Saturday, October 17, 2009

Green eggs and ham

After a loooonnnnggg wait, I discovered my first egg out of the new flock this morning!!! Can you feel my glee? I mean, AmysFlock the First died on May 16, 2009, and we consumed what remained of their (non-incubated) eggs by the end of the following week. It's been five months since a chicken has laid an egg at Skookumchuck Farm.

The egg is light green with brown speckles. I suspect Mama, one of the Wheaties, is the layer; firstly, she had six 3-month old Wheatie Jr. chicks at her side when I bought her and secondly, I'm pretty certain none of my three black pullets out of AmysFlock the First had an Easter Egger mama. (I do want to research the heritability of feathering and color (and egg color) more, though, because perhaps a pullet could be black and lack the EE "cheek" feathers and still have an EE mother.)

I am just tickled. The nesting boxes were moved to their new location under the West-facing window just last week, but lack the darkening roof and back panels I had planned to work on today. I thought for sure those two things would need to be completed before a little miss decided the nest boxes were ok for laying. Perhaps the fluffy clean shavings, the perfectly-dimensioned vented file box nests, and/or the grit-filled fake egg did the trick. Regardless, the egg is spotlessly clean. It now sits in the fridge in half an egg carton...no need to get too optimistic yet, right?

Now the other kiddos just need to catch up! My three black pullets are now 18 weeks old so laying could commence at any time, although likely won't start until around week 21. The three Red Laced Black Wyandotte pullets I purchased are, I think, a couple of weeks younger. The other two Wheaties wore the same leg bands (denoting hatch #) as Mama, so hopefully two more green eggs will join the first before too long. Perhaps I've purchased my last carton of (flat, pale, flavorless) store-bought eggs for awhile!!

3 comments:

  1. Yea Amy!
    Yea, I can feel your glee and I'm right there with you!
    I've just started getting about 3 eggs a day from my new girls! I don't know if it's gonna keep up with winter coming, but right now I am just thrilled to have REAL eggs again!
    I won't say what my mom called them supposed to be egg things you buy at the store, but it was bad enough that I had to take my glasses off to force my breakfast out the other morning!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I share your excitement!I am watching and waiting for my own first egg. It has been several years since I had any hens to lay eggs here so it like waiting for Christmas to come. I keep looking at the combs to see who is getting redder since that seems to be a good indicator. I am not really sure how old my pullets are but they are filling out and fattening up so I am hopeful. Love your blog!
    Laura

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yea!
    Congratulations! The first egg is so eggciting. I have an EE that doesn't have the puff cheeks so it is possible. I hope many more start laying soon!

    ReplyDelete

I'd love to know what you have to say. Thanks for visiting!

Related Posts with Thumbnails