Should I buy eggs or wait it out?

[okallthis4eggs]

Noticed this yesterday. OH please let the rain stop

 

[showbarnmom]

5 eggs yesterday! Not bad for 6 layers!

My SLW lays this odd torpedo shaped egg. Do you think it's due to age? I bought her, 2 months ago, and they said she's 1.5 yrs. but the other 2 hens I got haven't started laying for me. She's laid since I got her. I think they are older than that.

 

[okallthis4eggs]

5 eggs yesterday! Not bad for 6 layers!

My SLW lays this odd torpedo shaped egg. Do you think it's due to age? I bought her, 2 months ago, and they said she's 1.5 yrs. but the other 2 hens I got haven't started laying for me. She's laid since I got her. I think they are older than that.

I don't think it age. I get a few like that too. Sit them in the egg carton and they fall over..lol Some just lay different shapes I suppose. I get some almost perfectly round at times.

 

[showbarnmom]

Her eggs are always shaped like that, so I'm sure it's her "thing". But the younger hens I have lay nice pretty "egg" shaped eggs lol.

 

[cheeka]

it's just her "shape", I like the torpedo shape, looks like it is easier to lay, but my trouble is sometimes I can't distinguish the true "pointy" end to store it properly pointy end down. Blu's egg is torpedo shaped and one of the unknown blue egg layers is as well...

OK, what is that? a web footed chicken?

now I've seen everything. I've also been watching the weather, and have been thinking about you... hoping that you all don't float away, or worse... sink into the void... one day, Kentucky just might get swallowed whole... but not until California cracks off...

been crazy busy, loads of eggs, broody Violet "lost" all her eggs, but that's because I took the last 2 of three and gave them to Peach. I don't know what's happened to all the eggs, or who is eating them. disappeared without a trace. I did leave her with one. one that I thought was probably a dud... and it was gone 16 hours later. Peach is still sitting on the last 2.

I've been helping with a NYS Wildlife Refuge here in town. he's got 3 more bobcat this week, on top of the 2 he already had... I've been collecting meat. be it from regular folk cleaning out their freezers or farms who are processing and have scraps... the man who owns/runs the refuge also has a female African Grey Parrot. I talked to my elderly friend about introducing her Bird to Lady Houdini and she agreed. so I got to visit with Bird today when I dropped off about 75 lbs of meat. He's doing great, chattering away... and apparently, he fed his Lady some breakfast this morning! she's been begging him to feed her since he arrived, but being that he's never seen another Parrot, much less a female... he was clueless... anyway, strides are being made. she has been laying eggs, but will probably not get any fertilized this season... not unless Bird gets his act together... bottom line, if he can have a life with a mate... that is so much better than any life I can think of... my friend wanted me to take Bird when the time comes, and I would and still will... but not if he bonds. if he bonds, he needs to stay. If they are successful, I can have an offspring, which would be way awesome.

hot humid and stormy. but there's been a break this last hour, so I let the girls out.

 

[okallthis4eggs]

I found that picture and my fear was my birds would start growing webbed feet. Finally got some sunshine today but it has been raining almost non stop since the 4th of July. The chicken run is a muddy mucky mess. Need to get the broody run completed but weather has to cooperate.

 

[BullChick]

Hello, crazy people! How have you guys been lately? I have been gone for a week or so, and I am not sure how much I missed.
The rain is insane. I no longer have a garden thanks to the grass (new garden) growing two feet tall. The fruit trees are okay except for the cherry tree. It is still a stick.
Baby began laying again after four weeks. She also went into the coop. After all this time, I am not sure what made her go on her own. It could have been a search for privacy to begin laying again, a desire to be dry or she was finally comfortable leaving the chicks. They still snuggle with her, but at almost five weeks now, they are okay alone.
Midnight (the Ameraucana with the hurt leg) is laying again too. She is walking okay, but I am nervous about putting her back in the big coop. She does not feel comfortable with the ramp. I am deciding what to do if she still isn't healed in 2 weeks or so.
Cadbury won't stop going broody, and has 2 eggs. She is due on the 15th. Her nest is in the grow out pen. It was an adjustment for her, but she is doing fine now. She still wants to return to the adults.
A can fell off the counter today, smashing the eggs I had just put on the floor (in a basket). I have a carpeted kitchen.

I think that is all.

 

[SullyD]

Hi All, My run is finally finished and the chickens like being in there. I took the advice from this thread to put them back in their coop when it is getting dark. Works like a charm! Going into it in the morning is another story. They have to investigate the area around their coop, the barn, the horses, the young chickens in the separate coop, all the land surrounding the run, then finally the run. I have tried everything, even PIE, to entice them to the coop. Good thing I am usually not in a hurry in the morning, I just worry about the overhead threats. So, aside from the picture and the long blurb, my real question is about egg laying. The chickens ages are 16, 15, and 14 weeks old. The NH Reds, being the oldest, followed by the Ameraucana, then the Cream Legbars. I noticed that with the CL's, they all hatched the same day, but of the 4 roosters among them, only one seemed to mature very quickly. He has been crowing for two weeks now, the others are not nearly as developed as him. The Ameraucana Roo is twice his size, a week older, and no crowing. I also have 5 Barred Rocks, one Delaware, and one Buckeye, all pullets, that are 7 weeks old and 3 more Ameraucana's that are 5 weeks old. I figure when they start laying it won't be as exciting as when my first ever chickens start laying!

Do they all start laying around 20 weeks or do some breeds lay earlier and some later?? Also, it seems like there is a possibility they will lay in the run and not in the lovely boxes I built for them? I guess I will have to start watching where I am stepping!

BTW, this is the best thread ever! I go to this one first every day! Thanks for all the info for us newbies!

 

[BullChick]

I don't think some of you understand how much I wish I could build a beautiful coop/run like yours.
Sully, My BR were laying at 16 weeks. I think you are looking at 24 weeks for most of yours. The NH should be 20ish weeks.

 

[Reina Rana]

Youngest son caught one of our duck hens sitting on 2 golf balls in a nest box...