Eggs
Ever since our chicken and guinea adventure began, Roy's been counting the weeks until the chickens start laying eggs. He had the weeks marked on the calendar the same way I did when I was pregnant with Melise!
Way back when, he had read something that said chickens would start laying eggs around 19 weeks. On the chickens' 19-week birthday Roy was like a little kid on Christmas morning . . . only there were no presents under the tree. Poor Roy.
He was less excited about checking the nests each day that passed without an egg. Over a week went by and nothing. Then one day I asked him about it and he went to his reference book. After a few minutes flipping through the pages, he said, "I should have read this in the first place!" It turned out that our type of chickens (Plymouth Barred Rocks and New Hampshire Reds) aren't expected to lay eggs until their 21st week!
Their 21-week birthday was the day before Thanksgiving. Again Roy ran out to check. No eggs.
Thanksgiving morning, Roy went out to check the chickens and came back with a big smile on his face. He had found two eggs. We were definitely thankful.
The eggs are little, about 2/3 the size of eggs from the store. They're small because the chickens are still maturing, so they're called pullet eggs. They'll get bigger with time. They are brown naturally, not because they're dirty . . . although a rinse doesn't hurt.
By the next morning, we had a third egg and we celebrated with fried eggs. One of the eggs is store-bought so you can see the size difference.
Our only problem with our egg-laying chickens is that they aren't laying the eggs in the nest boxes. So far the eggs have shown up in the corner of the chicken house and out in the open on the ground. Supposedly, chickens like nice cozy spots to lay eggs in, so we provide nest boxes to encourage them to lay the eggs where it is easy to collect them. Our chickens are still young and don't quite know what's going on with their bodies. It may take them a while to get the hang of this!
In the meantime, Roy made their boxes a little cozier with curtains and put golf balls in the nests to give them a little hint!
Here's a little sex education lesson about chickens. Ovulation (the process of producing an egg) happens every 25 hours for chickens. If you think about it, that's pretty amazing compared to human females that ovulate every 28 days. And the chickens lay an egg every time they ovulate, whether or not it is fertilized. That's a lot of work for their little bodies!
Speaking of fertilization, we haven't witnessed any in process yet, but you can tell the chickens are ready! Sometimes when you reach out to pet them they squat down and spread their wings a little. That means she's ready to be mounted by the rooster. Here's an example:
If you want to know all the intimate details of chicken mating, you'll have to look elsewhere because I'm not qualified to teach you! But from what I've heard of the anatomical coming-together, it's very strange . . . almost alien sounding . . .
In the meantime, we'll keep an eye out for any fraternization around our farm - like this cute couple hiding in the bushes!
By the way, we have 10 chickens that each will lay 2 eggs every 3 days . . . I should have done the math before because that's a lot of eggs! You can guarantee that it's more than we need, so be on the lookout for our free-range brown eggs at local farmer's markets next summer!
Way back when, he had read something that said chickens would start laying eggs around 19 weeks. On the chickens' 19-week birthday Roy was like a little kid on Christmas morning . . . only there were no presents under the tree. Poor Roy.
He was less excited about checking the nests each day that passed without an egg. Over a week went by and nothing. Then one day I asked him about it and he went to his reference book. After a few minutes flipping through the pages, he said, "I should have read this in the first place!" It turned out that our type of chickens (Plymouth Barred Rocks and New Hampshire Reds) aren't expected to lay eggs until their 21st week!
Their 21-week birthday was the day before Thanksgiving. Again Roy ran out to check. No eggs.
Thanksgiving morning, Roy went out to check the chickens and came back with a big smile on his face. He had found two eggs. We were definitely thankful.
The eggs are little, about 2/3 the size of eggs from the store. They're small because the chickens are still maturing, so they're called pullet eggs. They'll get bigger with time. They are brown naturally, not because they're dirty . . . although a rinse doesn't hurt.
By the next morning, we had a third egg and we celebrated with fried eggs. One of the eggs is store-bought so you can see the size difference.
Our only problem with our egg-laying chickens is that they aren't laying the eggs in the nest boxes. So far the eggs have shown up in the corner of the chicken house and out in the open on the ground. Supposedly, chickens like nice cozy spots to lay eggs in, so we provide nest boxes to encourage them to lay the eggs where it is easy to collect them. Our chickens are still young and don't quite know what's going on with their bodies. It may take them a while to get the hang of this!
In the meantime, Roy made their boxes a little cozier with curtains and put golf balls in the nests to give them a little hint!
Here's a little sex education lesson about chickens. Ovulation (the process of producing an egg) happens every 25 hours for chickens. If you think about it, that's pretty amazing compared to human females that ovulate every 28 days. And the chickens lay an egg every time they ovulate, whether or not it is fertilized. That's a lot of work for their little bodies!
Speaking of fertilization, we haven't witnessed any in process yet, but you can tell the chickens are ready! Sometimes when you reach out to pet them they squat down and spread their wings a little. That means she's ready to be mounted by the rooster. Here's an example:
In the meantime, we'll keep an eye out for any fraternization around our farm - like this cute couple hiding in the bushes!
By the way, we have 10 chickens that each will lay 2 eggs every 3 days . . . I should have done the math before because that's a lot of eggs! You can guarantee that it's more than we need, so be on the lookout for our free-range brown eggs at local farmer's markets next summer!
Posted by Susan at November 30, 2009 
Categories: Rural Living, Poultry
Tags: mating nest free range new hampshire reds boxes farmers market ovulation fertilization egg plymouth barred rocks chicken brown
Categories: Rural Living, Poultry
Tags: mating nest free range new hampshire reds boxes farmers market ovulation fertilization egg plymouth barred rocks chicken brown
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