Speckled egg

[Patoot]

Hennie laid her 4th egg today (4 days in a row).

Today it was speckled. Is that weird or a normal variation? White speckles. Very pretty.

She has had 4 eggs as I said, but the last 3 have been all smaller than the first egg. Will they get bigger eventually? Is it progressive or typically only after the first molt?

Also, when is the first molt usually? They are about 5 months old. All RIR.

Thanks for the info.

Bree

 

[7L Farm]

You might want to enter it in the speckled egg contest.

 

[Patoot]

It's not as pretty as those.

The egg from today was bigger so we're headed in the right direction.

Such a good girl. She started laying on Thursday and has laid an egg every single day. The last 3 have been in the box. Good girl!

Bree

 

[dawg53]

Hennies eggs will get larger as time goes by, she's only adjusting which is normal for first time layers. Speckled eggs are normal. Dont worry, she wont see a molt til she's about a year old, or even later. My Barred Rocks had a mini molt around a year and a half, then went into a full blown molt a year later. They normally stop laying eggs during molts.

 

[Patoot]

Oh, okay, then I won't expect a molt until spring. That's a bummer since that's when they are supposed to be cranking them out. Oh well. How long does a molt usually last? I'm sure there isn't a rule, but in general, do they stop laying around for a couple weeks or is it like a month or more? Still learning.

Bree

 

[Judy]

I have one who lays speckled eggs regularly. My moults have only lasted about a month; I have 14 hens at present but have had more. I never had the whole flock stop laying entirely.

 

[dawg53]

I've never had the whole flock stop laying neither. That's why I have hens at various ages... and even then it's unlikely they all go into moult all at once if they're the same age. So far though, I've had several go into hard moult and they're still getting feathers at 2 months into it...no eggs from them neither grrrr. I've increased their protein intake as well to help speed up feather growth...the jury is still out on that.

 

[Patoot]

Bummer. Oh well. I'll just have to see what happens. It is what it is. I only have 4, but 2 seem much younger than the other two so maybe they will not all moult at the same time.

Dumb question...when they moult, do they lose all their feathers or do they just look sorta raggedy and they lose feathers here and there. If anyone can post a pic of their bird moulting, I would be interested to see it out of curiosity.

Bree

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
I've had some just lose their tail feathers, one lost her neck feathers, another lost side feathers and that was it. However, this past winter my favorite Barred Rock lost just about every feather she had, poor thing. She looked like she was ready to march right into the oven! I had to cage her and bring her inside the house at dusk due to record cold temps we had. Everything worked out and within 2 months she was feathered out. The three that are in moult now are really ragged looking but not like my favorite BR was earlier this year. My rooster just recently lost his tail feathers, but he regrew new ones, but is still losing some side and bottom feathers...no lice or mites on any of my chickens neither. I dont have a camera or phone to upload pics. I wouldnt know how to anyway...I'm not computer savvy, sorry.

 

[shesaredroan]

Patoot,

Below is the Molting Contest thread, here at BYC.
It sure helped me!!

Index » Online Poultry Show » Official Contest: Worst Chicken Molt Pictures Fall 2010 - Free GFM