Most of my chickens are now 22 weeks old, and a few have started to lay eggs. I'm trying to figure out who is laying, short of setting up a camera inside the coop. Most of them I've figured out (I think), but this dark egg is still really confusing to me.
Whoever it is has now laid 6 eggs, all about the same shade and currently about medium in size. The 2 eggs on the far left of the picture below are from this chicken. I'm relatively certain it is the same one laying all of them, as she always puts it right up against one side of a particular box.
When the first egg appeared (my very first egg from any of them), I went around checking the vents of all the potential brown egg layers (yes, I'm weird like that) and had narrowed it down to one of my 2 SL Wyandottes. Her comb was one of the biggest/reddest of the flock at the time, and her vent looked wide....though I didn't go around catching everyone to check at that time. The egg didn't match the colors I've seen online, but I figured it was just because it was a first egg, and they'd get much lighter soon. However, now over 2 weeks and 6 eggs later, we're still the same shade of dark brown, just starting to reduce the number of spots.
Could these really be her eggs?
My other brown egg breeds in the flock are:
1 White Maran (still has a pale comb, vent the size of a pencil eraser)
1 Welsummer Bantam (bright red comb but fairly tiny vent)
1 Barred Plymouth Rock (paler comb than most, tiny vent)
2 Lavender Orphingtons (bright red combs, one has a medium-sized vent...the other won't let me catch her to easily check)
1 Delaware (bright red comb, vent looks like she has definitely laid an egg)
1 SL Cochin (very pale comb, tiny vent)
1 Buff Brahma Bantam (bright red comb, big vent)
To me, the color looks more like the Welsummer eggs I've seen online, but while my bantam looks like she will start laying any day now, I seriously doubt she will be pushing out medium sized eggs. The Maran does not look at ALL like she is laying yet.
Below is another picture of the egg next to a silkie egg and what I believe to be the bantam Buff Brahma's egg.
Whoever it is has now laid 6 eggs, all about the same shade and currently about medium in size. The 2 eggs on the far left of the picture below are from this chicken. I'm relatively certain it is the same one laying all of them, as she always puts it right up against one side of a particular box.
When the first egg appeared (my very first egg from any of them), I went around checking the vents of all the potential brown egg layers (yes, I'm weird like that) and had narrowed it down to one of my 2 SL Wyandottes. Her comb was one of the biggest/reddest of the flock at the time, and her vent looked wide....though I didn't go around catching everyone to check at that time. The egg didn't match the colors I've seen online, but I figured it was just because it was a first egg, and they'd get much lighter soon. However, now over 2 weeks and 6 eggs later, we're still the same shade of dark brown, just starting to reduce the number of spots.
Could these really be her eggs?
My other brown egg breeds in the flock are:
1 White Maran (still has a pale comb, vent the size of a pencil eraser)
1 Welsummer Bantam (bright red comb but fairly tiny vent)
1 Barred Plymouth Rock (paler comb than most, tiny vent)
2 Lavender Orphingtons (bright red combs, one has a medium-sized vent...the other won't let me catch her to easily check)
1 Delaware (bright red comb, vent looks like she has definitely laid an egg)
1 SL Cochin (very pale comb, tiny vent)
1 Buff Brahma Bantam (bright red comb, big vent)
To me, the color looks more like the Welsummer eggs I've seen online, but while my bantam looks like she will start laying any day now, I seriously doubt she will be pushing out medium sized eggs. The Maran does not look at ALL like she is laying yet.
Below is another picture of the egg next to a silkie egg and what I believe to be the bantam Buff Brahma's egg.
