Which chickens are laying?

[Lyn862]

My chickens are 21 weeks old. I have 7 chickens - 2 barred rocks, 2 australorps, and 3 ameraucanas. I am getting 2 or 3 eggs each day. Twice I have gotten 4 eggs, all brown. Does this mean my ameraucanas are not laying yet, since I don't get any green eggs? Or does it mean my ameraucanas lay brown eggs?

 

[beakkeeper]

I would assume that your Aussies at least are laying, if not the Rocks too. Not all chickens mature at the same rate and it could be up to another month for the Ameraucana. Is she a purebred Ameraucana? If you got her from Meyer, Murray McMurray, MPC or Ideal, then she is and Easter egger. Still nice, just not purebred

 

[Heather J]

It could be either. I know Americaunas often don't lay as early as the other birds, though, so probably they aren't laying yet. Are they pure bred Americaunas, or did they come from a hatchery. I would say if they are pure bred (and not really EE like most hatchery birds are) then you will almost certainly get colored eggs when they finally start laying, they may be a pinkish color, but they shouldn't be brown like your others. Sometimes the EEs will lay a brown egg, depending on how diluted the genes are.

 

[Dar]

I just copied this from McMurray's site

as a general rule a chicken with red ear lobes will lay brown eggs & a chicken with white ear lobes will be a white egg layer. There are some exceptions. The Araucanas lay blue/green eggs. They are called "The Easter Egg Chicken".


I have also heard that if you look at the vent..if it is moist than most likely that hen is laying...(i dont know if this is correct or not)

 

[Lyn862]

Okay, I just had a very educational experience, catching chickens, turning them head down and checking vents. I looked at one barred rock and one austalorp and one Easter egger (formerly know as ameraurcana. . . but she did come from a hatchery). They all looked pretty much the same to me. I got 4 eggs again today. I feel like I need a hidden camera.

 

[Lyn862]

The answer - my Easter Eggers are laying brown eggs. I caught one in the nest box. I took all the eggs out from under her and waited until she came out of the coop. There was a lovely, warm, brown egg in the nest.

 

[sunshine twins]

Hi The chickens I have are Buff Orpington I have 7 hens and 1 rooster They are like my kids. I have 4 daughters I have 2 that are 22yrs old and 2 that are 20yrs olds. So I wanted a hobbie. So we got chickens. We also have 4 cats and yah and 1 husband that loves me

 

[cmom]

Quote:
Are you sure it's your EE? I thought the same of one of my birds until I put a critter cam in. Yes she went into the nest box but she didn't lay the egg. I saw another of my girls go in just before her, in fact she was on the roost looking like she was waiting for the other bird to vacate the nest. As soon as the other bird did finally vacate she went in, and I caught it all on camera.

 

[Gindee77]

I have an EE that's laying pale green eggs, one that lays pale turquoise eggs and one that lays pale pink eggs. I have one more EE that's a bit younger than the rest and I can't wait to see what she lays!!

I found out who was laying the pink eggs because our pullet, named Maggie, was in the tractor one day with all of her buds and she went into the loose plastic box we are using for a nest box until we can build an attached one. Anyway, Maggie was getting in the nest box and somehow she must have flipped the box over on top of herself and then proceeded to lay an egg while she was trapped in there. Otherwise my pullets play musical nest boxes so much, it's almost impossible to tell who lays what!! My DH and I have managed to catch a few of our pullets in the act of laying, so we know who lays what for about 5 of our hens, but the rest we have NO IDEA!!

 

[Mahonri]

I got my first egg today and we went in the coop and inspected hind ends.

Since it was our first egg, it was real obvious who had layed it... our Black Star.. They turned 20 weeks old today... hatched out on April 25th.

The boys were so eggcited!
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