Three of the six Welsummer pullets that hatched on 19th April this year have come into lay. Becky, one of the three I have chosen to join the laying flock laid first - on 2nd October at 24 weeks. She has laid every day since, bar one. However the day after she missed she laid two eggs, a normal one and a soft shelled one. She appears to have the makings of a good layer, already the eggs are a good size. She is also very friendly.
On the 17th October a pullet from the birds I rejected and am rearing for the pot laid. Typically her eggs are the most gorgeous dark brown. Even though I am tempted to keep her I can't, she has severely bent outer toes on both feet. A result I understand from the brooder floor being too hot, this could well be the case as she was the first to hatch and stayed the longest in the incubator. A lesson learnt for next year !
Today a second pullet from the chosen layers laid her first egg - 3 weeks after Becky, hopefully she will be as reliable a layer as Becky.
A Speckled Sussex from the same hatch has also come into lay, but in 7 days has only laid 2 eggs. She was one I was going to keep as a breeding bird for the meat flock, hopefully by the Spring she will be a little more productive.
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3 comments:
lovely eggs
do you welly eggs have a gloss on them? mine does.. but i only have the one.. and a welliexmaran - her eggs are shiney too.. so i thought it was a welly trait
i hope they keep laying through the winter for you.
is your australorp a boy or a girl?
The Welsummer eggs are quite matt, especially the lovely dark one.
The Speckled Sussex eggs are glossy.
I think the australorp may be a girl, they are coming up for 15 weeks and I would expect some indidcation of it being a cockerel by now.. we'll see.( do you have photos of both sexes I could compare with ? ) Neither the australorp or ixworth are the prettiest of birds, but quite stocky, which is after all what I was hoping for.
The light sussex pullets are smaller than I expected, they started off so well.Lovely birds... but more layers than meat I think. I'll have a shuffle around in the spring when they are all older. An excuse to buy more birds : )
at the mo my autralorps all look like girls -b ut they were much later to develop than the others so there is still tie to suddenly pop out a wattle and comb!
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