Should I buy eggs or wait it out?

[mortie]

That's awesome. We have eaten one $.10 egg and spent...oh...about a zillion dollars...

 

[mortie]

You would think that having gotten an egg, I would settle down. Well...at least I thought that.

It hasn't.

This morning saw me up at the crack of dawn stumbling out to the coop to check for an egg. No egg. I wasn't convinced there would be anyway, I'm sure Penny heard from her that there was a 2 week grace period between first egg and second egg. The thing is, now that I know she is capable of laying an egg, I am even more eager for her to do it.

This is what lead me to be more or less riveted to the window that i spy on them from all morning. For two hours I watched them preen, scratch, and take a morning nap.

Then Penny went in the coop. Everyone else followed. I watched. Ever seen a cat watching a mouse? With the tip of its tail twitching and maybe a little butt wiggle now and then? That was me. Everyone left the coop except Penny. I saw her farting around in there, not really going for the nest. I watched. She farted around. She headed for the door. She went halfway down the ramp and stood there. I watched. She stood there. She turned around and went back in and finally started to peck at the nest. I watched, she pecked.

FINALLY she hopped in the nest. I know this means nothing, since she spent quite a bit of time in the nest yesterday hours AFTER she had laid her egg...and the days leading up to her egg as well. Nest doesn't equal egg. I watched. She sat.

30 minutes later, she hopped out. SINGING AWAY. Can't fool me, Penny. I've been through this little song and dance with you before. Natrually, I looked anyway. The temptation to find a 1 minute old, still warm, was too great. I walked by the run as she BUH-GOK'ed! at me. I raised the lid of the nest box...

And found a little gem of an egg inside.

I went and got my 7 year old, who is the only kid home today, and told him I heard Penny singing and maybe we should check and see if she laid an egg. He had the pleasure of "finding" this one.

It's a little smaller than yesterday's, but shell quality and color are greatly improved. Way to go, Penny!



I celebrated by giving them the remains of a McChicken for a treat.

 

[cheeka]

for Penny! and very sweet of you to let your son find the treasure,

Mylee was always so thrilled to find eggs... golly I miss her, we speak on the phone every single day... but she starts school in about 3 weeks... so no visit this year

, but that's why she spent so much time here last year, she had the freedom... this year was a bit busier and the timing just wasn't there. we have a new hire at the office and she has been learning the big route. she will train on my route next Thursday. then I have to work around Ms So and So's scheduled days off, but I will be able to take a vacation soon! finally!! it's been since 2011 - got a couple of days off last July to go to a funeral that was out of state, but realistically, I haven't taken any time off for 3 years and am so overdue it's ridiculous.

I slept til almost 9:30 this morning! I can't believe it! I jumped up and dashed outside in the rain to make sure everyone was okay... which they were, so I came back in and had my coffee and watched CBS Sunday Morning, which I record...and waited for the rain to let up before I went back out to feed and freshen waterers. it's clearing up now, but we still have a high percentage chance for more rain and thunderstorms... I want to let them out, but will wait a bit longer. hope everyone is having a relaxing Sunday! Scrambles should be back soon from her vacation... hope Rumples is doing okay, looking forward to an update!

 

[gilcamp4]

Congratulations! and I loved the pictorial of the eating experience! nothin' like it!

they will vary in shade ever so from one another. it won't be all uniform, kinda nice... my 4 BR's all lay slightly different shades of cream, and Fannie's has such a point on the one end that I always know which one is hers.

I leave the eggs sitting out for about 4 days. by then, the stock is low in the fridge and the counter basket is getting full anyway... beyond that and they start stacking up and Chester gets tempted if he can reach them. I've managed to keep the nests really clean so for the most part, I am collecting very clean eggs that don't need to be washed. I have a few customers who prefer to leave them out so they only get unrefrigerated eggs. one in particular, doesn't believe me that they are unwashed because they are so clean... now I look for eggs with any kind of spots just for her... lol, I've even invited her over to collect them herself so she can see...

Never. highly amusing my friend, just wait til December when I start moaning that the now week old babies here aren't laying let...

saw the pic of your NH, she's lovely, and certainly close! more pics please!!

Holy Moly CLindz! those are stunning! I want to learn!!!

I do not leave my eggs out, right now we are getting 12 to 15 eggs but have 20 that do lay, also have one group about to lay any day, then we have our 13 babies, they may lay sept. we have 46 total, all because one fell of truck into snow 5 years ago, I picked it up but said it needed a friend and off we went, we made big mistake by going to action to get new ones, got 2, turned out they were sick with that grems that go through the whole group, had to have 33 put to chicken heaven, that was 3 years ago, never will I get chicken from anyone put an egg, we hatch most of ours, it was fun you think waiting for eggs is bad, ha wait for the egg to crack open and that babies come out, drove me crazy.

 

[mortie]

Yeah I hatched mine too. If you page back to late Feb or early march you will find me obsessing over my eggs...thinking I had killed them..oh man. I was (am) a mess.

 

[sasnak45]

My 19 week old BO's just laid 2 small eggs today.

 

[mortie]

congrats!

 

[valjean]

Here are my four girls. Cuckoo marans is Jackie, Easter Egger is Betty, BA is Wilma, and Lucy the New Hamp. I started out with six 1 week old chicks, two turned out to be boys, so back they went. The cuckoo marans was supposed to be a SLW, oh we'll. I live in the city on 2 acres and you can have 6. But I didn't ask my homeowners assoc first, oops. They granted permission so all is well.. I'm the first in my neighborhood to do this.

Still no eggs...approaching 20 weeks.

 

[chickenlindz]

Whoo hoo! New people and new egg layers!! Congrats all!!

Mortie mine have been laying since march and I still enjoy the excitement of finding eggs!!!!

Cheeka-one word "VACATION"!!!!!

I'm taking vacation next week. We're not going anywhere but I'll just enjoy the time at home. The kids might come over... I'll try making ore eggs. Phyllis finally laid a beautiful white egg w no poop! She is the only one who will lay a dirty egg every once in awhile. I'm still shocked how clean my eggs come out. I don't wash. Maybe 1 every couple days gets cleaned on the dirty spot only.

I also leave them out for a couple days if I know I'm bringing them to work to sell. I don't like taking them in and out of the fridge cause then they start to sweat. After a couple days or a week I'll throw them in the fridge.

Back to my vac... I also think I'm going to redo my husbands office. Want to give him a rutgers themed football office so red/black walls, a big logo "R" on one wall. I got some beautiful prints for other walls. I'm very excited. Hope to get it done as a surprise!

 

[valjean]

Congrats to sasnak!