Well this pullet was almost 9 months old so it's about darn time she started laying! I ended up with lots of different ages except the 6 month olds, of whom I have 3. But they're breeder orps and just take longer to lay than production breeds so I don't look for them to start until around 8 months. It being winter, I guess these three will take their time about starting to lay as well.
Super egg laying isn't my goal but this trap nesting has sure opened my eyes about my hatchery birds. The poor things were obviously bred to be egg laying machines even though the breed wasn't meant to be one. Four to five eggs a week is about all they can do and still be able to lay for years from what I understand but these girls laid six to seven a week, suffered greatly this summer (it was unusually hot), and now don't look so good, especially the one that did lay all through the summer. But I may breed her anyway, we'll see how she does. They have stress also from flock dynamics changing so it's not all from laying too much. My roo has finally let them know he's the boss and they can't get it through their heads that they can still be the Queens of the place, just not over him lol. Oh he's a gentleman he just won't allow them to beat him up any more.
Anyhow this new pullet's eggs are distinctly different from the other that's laying so no problem with keeping track for now at least, besides being in a different nest. I'm so proud of her, her very first egg ever was a LARGE! I was amazed. I kept checking around and thinking there had to be a smaller pullet egg I overlooked but never found one. And she's laying the 5 a week that I expect.
Love my egg log that I have by the back door. I like to just look at it and think how it'll look when they all get started cause for now, only 2 rows have tick marks on it. When I first started, four rows did, then three, then one, now two.
I also need to build another trap nest or two this winter cause when I have 8 or more laying I know there's gonna be lots of traffic jams.
