Buff’s first egg!

Posted by louisa on Friday 4 March 2011 in chickens | 1 comment

You know the other day when I was huffing and puffing about whether I thought Buff, our Leghorn chicken, was possibly a boy? Turns out all the worry was for nought. Look what I found in the nest box this morning:

(For those pedantic funny funny people: no, she didn’t lay the egg cup as well ;) )

As you can see from the diameter of the egg cup, it’s a thin one but about normal length – and very very white compared to the other brown ones. There was no mistaking it. (For the record, her big floppy comb was really quite red yesterday and paler today. I’ve noticed it fluctuating in the past as well so she’s possibly had a few false starts/shell-less ones that have gone unnoticed, although I have been looking closely.)

I think she might have had a bit of a hissy fit while it was coming out though – one of the other eggs in the nest box was broken completely and another had a hole in it — possibly an errant claw or possibly a peck. I’ll have to keep an eye on the situation but for now I’m just rejoicing – first white egg, weeee!

Frozen egg

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 21 December 2010 in chickens | 2 comments

Like Frugaldom & her quail eggs, there was a frozen egg waiting for me in the nest box this morning.

I suspect it was laid later yesterday, after my collection run, so was in there overnight.

Needless to say, I felt the pathological need to crack it open (albeit after it had been sat in the house for about 15mins). It was like frozen jelly inside.

Supersized egg!

Posted by louisa on Monday 9 August 2010 in chickens | 0 comments

After a run of just three eggs a day nearly all last week, then three eggs and a small pale one yesterday, we’re back to four eggs again now – and boy, one of the girls is over-achieving!

The smaller egg here weighs around 60g – which is the large end of medium and a typical size for our girls – but the big one weighs over 90g! No wonder I was woken up by some loud bwarking this morning! According to standard UK egg sizing guidelines, anything over 73g is a XL-sized egg – this is quite a bit over 73g!

I suspect Mrs Mauve is responsible for it – she’s quite a bit bigger than the other girls but she’s still only a young one, 26 weeks old max, so she – and her eggs – might get bigger still. Yesterday I was working in the garden and they got a lot of greens/veg – I’ll have to keep a check on the treats/super-large egg thing is causal or a coincidence.