The Great Egg Race!

[cyanne]

So, I know there are a lot of us on here patiently (or maybe not so patiently) waiting for that magical first egg. Either we are gazing wistfully into the future, crossing off the days on our calendars until our hens reach the minimum 'laying age,' or, we're staring at those same calendars and scratching our heads as the date has come and gone with no sight of an egg.

So, I thought it might be fun to start a little contest while we wait.

Here are the rules:

1.) You can enter up to 3 hens as your Egg Race contenders

2.) Please include a pic of your hen with stats on age and breed

3.) Go ahead and post updates if you like of any developments (squatting, squawking, etc), and be sure to post pics as soon as your egg arrives. Golf balls, ping pong balls, and plastic easter eggs do not count!

As of right now, we have no prizes, but maybe if we are extra lucky, some of our fellow BYCers will feel some pity for us as we wear a path to our nest boxes with our constant 'egg checks' and donate some goodies to give to the winners.

Have Fun!

 

[PotterWatch]

Maybe this will make my girls step it up!

Ginny, the 21wk oldBR that continues to frustrate me with her comb/wattle growth but refusal to lay eggs:

Luna, a 21wk old EE who doesn't look like she will lay any time soon:

George, the 20wk old RIR who has just started to grow out her comb and wattles (she is only about 17wks in this picture):

 

[omelette'smom]

thanks to you, i just identified what my "Fluffy" is! she is the same as George! problem is that i have two new hampshire reds and can't tell at this point if one is female due to the comb and wattles not looking at all like George"s. she looks more roosterish. doesn't crow but she is about 5 months so the race is on for an egg!

 

[omelette'smom]

I'm just curious if you've had an egg yet! my girls have not

 

[cyanne]

Nope, no eggs here yet.

I have started to experiment a bit to see if I can help things along, though. I realized that with the shorter days, and my coop being right next to the house, my girls were getting WAY to little daylight...so I put in a light on a timer to see if that helped.

Also, the nest boxes I had in there were getting knocked over and all the straw was thrown out every day, so I took the hint and replaced those with a more cozy nest made from a rubbermaid container with a hole cut in one end.

So far, no luck, but I still check every day!

 

[americana-chick]

i have a lot of girls i am waiting on and some that just started!! here i go!

here is Twister our hen that just started 3 days ago. she was the first one to start laying.

here is fudge our 2nd girl to start laying. she is in the back. this is when she was going in the WRONG shed to try and lay her egg so i had to move her into the coop.

and then here is my girl that i really REALLY want to lay her first egg because she is my only EE hen and then i have one EE roo and she is very special to me so i am waiting patiently!

and i also have 1 RIR, 1 black sex link, and 1 porcelain d'uccle bantam i am waiting on to lay.

 

[PotterWatch]

I have an update on my girls. George laid her first egg yesterday, hurray! Today I found an egg that could belong to Ginny, but I'm not 100% sure. I'll probably find out tomorrow if I am right.

 

[omelette'smom]

Okay! that's it! Fluffy and Omelette are getting the wooden spoon to their tail feathers!!

Fluffy's such a tom boy and Omelette is so good at avoiding the boys that they will never have fertile eggs