[Shazzer]

We have 6 hens 3 are about 24 weeks and the others about 18, when oh when will we get an egg!   Have they not had enough sunny days to get them started. :cry:

[richyrich7]

Patience shazzer they will get there.   It's usually around the 24- 25 week mark they start.

[Aunt Sally]

Soon  

[Shazzer]

Hurray we got the first egg, it was in the middle of the run this morning!  so excited it was quite small though, its came from a light sussex, maran or a light sussex cross with a white? sussex, its a small light brown, well beige really.  our other hens are a red sussex, aracana and a barnvelder but I dont think they are old enough yet.

[GrannieAnnie]

Awww congratulations shazzer.  They do lay small eggs at first you know, but they soon get the hang of it!!!!

[Shazzer]

how long do fresh eggs keep and should they be kept in the fridge?  we'd like to wait until there is an egg for everyone in our house, will the chicken that laid the egg lay one every day now?

[GrannieAnnie]

It may take her a few days to give you an egg a day, but she will then carry on regularly until she moults, some chooks stop laying when they moult, some perhaps go to one every 2 days or so.

They say you should keep eggs in the firdge, but we just keep them in the cool of the utility room as with most things, you should use eggs at room temperature not straight from the fridge!  However, as you are savig your up, you're probably better off keeping them in the fridge.

Your fresh eggs will keep a  lot longer than the supermarket ones Shazzer, as they are FRESH!!!!!! lol.  They may still be freshish after a month!  Mind you, some of our old ex batts can lay rotten eggs!!!

[Aunt Sally]

Your eggs will keep for AGES in the fridge Shazzer  :!:

Eggs can be kept for 3 weeks at room temperature and lots lot lots longer in the fridge.  

The fridge (because it's cold) had a very dry atmosphere, so don't use the eggs racks that fridge makers insist on proving. They will leave the egg open to the dry atmosphere and allow fast evaporation through the porous shell.

Store your eggs in an egg box (it keeps the humidity higher) with the blunt end upwards to keep the air space at the end on the egg.  Blunt side down encourages the air space to slip round to the side of the shell.

Do let us know how you cook it.  The first egg is very special  

[richyrich7]

Great Shazzer bet you can't wait to eat it  

on storing eggs, many years ago I was a milkman and we were told that "fresh" eggs from the supermarket have generally been in storage for up to two weeks before they hit the shelves.

[klou]

Yes, we had our first egg at the beginning of the week and already up to 4 a day. The first was admired and popped in the pan. The yolk sitting up proud and orange and just waiting for the toast.
Why did I think they ony laid in the early morning? Ours can lay at any time of the morning it seems, Jemima has a speciality spot on a welly boot in the back porch. No matter how many times she has been lifted into the house it seems this is her favourite spot. Is there a reason she won't use a nest, she has 3 to chose from and only 5 sisters.
Kay.

[Shazzer]

Yes I would also like to know why our hen wont lay her egg in the nest, She has laid it by the water feeder both days now, will that be her spot now?  She lays it somewhere between 10 and 11 am, my daughter was so excited about the fact that it was still warm,  Tomorrow we will be watching to see which hen laid it and how its done.

[GrannieAnnie]

We bought some china eggs today and OH put them in the nest boxes of the new POL's we got last week.  Hopefully they will get the message that the boxes are the place to lay their eggs!

Its best if you can encourage them to lay in their nests, anything can happen to your precious eggs if they are laid in other places and perhaps you won't see them for days or a fox or rat may get them.

[Jellyhead]

One of my hens, Shirley, has decided that she is just tooo good to be laying with the others, so she escapes the pen every day, gets herself under a plastic sheet which covers a big pile of straw and lays her egg there. she then takes herself back to the pen (over a 5' gate) as if nothing has happened.

[chickychick]

My new point of lay chickens have all decided the egg box is the place to hang out at night and they sleep in there every night all sqeezed together so how they will lay eggs in there I dont know!

I am still waiting for that first egg shouldnt be too long I hopeI have amberlincs and bovan goldlines and was told they are about 20 weeks old so should lay anyday..does anyone know any diferent to that?

munty says  
no hurry on the eggs .ssprizes are much nicer .

[Le Chant]

We've been absolutely gobsmacked to find ours have laid 3 eggs between the 4 of them this afternoon. We only got the chooks this morning from the market in Saumur! We're waiting for number 4 & 5 hopefully tomorrow though, then we can have one each!