First Egg from our First Chicks!

Can you believe it’s only 18 weeks since we hatched our first large Light Sussex chicks – babies of Charles and Daisy? And today, Emma, sister of Beth and Ethelred (the unready cooked), laid her first egg! We’d been expecting it really, as we’ve had a couple of mis-starts over the last week – a couple of soft-shelled eggs dropped on the grass, but we didn’t know whose they were. I guess we now know!

It’s funny seeing the genes come into play, as Emma is definitely Daisy’s daughter – she’s larger than Beth, her colourings are pretty much the same, but even her temperament; laid back, easy going. And now she’s laid an egg after only 18 weeks! For a pure breed that’s amazing – we were expecting 20 weeks minimum – they were still on growers until a couple of days ago. As soon as we saw evidence of a soft-shelled egg we switched them to layers pellets – the books say to hold off and keep them on growers until they begin to lay, as kick-starting the egg-laying process can be detrimental to the hens’ health, but if Emma wants to lay, then who are we to argue?

By the looks of Beth’s comb colour, I would say she’s not far behind.