i have two red stars (one was a packing peanut!)!
ours were one year old in october, and have been laying an egg a day almost every day since january! no slowing down since winter set in, not even in our record cold snap. one of them started when she was something like 14 1/2 weeks old...
out of curiosity, i weighed all of the eggs i had in the fridge a few weeks ago and all were ex-large or jumbo. depending on what size eggs were store-bought in a carton i've begged/borrowed/stolen from someone, sometimes i can't get the carton to close when it's full.
one of them (the one who started laying about 2 weeks before her sister) is much smaller - she's about the same size (although lighter) as our ee'r. as a chick she was a light cinnamon all over and she grew up a very lovely light red with lacing down her back. . the other is larger, almost the same size as our rir girl. as a chick, she was a cinnamon "chipmunk" - had stripes on her back, and she grew up a more solid light red.
although the small one is low-gal in the pecking order, and the other is next to top (ee'r is #1 and rir is #3... er, i think...) - they are inseparable. wherever one goes, there the other one is. i call them the twins.
sounds like mine are less bossy than others' girls are... like i said, i'm pretty sure i know what the ladies' pecking order is. but while my ee'r has to THUNK anyone on the head who she thinks needs reminding who's in charge, the more dominant of my stars contents herself with the chest bump and "i'm taller than you if i stretch up SEE???" and hardly ever pecks. well - i get hand-pecked but i don't think that really counts, because they can't seem to remember that my rings aren't edible....
they are definitely more curious than my ee'r - willing to sample any new-and-therefore-suspicious-could-be-poison treat i bring out, first ones to taste the scary snow, much less wary of my husband than the other girls (i'm the "primary caretaker" so he's kind of scary, you know), etc.
all-in-all, i LOVE them! the only thing i can think of keeping me from always having one or two of them in our little flock is if the girls we have now are soooooo commercial-strain bred that they lay so heavily it makes their little bodies tire out too soon... that would break my heart (why i decided not to give them artificial light this winter, in the hopes that they'd take a little time off, but noooOOOoooo). so time will tell. they've got a forever home with me, no matter how long their little forevers are.
happy chickening, everyone!!!
ours were one year old in october, and have been laying an egg a day almost every day since january! no slowing down since winter set in, not even in our record cold snap. one of them started when she was something like 14 1/2 weeks old...
out of curiosity, i weighed all of the eggs i had in the fridge a few weeks ago and all were ex-large or jumbo. depending on what size eggs were store-bought in a carton i've begged/borrowed/stolen from someone, sometimes i can't get the carton to close when it's full.
one of them (the one who started laying about 2 weeks before her sister) is much smaller - she's about the same size (although lighter) as our ee'r. as a chick she was a light cinnamon all over and she grew up a very lovely light red with lacing down her back. . the other is larger, almost the same size as our rir girl. as a chick, she was a cinnamon "chipmunk" - had stripes on her back, and she grew up a more solid light red.
although the small one is low-gal in the pecking order, and the other is next to top (ee'r is #1 and rir is #3... er, i think...) - they are inseparable. wherever one goes, there the other one is. i call them the twins.
sounds like mine are less bossy than others' girls are... like i said, i'm pretty sure i know what the ladies' pecking order is. but while my ee'r has to THUNK anyone on the head who she thinks needs reminding who's in charge, the more dominant of my stars contents herself with the chest bump and "i'm taller than you if i stretch up SEE???" and hardly ever pecks. well - i get hand-pecked but i don't think that really counts, because they can't seem to remember that my rings aren't edible....
they are definitely more curious than my ee'r - willing to sample any new-and-therefore-suspicious-could-be-poison treat i bring out, first ones to taste the scary snow, much less wary of my husband than the other girls (i'm the "primary caretaker" so he's kind of scary, you know), etc.
all-in-all, i LOVE them! the only thing i can think of keeping me from always having one or two of them in our little flock is if the girls we have now are soooooo commercial-strain bred that they lay so heavily it makes their little bodies tire out too soon... that would break my heart (why i decided not to give them artificial light this winter, in the hopes that they'd take a little time off, but noooOOOoooo). so time will tell. they've got a forever home with me, no matter how long their little forevers are.
happy chickening, everyone!!!
