Should I buy eggs or wait it out?

[mortie]

6, but only 3 are in contention for the first egg race. The 3 ameracaunas are heritage breeder ones or whatever and I expect they'll take an additional month and start while I am on vacation. The 3 red ones are the ones I am watching. Wilson and Maggie are RIR or PR...some kinda red. Penny is at least a secont gen RSL, could even be farther down the line.

I don't need their eggs anyway. We have 3 dozen in the fridge from the store. So take THAT, birdies!

Penny is the one that is squatting. Since it has cooled WAY down today...95 yesterday and only like 60 so far today, I've been able to have the door open so I can hear them and I've been peering out at them more. She does not look like a bird who is preparing to squeeze something the size of...well...an egg out of a hole the size of a marble. None of the agitated look I've read about. She's not restless. Not looking at nests. Not making any noise. Every time I look outside she is just pecking around with the rest of them. Maggie has been looking like she is ready for weeks and nothing. Wilson is catching up quickly.

 

[mortie]

Oh and if anyone in town asks the same question, the answer is 4. 4 chickens.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

I'm officially a rooster!

I was out feeding the girls and when I walked up behind one of the RSL pullets not even thinking anything of it and she squatted!

Well that's fine. Just hope you don't start waking up your neighbors at 5am.

 

[nuttyboo]

Well that's fine. Just hope you don't start waking up your neighbors at 5am.

they"ll be calling the bylaw officer for sure LOL

 

[tinkershell767]

Cock- adoodle- doooooooooo!

 

[savannahm0m]

yes, Marans hens. they don't lay as dark a brown as some I've seen, but I love the color and one tends to lay a very very speckled egg - I also have a bantam Marans pullet that doesn't lay a dark egg, but her cream colored egg has lots of very dark speckles.

My Marans' egg colors vary a lot more than I expected. When they first started laying, I called them my dinosaur eggs because they looked like something off of the flintstones with a dark base and even darker spots (rather than speckles...got to post a picture of it). Sometimes they are darker, sometimes they are lighter, but always a few shades darker than my Buff Orpingtons. I think my friends are more surprised about those eggs than they are about the green EE!

 

[cheeka]

my Marans vary in shade too, sometimes they are more ginger with load of spots and speckles, it must depend on how quickly the egg flies through the chute... it's blinkin' hot today. dew point is over 70 so even the tiniest movement results in sweating. there is a breeze, but it's warm air - not terribly refreshing. I misted down the bathing areas and they are pretty much sticking to that. I hardboiled some eggs and chilled them for a snack, picked a big load of raspberries and shared them all around. Big Broody has a week to go and I noticed in the last couple of days, she's picky about her food. she eats her fresh greens tho', so I stocked her up on those and gave her a half an egg all to herself and a bunch of berries. she devoured everything. Peach, Gossamer and the chicks are doing great - staying safe and they also devoured an egg and a pile of berries. I hope some of the pics came out - they move so darn fast!!!

 

[TNchickmom]

This morning I noticed one of them was teasing me with this little practice "egg song". I acted like I didn't notice. I'm sure it was all done to try to free up some more scratch from me.

And what would this sound like?

 

[gilcamp4]

ok now i have a problem, have had chickens for a total of 15 years, never have i had a chicken sleep in the nest well last week i found not one but 4 sleeping in them, dh said he would block them off for night, but what about that early bird egg. i have taken them out and put them on the roost the last 2 nights, oh ya like that helped had more do it, i just finished cleaning this coop and now the nest full of poo, any ideas?

 

[cheeka]