Question about egg laying

[LilyD]

Okay so here's the background. I have 12 Gold Comet girls not quite hens yet they are only 5 weeks and will be 6 weeks on Tuesday.

My question is when they start laying eggs will they lay full sized eggs or will the eggs start out small and get larger as they get older?

I ask because my sister has a hen that started out laying eggs the size of grapes they have gotten a little larger as she grew but they are still pretty small compared to her coop mates.

 

[incubatingisfun]

Yeah they will start out small and gradually get larger

 

[Judy]

Usually the first eggs are bigger than grapes, though, more like "small" eggs in the grocery store. And usually within a month or two they are larger. They're cute little things to me -- usually I eat 2 regular eggs or 3 pullet eggs for breakfast.

 

[duckinnut]

My girls started out with smallish medium eggs and now regularly large to extra large ones. One time I got 2 marble sized ones at the same time from one of my RIR well after she had been laying. On the flip side, about 2 weeks ago I got one from a Barred Rock that was Extra Jumbo,that darn thing wouldn't fit into a jumbo box. Thought about calling Guiness Book of World records.

 

[fshinggrl]

Our first eggs from our chickens (easter eggers and Silver Laced Wyandottes) were probably the size of medium store bought eggs, so not bad in size. They grew into Extra Large.

 

[LilyD]

Cool I was a little worried when I saw the egg that my sisters pullet laid that that was the way it was with all hens as they grow up. Her first eggs were the size of a grape and now she is a full size hen and is laying eggs the size of golf balls. She won't be a year old though until August so maybe she will lay bigger as she gets older. She is a black cochin hen and is a great broody if nothing else. She hatched out three eggs from the other hens earlier last month and all are doing well. She is a patient mom so even if she can never lay she can always have a job as a surrogate mommy hehe.

 

[cmom]

I agree with the other posts they will gradually get larger as they lay.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

The beginning egg size depends upon the weight of the hen when she starts to lay. Typically they start out as small/medium eggs, yet I've had flocks where the birds were rather heavy when they started to lay and they started laying medium/large eggs that quickly increased to extra large/jumbo size.

The eggs should slowly get larger as the hens age and grow larger. If flock egg mass starts decreasing it is usually due to inadequate nutrition.