My chickens are about 23 weeks old. Started with eight chicks, 2 red sex links, 2 rhode island reds, 2 silver laced wyandottes, and 2 easter eggers. One of the Red sex links didn't survive, and one of the RIRs turned out to be a rooster. So I have six ladies who are all showing signs that they are ready to lay. Found the first egg today! I am pretty sure it's from Cheeto, the red sex link. She's been checking out the nesting boxes this week.
Now I can be the mean landlord coming by every day to collect rent.
sparky (01-17-2017)
Very Cool! When they are all producing... you're going to need lots of omelette ideas!
MightyThor (01-16-2017)
Congratulations! I lecture my birds every day about paying their rent. They seem to be listening.
My red sex links turned out to be high producers with an equally high mortality rate. We lost two of six. Two of the them became extremely aggressive and I decided to up their protein and calcium and added in seeds and dried beans to their feed since they were laying so heavily and needed replacement, especially over the winter when they can't get bugs or seeds. So I feed them back half of their eggs and they've calmed down quite a bit. I'm just saying because your bird's first egg looks like it has a pretty thin shell so she might need some of that back. That's just my two cents based on my experience with this batch of birds. I picked up four RIR's because of our losses and have decided to stick with that breed since it's the least tricky.
Great advice! I definitely plan on keeping an eye on the eggs as the ladies start to product to take care of any calcium balance issues. They are still on grower feed, so my next bag I'll switch to layer and mix in the shells.
Cheeto, the sex link, is probably the most affectionate of the ladies. She likes to be held more than any of the others except the rooster. My wyandottes and easter eggers are skittish. My two RIRs, Peaches the girl and Pickles the boy, are also little affectionate clowns. They've all been that way since Day 1 - it's crazy how much personality they have and how much it shines through when they are only days old.
When we realized Pickles was a rooster we made sure to both handle him quite a bit, and he's become a very happy and proud 'shoulder rooster'. I hope he stays that way, I know he's still maturing. He even gets along with the dog.
Enjoy the fruits of their labor.
I had to start selling when I was given 25 layers all at one time. No way I could use 25+ eggs a day.
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Kissing Bandit
How cool is that! I'd be very excited!
Cookie Black Snowflake
July 12th, 2006. - May 25th, 2023.
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That's exciting.
Sorry to hear you've both lost some of your chicks...I hadn't realized the chicken mortality rate was so high.
Ohhhh I miss my chickens! Grats on the egg!! We use to feed our chickens their egg shells back to them, ground up first, mixed with their feed.
The hens make great pets!
Oh and good luck on the rooster lol. Growing up we ALWAYS had chickens (one of my favorite animals by the way).
And I have say, to this day I have yet to see a rooster who was tame growing up not get really mean once they reach adulthood. We tried with ours. Always fine, then one day it's like the evil rooster within decided to come out rotfl!
My sister has scars on her leg from one of our "pet" roosters attacking her lolol.
You will soon be cooking wonderful fritatas, omelets, quiche and scrambles! Fresh eggs are so much than store bought!
We don't have chickens but we have friends with chickens and we chicken sit from time to time.
Last time we were rewarded with 40 eggs over 6 days!
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Mocha:Born 7/13/14 Gottcha 9/13/14 Latte: Born 7/15/16 Gottcha 9/9/16
Labs- "Hearts of gold, heads of stone, cast iron stomachs"
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