What a surprise! EE layed her first egg today & beat out the leghorns

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

My 22 week old chickens and the order I predicted they should start laying:
2 white leghorns,
1 production red,
2 barred rocks,
3 easter eggers,
2 barnevelders

I received our first egg from one of the barred rocks last Saturday (6 days ago) and have been receiving an egg from her every day since. Today, we watched one of our EEs lay her first egg and today we received 2 eggs (1 light brown and 1 light green). I was shocked because I didn't think EEs started laying this early. And what about those leghorns - shouldn't they be laying already? Shouldn't they have beat the EE?

Also, she didn't make a sound. It took her forever to find her spot and about 40 minutes of sitting and turning in the nestbox, but she never made a sound. I thought there would be an "egg song"!

Here's a photo of the laying EE (taken 2 1/2 weeks ago):

She is a lot heavier than the other two and she has a totally different type of comb than the other two also - she has a 3 row pea comb. She's the one I always thought would turn out to be a rooster. Anybody else have one like this?

Edited to add these pictures taken today - Her comb has changed from the photo taken 2 weeks ago.

Here she is with one of the non-laying leghorns (also taken today):

 

[New2Peeps]

I have 2 that have that type comb. Both started laying late---30 to 40 weeks--so you are lucky!

 

[BawkinOnTheBench]

My EE's laid late 2 - the first was 29 weeks, the other 31. The first squawks a lot, the other hasn't made a sound. I never looked at the rows of the comb - I'll have to look today. My leghorns laid earlier - I think they were 26 weeks old, and I think the only reason they were that late was that it was fall, and the days were shortening.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

My EEs were the first to lay and the ones that continued to lay the best through molting. Mine are from MMM, and one looks almost exactly like your hen, except the comb.

 

[damselfish]

What a beautiful girl, she looks like my MMM girls too except for comb. They didn't lay particularly early or late as I recall...maybe 25-26 weeks?

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

I thought I had read that EEs took longer to start laying and I had also read that leghorns started between 16-20 weeks. I'm glad to hear that easter eggers are good layers.

Mine came from the local feedshop - I don't know which hatchery the feed shop orders their chicks from. We have one more that looks like her, but has a totally different comb - they also looked nothing alike until the last month or two.

 

[vermontgal]

My EE was also very quiet when laying. No egg song.

 

[Akane]

My EE were the first to lay at 4months old. The japanese bantams around 5 months. I'm still waiting on the 6-7month old dark brown layers.

 

[lisahaschickens]

I have a couple of 6 week-old EEs that look like they might turn out something like her. She is beautiful! Do you have any younger pictures of her?

 

[cmom]

Your birds are beautiful!!! If your leghorns aren't laying they sure look like they're ready. Are you sure they're not hiding their eggs somewhere?