First Egg In The Nesting Box! Production Is Ramping Up!
Yay! I scooped up the first egg of a hopefully productive flock of ISA-Brown hens. Actually, I need to call them pullets… A pullet is a hen that’s less than a year old.
The first egg came at 16 weeks of age. That’s one thing about the ISA-Brown’s — they’re not only prolific egg layers, but they start on the early side compared to other breeds.
Ironically, the day I wrote the article, “Chickens First Time Out Of The Run” I had said, “Still waiting on their EGGS!”. Well, later that day the first egg magically appeared!
That was five days ago. Now we’re up to six eggs as of this morning. At “full production” we should be at 6 or 7 a day. It’s ramping up!
Interestingly, all eggs so far have been in the same nesting box…
The first eggs are going to be small. And they are. You can see the size of the first egg next to the golf ball in the photo above. Eventually they should become nice and big.
“Hey Ken, how did those first eggs taste compared to store bought eggs?”
I’m glad you asked! Though surely they’re going to be even better tasting as the pullets get into good production and bigger eggs, these tasted great! Hard to explain, but they just tasted fresher, more like an egg — if that makes sense…
It’s going to depend on their feed too. Now they’re eating a combination of egg layer pellets from Tractor Supply – and increasingly the grasses and whatever they might find in their fenced-in open range area.
Anyway, I thought I would share the experience with you now that we’re finally getting some eggs.
By the way, I think it was this one ;)
Beginner’s Guide To Raising Chickens
(view on amzn)
Hooray! Nothing compares to your own eggs. Congrats!
Watch for some snakes in the hen house after your eggs
You can expect an egg a day from each (ISA-Browns), early on. You need to start replacement chicks about a year and a half from now, as egg production of these will drop quite a bit as they approach 2 years of age.
Yeah! The first egg is so fun! I’ve had them be tiny as ping pong balls. What good girls you have!
Hey Ken,
I hope you didnt try to fry up the golf balls!
Hehe
Awesome, first egg. Keep at it girls.
Wow, that is egg siting ! Congrats.
Truly cool!
How eggciting!
Pretty amazing that these things pop out these little hard bombs that wecan eat,,,
Yep, look at that bright red comb, she’s a layer for sure!
Apparently that’s a giveaway that they’re a layer. I noticed this one bird in particular who’s comb and wattles were extra red compared to others. Though the others are coming along…
Good to know. We just started getting eggs from our 6 pullets too. 3 eggs per day right now.
Awesome Mountain Man.
This has truly been fun (and educational) for someone like me who has never been around chickens. Thanks for taking us along on the journey.
Hoo rah
We’ve had chickens for almost 2 years now. Have to be honest when hubby brought them home I wasn’t so excited, something else to feed , along with all the other animals. Well as it turns out, I kinda have a love / hate relationship with them.. they are free range so they are everywhere had the house door open one day & 2 of them decided to come in & visit lol!! But now they are feeding us & I actually love feeding & watching them hate that they poo everywhere!! Wait until you start getting those double yolk eggs!! Boys love them!!
Well, that’s cool.
All that hard work is paying off.
Kinda like mushroom hunting…..I found one!!!!
Makes a person wonder, if all that time and feed is worth it. Heck, yeah!
It has been a big project for you.
Sustainability, is the name of the game.
How’s the missus J doing with her ankle, Ken?
I thought I found a mushroom once–turned out to be the toe of my white shoe poking out from under the mulch. :) I had a bucketful at the time, so it was just funny.
Lauren,
I hope you had a bucket full of good mushrooms, not toes.🤦
I can harvest all the mushrooms I want. The toes remain where they area, attached to my feet.
Lol
Well, that’s a good thing!!
Congrats! First eggs! So fun to find them, isn’t it? Hope all stays well with your flock. I love watching my girls run around like crazy. They are so amusing. Farm TV. Love it.
Ken you have list for everything. How much food should one store to feed a chicken. Seeing we have 22 hens and a rooster I’ll just multiply by 23 thanks ahead of time
Storing chicken feed pellets can be a tricky business. I read where a chicken eats a quarter pound a day and someplace where they eat a third of a pound a day. I think a quarter pound is closer.
You need to have a DRY place to store pellets. If they are stored in a humid place, they get moldy. I don’t want to feed my chickens mold.. so it gets dumped in the woods where the mice, turkeys, and deer eat it.
Storing it in sealed plastic drums just invites the chipmunks and squirrels to chew through and destroy the drums and feed.
Storing it in metal trash cans with the lid bungeed down so coons don’t get it still allows a lot of tiny bugs in. Tiny bugs I don’t like. Big bugs the chickens eat.
Next trial may need to be steel sealed drums with dried air blown in.
Bravo, Girlies !!!
Thanks for the update. So much fun to see how it’s going.
All your beautiful green grass will be a great snack for them.
Great thread. Do you have a plan for when you start to have too many eggs?
We’re up to about 6 to 8 per day now. I’ve learned that by keeping the bloom on the eggs and refrigerating them, they can last up to 6 or 7 months. Obviously if I have them that long I’ll be doing the float test before using them to check viability. Other than eating them, I’ll be making Spicy Pickled Ghost eggs. Also I’ll probably scramble a bunch and put them in ice cube trays. Will be about 1 egg per tray.
Also I’ll be giving some away now as they could become a great barter item later……
Duh… Meant to say 1 egg per cube space, 12 per tray….