first egg!

[shallishanti]

hens have not been laying in months, this was their 2nd year, went to clean them out today and found a lovely big egg!
how are everyone elses?
I know when I had boring old hybrids they never quite stopped laying but I went for fancy ones and they're not as productive!

we got ours Jul 08, they laid most of last winter but have stopped this year. We had one the week before xmas the day after it snowed, which was massive, but none since.

mmm yes I shouldn't get to excited as it will inevitably lead to disappointment.

Me too!!!! First egg today. These are our first chickens and lots of people have told us we won't get any till the spring, so we are thrilled.

I came on here to ask a question, though - the reason we found the egg (in the middle of the day) was that chicken that laid it was behaving really oddly. She was sitting around in the soil around under the hut, rubbing her belly on the ground and looking really disgruntled. Her friend was cuddled up to her looking similarly worried. (Don't ask me how a chicken looks worried, but she did!)

Were they just in a post-natal state of confusion (having never laid any eggs before) or should we worry? Half an hour later, they were both behaving normally again.

Smithagain - sounds like they were dust bathing to me!

Only one egg in weeks here too - think DH is getting a smidge fed up with the cost vrs egg ratio

Oh - do you think so? Should have thought of that. We've had them a couple of months but haven't seen them doing it so didn't know what it looked like. I guess maybe she felt the need to clean herself up after the event LOL!

Ours just started again before Christmas - up to 4 a day now out of 6 hens of varying ages.

Including dinky dark brown ones from the Marans my dd1 hatched in May last year!

I have one girl laying at the moment. I did have three, but one is broody and one is moulting. The other four are just free loaders

this is the first time ours have slowed down for the winter!
but it is very very cold this year (and i think ex keeps giving them away to his new gf, so they may be laying more than i think.... )

looking at the box in front of me, this week Tina has laid 2, Jessica has laid 2, Pamela 1 and Erica 1. nothing from lazy Rita (but she's retired so she's allowed) However, her feathers have grown back to an extent where she now looks like a real chicken (she's an ex-batt) so she might start laying again in the spring...

ooh! 4 a day

1 or 2 a day since we lost one

they had a couple of weeks off at end of summer when moulting, but bizarrely between two of them there were 3 eggs the other day

I remember our very first egg, took photos of it

got 1 today - first since about 20 Dec. Unfortunately I put my gloved thumb through it when picking it up!

Just joined this site and have 4 chickens. We got them quite late in the year and so weren't expecting any eggs until Spring but Christmas Eve we got our first from our Betsy the Maran, she then laid Christmas Day and then the day after Boxing Day We didn't get anything for a bit but when I checked yesterday there were 2 more (but frozen in the damn weather! Is this normal (not the eggs freezing but the gap in between laying)?????

oh, managed to get to todays egg before it froze!

one more today from the same hen- it's SO cold I'm amazed really, it's been really hard keeping their water liquid, DD2 had about 8 tealights under the water container this am!