UPDATE Page 2: Runt hen & slow developer finally lays FIRST egg!!!

[HEChicken]

No, it is definitely NOT dirt - it is her coloring - she's had it ever since she developed feathers! No, not hatchery exactly. I obtained her as a 1-week-old chick from a local gal. I wouldn't exactly call her a breeder either though - she just had a bunch of chickens in her backyard so she collected eggs and incubated them.

 

[chickenlover54]

ok then she may just be a cross

 

[speckledhen]

In Delaware hens, many do not have what you would view as barring; since hackle feathers are so narrow, it looks more like stippling sometimes, just barring on a skinny feather. She does look like a Delaware cross. Many hatchery Delawares were crossed with production reds at one time or another, so could be her lineage showing a bit or she could be a cross with the red/gold leakage.

 

[HEChicken]

UPDATE: Wow, I got so used to this hen being a non-layer and thinking of her in those terms that I was stunned to find an extra egg in the nest box last night. I have 6 girls out side (other four from my siggie are still in the brooder) and have been consistently getting 5 eggs a day. Last night something looked off. I had to recount twice before I believed that there were really SIX eggs in the box! Sure enough, one of them looks like a little pullet egg. She is 8 months old and was a runt from the beginning. She always grew more slowly than the others and I really didn't think she would ever lay. (In fact, DH was sure she would be soup sometime soon). Surprisingly, she still has almost NO comb and has no visible wattles at all. I'm excited to think she might finally be ready to earn her keep.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

To me she looks like she might have wyandotte in her just looking at the body, maybe cornish, who knows.

 

[Happy Chooks]

And the color of the egg is????????? Any more clues as to her breed?

 

[tellynpeep]

Can you get a closer-up picture of her? Sounds like she might have a pea comb?

 

[HEChicken]

Wow, thanks for all the replies.

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I can try to get a closer up picture. Her comb is definitely a single comb, but still has not grown very big, despite the fact she has now laid an egg every other day for the past few days.

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The egg is indistinguishable from my two BO eggs I get every day. The only way I can tell it apart at this stage is because they are tiny little pullet eggs.