First eggs!

[Eirwen]

Hi everyone!
I thought it best if I started a new topic as my old thread was getting rather long! And my chicks are now grown to 20 weeks and have just started laying last week!

Which brings me to the topic of eggs!

The first egg came Wednesday, a small light brown one, with little speckles! Then Friday came a much larger one, no speckles and lighter in colour. Today I found another small one with speckles, and also a soft shelled one that had been squashed!
My question is who's laying what?

I have 8 hens, 2 whitestars, 2 cream legbars, a 'blackrock', speckledy, blue ranger, and a white sussex (hybrid).
I can rule out the whitestars as they lay white eggs, and the legbars as they lay blue eggs. The blackrock and speckledy do not seem to have developed their red combs yet, so that leaves the blueranger and sussex. I'm thinking that the ranger has been laying the darker speckled eggs, and the sussex laid the lighter larger egg. But not sure about the soft shell egg? No way to tell the colour of that one, it was just white.

One of the whitestars has developed a large red comb recently, and one of the legbars is 3 weeks older than the rest, could possibly be one of them??

They have been on layers pellets since last week and have mixed grit with oyster shells since a couple of weeks which they love, so not sure why I got the soft shelled one? Is that common for a first egg?

Any ideas welcome

 

[dinosaw]

The odd soft shelled egg is perfectly normal during the first couple of weeks of laying Eirwen so don't worry about that, could be either of your laying birds doing it or possibly the legbars looking at their combs, as you say the whitestars and speckledy shouldn't be laying yet looking at their combs. The second egg looks like what i would expect to see from a light sussex and and the third is probably another from your blue ranger, of course I could be totally wrong, wouldn't be the first time.

 

[Eirwen]

Thanks Dinasaw!
Can't wait to go see if there's more eggs later!

 

[Icemaiden]

Hi Eirwen.
I'd agree with Dinosaw re the Light Sussex. Mine lays eggs whose shells are unmarked & with a pinky tinge, similar to your second one.
Enjoy!

 

[Eirwen]

Ok now I'm confused!

I haven't had any eggs with speckles on them since last time, or any soft shells. But either my cream legbars are laying brown eggs or my speckledy or blackrock whose combs are not yet very developed, are laying..
I'll post a pic to help with my question-

 

[Eirwen]

Ok-
Friday I found tge egg that's on the top right of the bottom box.
Saturday there was the top middle, top left, and bottom left of the bottom box.
Today, Sunday, there was the bottom middle, bottom right of bottom box, AND the two eggs of the top box!

Now the only one I can definitely tell is the white one which is obviously from the whitestar.
And the little tinted egg must be a first egg from somebody, but who?? The white sussex and blubell are already laying. And there were 3 brown eggs today, so who's laying??

I just like to solve puzzles

 

[chrismahon]

You will have to sit and watch the nest boxes Eirwen. When first laying the eggs can change appearance a lot from one to the next anyway. Perhaps you need to let them stabilise and make an omelette, because it looks like you will be getting a lot of eggs?

 

[Eirwen]

Haha good idea Chris! Will be using some with our fri up later! I already have orders from my mother and grandmother for eggs!
How long do they keep for? And do you keep them in the fridge?
Thanks

 

[Icemaiden]

It's entirely up to you whether you keep them in the fridge- when I used to buy eggs from a supermarket & got through 6 in 3 weeks, I kept them in the fridge. If you're using them within a week or so, they're fine on the worktop. Delia Smith says to keep them at room temperature.

 

[Eirwen]

Well I watched them this morning, and the mystery layer is.... The blackrock! Her comb is tiny, though it is red. Huh.. Wonder if her comb will stay small?

 

[Eirwen]

Got my first egg from one of the cream legbars today!! Now I have a nice selection

 

[chrismahon]

Just how some of our egg boxes used to look Eirwen. Customers used to get very curious about the blue egg.

 

[dinosaw]

A nice selection indeed, and luckily you seem to have escaped the curse of the khaki legbar eggs