Which breed would lay first?

pixiechic

Songster
11 Years
Apr 23, 2008
239
0
129
North GA
Lucille, our cornish x, has been laying pretty regularly, every other day. When the weather got really hot here a couple of weeks ago she stopped laying, and it's been kind of off-and-on since then.

However, we've found a few slightly smaller eggs in the nest box over the past week, and at first I wondered if Lucille was laying smaller eggs -- but a couple of them had RI Red feathers stuck to them. There are also Barred Rock feathers in the nest box. So now I'm wondering...could one of our other girls could be laying already? It seems early, they are just 17 weeks old, and I haven't seen any laying behavior like squatting. Is that likely?

If it's possible, I'd love to know who the eggs are coming from. I know there's no way to tell for sure which one's laying (other than separating them physically, or watching them 24/7), but I was wondering -- is one breed likely to start laying earlier than others? Here are the girls we have:
- 2 Barred Rock
- 2 RI Red
- 3 Silver Laced Wyandottes
- 3 Araucanas
- 1 Buff Orp that is probably a cockerel, but I'm not 100% sure

We also have a little lavender silkie girl, but there's no way an egg of that size came out of her tiny body!
 
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This is a good question. I am not sure myself since I am waiting for eggs, but neighbors who we ordered ours combined with got their first egg yesterday from the 15 week old hens.... they have a bunch of different kinds all mixed together with turkeys, goose and ducks. I figure the new girls saw the older ones regularly going to the nesting boxes and wanted to grow up quick! Needless to say, I put together a quickie nest box this morning...just in case... tho I think 15 weeks is real early.
 
You can flip up some bottoms and look for the signs of a damp slightly turned out possibly even a tiny bit pink and swollen vent indicating something made an exit.
 
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I never would have thought of that - thank you! Will have to try that, assuming I can catch any of my girls...
 

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