The bad thing about this BYC section: An Observation

[buzymom13]

While I definitely appreciate the words of the wise and I've learned immensely since becoming a "newbie" on BYC, let me just state as a "somewhat" newbie still. There are times that I don't know. If someone is panicking because they are unsure it's somewhat understandable. I myself have come into the house from the coop to look something up on BYC. I have also seen the "completely newbie" questions that I would've asked months ago and thought that's easy to answer. We learn from others well when those others are also patient with our questions. I homeschool my 6 kids, some of whom have special needs. They could not learn if I didn't take the time to teach w/love, caring, and understanding patience.

We all (newbies and not so newbies) appreciate the patience and understanding we get from BYCers...

Sometimes we just need to be reminded that everyone started out a newbie at one time.

 

[MakNugget]

Very well said.

I'll admit I fell victim to this seeing several posts for 18 week layers. I chucked out anything earlier as an outlier, and was on egg watch every day after 18 weeks. My first pullet didn't lay until 23+ weeks so you can imagine a bit of impatience. So far she has only taken one day off for the week and is doing very well.

The counter point to this is that I want my #3 to lay right now. Not so much because I'm wanting more eggs, but rather to confirm all the roo signs I've been seeing up to now have been a figment of my imagination! I tried to see if I could get it to squat for me but (Left Turn) Lulu (#2) gets jealous and attacks whichever pullet is being mounted. Lulu has already squatted for me, and apparently, she likes it a little rough.

 

[darkmatter]

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Wow! I didn't know it was a competition, Mine lay whenever they get around to it. I don't try to keep up with the Joneses, lately the Joneses are broke and they've been checking out my Garden and salmonella-free eggs! Turns out, the woodstove and chainsaw I've had for over 30 years suddenly got valuable.

 

[Morgan7782]

LoL well my 28 week old chicken finally decided to squat yesterday for me

Hehehe they WILL lay when good and ready, amen to that! My 25 week old EE and Barred Rock don't look anywhere near ready so they can just kick back and take their time maturing, the BR is at least a dual purpose breed so takes a little longer to get eggs which is all good with me

With a long wait, that first egg will just be all the more exciting!

Oh and I have all young laying chickens beat! I had a chick hatch from an egg, and then that chick proceeded to lay its OWN egg! Amazing.. It was a leghorn x estrogen cross haha

 

[Quesse]

I've actually been just enjoying the journey thus far as a newbie chicken keeper.

The eggs will arrive when they arrive. I do appreciate the patience and wisdom of the much more experienced forum posters though.

 

[Ravishaw]

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[tuesdays chicks]

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I told my 26 week old brahma today if she didn't lay an egg soon she was going to be soup and she went into the nest box and sat on the campines egg making all sorts of noise like she was laying and I came home to find my BO egg in with the campine egg ... the big pretender.

 

[Funky Feathers]

HaHa, I got an egg from my 3 day old pullet! HaHaHaHa.

 

[tuesdays chicks]

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[gryeyes]

Because eggs were 3rd on the list of why I considered getting chickens, it never occurred to me that there was a schedule they should keep. I mean, I read a lot, and it looked like somewhere between 18 and 24 weeks, they might start laying unless they were slower maturing breeds. I had a couple of those in my very first batch o' 8 chicks. I marked up a calendar, because I originally had 4, then added a couple, then a couple more, so I had different ages of chicks. I needed to know when they ALL reached 8 weeks of age, to take them off the medicated starter feed and consider putting them outside full time. (The youngest was 8 wks old and the oldest was 12 weeks old; I wanted to put them all out at one time to minimize multiple pecking order periods.)

Then I just wrote more stuff down after that, plotting out ages. I did put "look for eggs" on week 22 for the oldest chicken. Then I added two POL hens to the flock when someone on BYC was down-sizing HER flock. Totally forgot about that calendar as time passed, and when the first egg from one of original "chicks" appeared, I noticed it was "early" when I happened to look at that calendar. Two more started 'on time' and the other four (one of the 8 was an accidental roo) laid their eggs "late."

I've never had kids, but I've seen friends go through similar "milestone" issues with theirs. Like the second child, there wasn't any calender marking about eggs for the chicks I added this spring - who knew WHEN they might lay eggs; I didn't try to schedule it for them, not even as haphazardly as for the first batch.

There have been some amazingly impatient posts about waiting for first eggs. I'd rather be doot-de-dooting along and FIND one, for a pleasant surprise, than get all wracked up about my chickens being slower than others.