We have a new Mom! Our first EGG ever!!! (But which hen?)

[Paradisewife]

Please excuse my over the top enthusiasm, but here's our very first egg ever! This is so exciting! One of our hens laid it in their pen this morning sometime between 6-ish and 10:30. I already learned about **not** washing eggs, but can I lightly brush off the grass? And I should store it in an airtight container right? Not sure about refrigeration though.

Also, we have five hens and don't know which one it was. Four are about 5 1/2 to 6 months old; they are a Barred Rock, a Rhode Island Red, a Cinnamon Queen and an Amberlink. The fifth is a little younger - between 5 and 5 1/2 months and smaller. She was given to us and is an orphan from a stray dog attack and we don't know what kind she is. Anyway, of the four known breeds, is one of them more likely, based on how fast/slow they mature, to have laid this egg? A picture is attached and the egg weighs 1.6 oz. I'd like to give her an extra blueberry!

This is so exciting!
Thanks for such huge volume of helpful information here!

Do any of your girls have super-red comb/wattles? A sign of being close to or at Point Of Laying (POL). You 'may' be able to ID the layer.
My 13 will be 20 wks old in 3 days. I've collected 14 eggs from 1 - an egg daily! The other 12? Nothing yet....

Congratulations!!!

 

[artbykarenehaley]

Thank you! I think we'll have to cook it right away and split it 3 ways. I've never eaten an egg before that's this fresh!

Oh you're in for a treat!
Something no one told me: fresh eggs are harder to peel if you hardboil them right after collecting them.
I'm sure there's a trick to making them easier to peel but I wouldn't know. my kids are scrambled eggs addicts so we usually don't have any eggs to hardboil in the first place.

 

[artbykarenehaley]

Do any of your girls have super-red comb/wattles? A sign of being close to or at Point Of Laying (POL). You 'may' be able to ID the layer.
My 13 will be 20 wks old in 3 days. I've collected 14 eggs from 1 - an egg daily! The other 12? Nothing yet....

Congratulations!!!

Oh this is a good point!

 

[Agronauts]

Do any of your girls have super-red comb/wattles? A sign of being close to or at Point Of Laying (POL). You 'may' be able to ID the layer.
My 13 will be 20 wks old in 3 days. I've collected 14 eggs from 1 - an egg daily! The other 12? Nothing yet....

Congratulations!!!

Oh! Thank you! Both the Amberlink and the Cinnamon Queen have bright red combs & wattles! Oooo! Maybe we'll have another egg in a day or two. Enough for a tiny omelet, anyway.

 

[Paradisewife]

Oh you're in for a treat!
Something no one told me: fresh eggs are harder to peel if you hardboil them right after collecting them.
I'm sure there's a trick to making them easier to peel but I wouldn't know. my kids are scrambled eggs addicts so we usually don't have any eggs to hardboil in the first place.

Ice water shock bath: when your cooking time is up, put them straight from boiling water into ice & water. (I use a wire dipper/ladle.) Leave them for at least 15 minutes (until cooled), then peel or refrigerate. I've found that this method works really well on farm fresh eggs only. From the store? Nothing works better than waiting 2-3 weeks for them to 'age'.

I believe it's the diet, personally. Eggs from our hens seem to have stronger inner membranes, or maybe it's simply the wisdom of mother nature - we are in the desert, a sturdier inner membrane to prevent loss of moisture too quickly?

 

[FunClucks]

So excited for you!!! That first pullet egg is the most darling, exciting thing ever!!!

If you get another egg tomorrow or the next day, compare the shape and size and roundness/pointiness of it. If it looks different than the one you currently have, you could have a second layer! I have 3 ISA Browns, and I can just barely tell their eggs apart, but it is often possible. The eggs will slowly get bigger over the next month, so a significant difference in size is also a way to tell if it was laid by a different hen. And of course color - some chickens have speckles, some are slightly lighter tan, etc.

I have a mixed breed flock. 7 of my flock of 17 are currently laying. Several family members who have never had chickens (or any livestock for that matter) came over, and I showed them our freshly laid eggs and started to explain to them which of my birds had laid each egg, and how I could tell, showing them how unique each egg was, and they got this really weird look on their faces. They asked, "So you can tell which egg was laid by which bird?" and I said "Of course!". Blew their minds. I am, once again, solidly in the "weird" camp. It's nice to have an online forum at least where people get excited about these things!

 

[TX Chick Noob]

This can also help you narrow down who is laying or almost ready.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/who-is-laying-and-who-is-not-butt-check.73309/?page=4

 

[Happy hen lover]

Please excuse my over the top enthusiasm, but here's our very first egg ever! This is so exciting! One of our hens laid it in their pen this morning sometime between 6-ish and 10:30. I already learned about **not** washing eggs, but can I lightly brush off the grass? And I should store it in an airtight container right? Not sure about refrigeration though.

Also, we have five hens and don't know which one it was. Four are about 5 1/2 to 6 months old; they are a Barred Rock, a Rhode Island Red, a Cinnamon Queen and an Amberlink. The fifth is a little younger - between 5 and 5 1/2 months and smaller. She was given to us and is an orphan from a stray dog attack and we don't know what kind she is. Anyway, of the four known breeds, is one of them more likely, based on how fast/slow they mature, to have laid this egg? A picture is attached and the egg weighs 1.6 oz. I'd like to give her an extra blueberry!

This is so exciting!
Thanks for such huge volume of helpful information here!

Congrats first egg are the best ones!. It's so exciting. I rub them clean with a dry cloth if really dirty or poopy I wash them and put in fridge to eat. They keep great in egg cartons at room temp. for a couple of weeks.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Congratulations!

 

[Agronauts]

Another egg today! She laid it in a shallow hole I saw her digging yesterday. It was Hendrix, the Amberlink. (Yes, I named them all and don't laugh.)