Geri Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Hi, we have had our 4 girls 4 weeks tomorrow. 2 Gingernuts - Mavis & Freda, 2 Pepperpots - Shelley and Peggy. Shelly has not started to lay yet, she does seem a little smaller so perhaps she is behind the others in age - whilst not worried, can I ask, is this normal? 4 chucks at the same delivery, would they be different ages? (Shelly stopped laying again for a couple of days last week, we put this down to the weather! she has started again now) Mavis - who I hasten to add has laid double yokers, so proud!! has had strange white spots on her eggs sometimes, usually she has little brown speckles, in humans that can indicate a calcium overload - could this be the same for chickens? there is no consistency in this. They do get treats every day of pearl barley and various other pulses mixed in with cooked veg and ground egg shells, but not until they have munched their way through the Omlet chicken feed all morning and early afternoon; mealy worms and soaked sultana's when blackmail in required to get them back into the Eglu. Yes, they are very spoilt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackian Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Congratulations on your new girls... and welcome to the wonderful world of chicken keeping. We had 2 new girls in January 1 Miss Pepperpot Eva and 1 Gingernut Rosie to add to our other 2 girls Poppy and Clover .Eva laid very quickly after a few days but Rosie was about 4 weeks later.She was lot smaller. I am assuming they are Omlet girls and they say they are between 16 and 22 weeks I believe so there would be your time difference. Once they get sorted (it takes a while) you should have eggs most days. I have been told that a chicken lays an egg roughly every 26 hours so you will find the time changes most days. Jackie x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dance in the dark Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Nothing to worry about. I have never had omlet chickens, but most hybrid breeders will have chickens ready for sale that are somewhere between about 16 and 20 weeks old, so I would be sure there would be an age difference. That being said, just because they are the same age doesn't mean they will all start to lay at the same time. I raised three chicks last year, the first two came into lay in January and the third came into lay in March, so girls just take a big longer. As for the white spots, I have a bluebell who often does this. As I understanding it, it's nothing to worry about, slightly unusual shells, are nothing to worry about. You will probably encounter slab-sided eggs, rough or brittle shells, funny dark spots, patchy colouring etc. it is fine, especially given that your hens are new to laying. As for double yolkers, I have a hen that used to lay them lots, but once their reproductive cycle calms down, they normally become very rare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geri Posted May 3, 2012 Author Share Posted May 3, 2012 Thank you both, still no laying from Freda, but not worried the egg with the white spots was equally delicious as all the others, we do love our girls, dont need a tele anymore (not until they go to bed anyway ) wishing for warmer weather for them, I'm sure they dont like all this wind and rain, neither do I. and every day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
