Our current flock is 20 weeks old today and we have been watching a couple of our most developed pullets very closely. Lizzy Leghorn was our first pullet to develop and has the largest, reddest comb of anyone. Her pelvis has spread to nearly 3 fingers wide and we were expecting her to lay first.
Up second is Gloria, who also has a large, red comb and has been squatting for the cockerels for awhile now.
Yesterday, we got our first egg
from Dottie the Speckled Sussex who only very recently started developing her comb. She was not even in the "race" as far as we were concerned.
She was out scratching in the run, made a strange noise, and went running into the coop. A few minutes later when I had finished cleaning the run I went into the barn to clean the coop. She was in one of the nest boxes busily putting straw and hay on her back. The dominant cockerel came in and stood by the box while she made sounds that I can only describe as a cross between a cat purring and a coffee pot brewing (none of our previous flock ever made a sound like it). Eventually nearly every bird in the flock came into the coop from ranging across our 10 acres and hung out with her while she sat (they also joined her in her egg song). We left her to it and came back awhile later to find a small brown egg in the box. We were not expecting her to be our first layer at all!
And here's what we found when we cracked it open:
I find it really interesting that only the left yolk was fertilized (the bullseye is hard to see, but it's on the upper left side of the left yolk). The cockerels have obviously been busy.
Have any pullets surprised you and laid before their more developed flock mates?
Up second is Gloria, who also has a large, red comb and has been squatting for the cockerels for awhile now.
Yesterday, we got our first egg
from Dottie the Speckled Sussex who only very recently started developing her comb. She was not even in the "race" as far as we were concerned.
She was out scratching in the run, made a strange noise, and went running into the coop. A few minutes later when I had finished cleaning the run I went into the barn to clean the coop. She was in one of the nest boxes busily putting straw and hay on her back. The dominant cockerel came in and stood by the box while she made sounds that I can only describe as a cross between a cat purring and a coffee pot brewing (none of our previous flock ever made a sound like it). Eventually nearly every bird in the flock came into the coop from ranging across our 10 acres and hung out with her while she sat (they also joined her in her egg song). We left her to it and came back awhile later to find a small brown egg in the box. We were not expecting her to be our first layer at all!
And here's what we found when we cracked it open:
I find it really interesting that only the left yolk was fertilized (the bullseye is hard to see, but it's on the upper left side of the left yolk). The cockerels have obviously been busy.
Have any pullets surprised you and laid before their more developed flock mates?
