG one!

 

[CarolJ]

Oops - forgot to answer your other question - how to tell which one laid the egg. Here's how I did it. Last summer when my pullets first started laying, it drove me crazy not to know which one laid which egg. Out of 7 pullets, I had dark brown, light brown, white, green, and cream-colored eggs. So I just pulled up a chair next to the coop/nest boxes and settled in for a long wait. I sat out there a couple hours and saw egg-laying up close and personal.

At the end of 2 hours, I knew exactly which pullet laid which egg. Now my family teases me because I just have to look at an egg to know which hen laid it. Good luck!

 

[CupOJoe42]

The brooder is 6 ft x 3 1/2 ft (crowded) and the coop is on my BYC Page (not finished yet!) I'm afraid they are going to step on the eggs and break them.

 

[CupOJoe42]

Will the Layer feed be okay for the other chickens to eat if they are not yet laying? I just opened a new bag of Grower pellets!!! I hate to waste it! Can I mix the two until the Grower feed is gone?