What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[gallinas]

Hi All,

 

I'm a newbie here so please forgive the silly questions but you all really seem to know your stuff so I'm hoping that someone can offer some advice. I bought my first 4 chickens about 4 weeks ago and they were 14 weeks old (too many 4's I know). All going really well so far but really want some advice on the following:

 

1. One of the chickens I bought is a hybrid sussex silver. She is doing really well and has grown, eats very well, is very active etc however her face and comb still seems to be quite pale compared to the rest. It was like this when I bought her and assumed that it may have been because she was relatively young. Is this normal? Not sure if there is something wrong or if it is just her breed?

 

2. Two of my other chickens appeared to lay their first egg yesterday (one in the run and the other in the garden path), the only problem was that the shell was really soft. Is this normal when they lay their first egg?

 

Again sorry for the silly questions but just worried that there may be something wrong which I may be missing.

 

Thanks!

[Mr Rhode Island Red]

Welcome to the forum, gallinas

 

Yes, they are normal things for chickens to do.

 

They will have a pale face and comb until they get into the swing of laying (at around 18 weeks old) and a hen's first few eggs will probably be soft-shelled (known on this forum as "softies").

 

Best of luck with your chooks,

 

Mr Rhode Island Red

[percy049]

Like Mr Rhode said, hens combs get redder when they come into lay.

 

My first eggs from my hybrids were fine, but then they laid softies for 2 weeks! To help you could add crushed eggshell into their food.

[gongladosh]

you'll probably find that as she gets older, when she goes broody, her comb will go a bit pale (whilst broody). When she stops her broody period, she'll go back to normal again.