yay! My Marans started laying!

[thehenconnectio]

Awesome. I know its a long wait!!

 

[RedIII]

I actualy posted another thread about lavender speckles/spots on the eggs I have been collecting. I have found that when they get blackberries as treats, their eggs tend to get lavender freckles on them...this egg was collected the day after I had one of those little berry pints start to be too squishy for my taste, but just right for the girls. I tossed the whole pint out to them. They devoured those blackberries with relish, and then gave me this egg the next day.

That's pretty fun. I'll have to give my girls a few berry treats like that now and then and see what comes of it

I do have a Marans among them, so maybe......?

 

[prettygreenegg]

I picked up a super speckled one two days before this one! It was tiny...I guess it could have been a first marans egg though it was not nearly as dark as the one I shared the photo of originally on this thread...(and yes, those freckles were lavender colored just like my nail polish).

That is a really neat egg!!

 

[kari_dawn]

That's pretty fun. I'll have to give my girls a few berry treats like that now and then and see what comes of it

I do have a Marans among them, so maybe......?

Actually, the first lavender spotted egg I got was from my blue laced red wyandotte! She is the matriarch, and she LOVES blackberries, so being the matriarch, she got ALL of them when I was only giving out a few at a time...it was because of her eggs I noticed that blackberries led to lavender spots...then again, I had two others laying at that time, and though I saw them eatting blackberries, I only got one with lavender spots on it...it only had one or two, but it was an EE egg, so it was kindof neat to see a seafoam colored egg with purple spots!

My other blrw lays a much paler egg, and no matter how many blackberries she eats, no spots.

Another thing I have noticed that seems to affect their egg shell color is mealworms. It seems to make them a richer color...In the case of one of my EEs, it made her sky blue egg have more of a green hue, and one of my buff orpingtons laid freckled eggs after lots of mealworms...

 

[kari_dawn]

That is a really neat egg!!

Thanks! I thought so too! I was very proud of my girls for that one!

 

[kari_dawn]

I got another one today! This one is bigger...dunno if it's from the same girl or not...I sat out there trying to figure out who it was, and all three of them are crammed in there! One is hogging the favorite spot, putting shavings on her back, Evie is trying to get her to move, and Cora finally gave up to go sun bath! Why is it that they all MUST use the same spot at the same time?

 

[RedIII]

My girls stand in line, from what I've seen. It's kind of funny, too. The BR will walk around outside the box and complain until it's her turn.

It might be from the same girl. My Marans was on strike for a few weeks, and when she started laying again, she had the longest, most torpedo-shaped eggs I have ever seen. Since then, they've mellowed out. So the size of your Marans's eggs might shift a little.

 

[kari_dawn]

those torpedo eggs always amuse me! I expect that they will get bigger (soon I hope!)....they are pretty small at the moment!

Mine are not nearly as polite waiting for the nest box....they will pile on top of eachother and try to push one another out of the way

 

[Kaeta44]

I like the way your nail varnish matches the speckles (in your picture)

 

[kari_dawn]

I thought that was pretty cool too! My nails had been that color for over a week, and my girls randomly lay me an egg to match!