When can pullet eggs be hatched?

There is the same discussion happening on this other forum. Interesting to read what others are thinking as well.

http://www.poultrymatters.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=794

So then (probably gonna get smacked for this), what would happen if the Chantecler line was brought into the Buckeye to get huge eggs!! I think my buckeyes don't lay very large eggs at all, I need to weight of course, when they begin to lay again, but I don't think they are gonna come out as big eggs... have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

Well, happy day for me. One of my sussex hens laid an egg today and after all this talk about egg size I dug out a dusty little scale from the back of the cupboard to weigh it.
I zero-ed the scale and my egg, was right on the 2 1\2 oz or 70gm. mark. Happy Day, to bad it got so cold before I got to it. I don't know how big the pullet egg will be. I am going to have to start weighing my chanty eggs and see how they stack up. I have a few other breeds in there so its not always easy to tell who laid what. I really have to start keeping better records. I can't really vouch for the acuracy of this scale either.
Tara I am looking forward to many boisterous discussions on genetics and breeding with you, but I have a little catch up to do.

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Just a quick response as I just wanted to. I haven't read any of the posts that were posted since this morning, I'll be on that later or tomorrow morning. Just wanted to post my findings over the past two days of "just a couple o' hens/pullets" that are laying. I have a small electronic set of scales that are accurate and I used an egg cup to get the weight tared. The eggs roll of it if I don't have something to put them in, and that seemed just fine . Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

Buff orpington
Two hens just beginning to lay after molting, looking good gals, 3 years old coming up this spring, 2 of the four hatchery gals

Friday, 68 and 66 grams
Saturday, 66 and 65 grams

Buff orpington pullets (only 3 of 4 so far laying), Homer line from Ontario, point of lay, just beginning this past week
Saturdays eggs only, 52, 44 and 51 grams

Buckeye pullet, point of lay (there are 3 that are point of lay, Saskatchewan stock, Chantecler eh? brought them to me the beginning of November, 2 Ideal 1 Meyers) 4 molting and will not have eggs for some time yet
Saturdays egg only 54 grams

Blue cochin hens, only two are laying, 2 taking a break, coming up to 3 years old this spring
Saturdays eggs 58, 58 grams

Very interesting post! I just weighed some eggs. A big one from today weighed 66 grams, the sussex egg was 58 grams and a mature bantam hen 36 grams.

Oh and hatching from wrinkled didn't turn out well when I tested that. The two daughters from the hen who laid wrinkled eggs both layer wrinkled eggs too.

Such an interesting post. I've been following it since the beginning and listening and learning I plan to cross some Isa Browns with a BCM roo this spring to see if I can get darker eggs than the IB's for selling. I will definitely be weighing and hatching from big eggs. I need to get hold of a set of scales with grams. My egg scales is marked in ounces and small, medium, large, extra large. I have only one brown leghorn hen (and two roo's ). Her egg weighs in between small and medium at this point but she is still young (hatched Good Friday). Because I want to build up this flock, I will hatch from her eggs come spring, regardless of size. Once I get a little flock going, then I will be more particular about egg size as I really want to try to work to get size and better laying back into these birds. Good luck to everyone with hatching!

HigginsRAT wrote:

CynthiaM wrote:So then (probably gonna get smacked for this), what would happen if the Chantecler line was brought into the Buckeye to get huge eggs!! I think my buckeyes don't lay very large eggs at all, I need to weight of course, when they begin to lay again, but I don't think they are gonna come out as big eggs... have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

No smacking for exploring YOUR options to achieve YOUR objectives. We answer to no one about what we choose to do with our poultry...but honesty and integrity, if you want to play in certain circles, you then must follow and abide by their rules if you want to comply.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta
- Miss yah Makes; December 7, 1995 – February 4, 2011 ^~~^

WF: DUCKS: Calls (24 varieties), East Indies, Mandarins, Crested Ducks, Australian Spotted, Hookbills, & Appleyards.
GEESE: Buff & Buff Pied American.
SWANS: Australian Black.
LF: BANTAM Brahmas, Wyandottes, Booteds, & Chanteclers & STANDARD Chanteclers (Partridge, Buff, Orange Clay, & White).
Heritage TURKEYS (Jersey Buff, Bronze, Narragansett, Slate, Red Bronze, Rusty Black, Red Blue Bronze, Lilac, & Sweetgrass).
PHEASANTS: Red Golden & Silver.
Registered: Australian Cattle Dogs, Jacob Sheep, Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats, & Llamas. Pond Fish.

In all honesty, that was only a joke, not a single intention of ever mixing another breed with something that I am working on, eventually gonna have big eggs and big chickens. And I do love to play in certain circles beautiful days, CynthiaM.

Wonderful thread that I have thoroughly enjoyed studying. The topic is a question that I asked 2 Speckled Sussex breeders from different countries in the last few months. Gary Overton from the States ( Mr Sussex )who has beautiful Speckleds says that he only breeds from females over a year old and from cockerels/cocks. Apparently fertility declines in the cocks after 2 years.

I also asked when I was in England looking at the Speckled Sussex. Sally Taylor who had 2nd at the National only breeds from hens in their second year and only shows hens then as well. She feels that they are large birds and do not properly mature until then. She still has not chosen her breeding birds from this year's hatch. I think that she said she would decide in the new year.

Hope that gives more food for thought. Oh, and I'm getting a weigh scale for my eggs.

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HigginsRAT wrote:
Yes, Cindi's hatchery Buff Orpintions of three years old, lay the biggest eggs for her...good for them! We have been often told that the hen is suppose to only last one year and the decline in number of eggs makes her not worth keeping from one year onwards...obviously Cindi gets the nice benefit of caring well for her hatchery Orps and they are paying her back in the nicest of ways, with BIG eggers! VBG

I know, there has been much talk about to what age hens will lay, in nice quantity. I also think there are a myriad of factors, happiness of the bird, how the bird is fed, how the bird is loved and cared for (think that goes along with happiness, smiling), of course the weather. These four hatchery birds have always laid a very nice big egg, I just never realized how big they were. I do know that my oldest gal has always told me how much she liked those big eggs that come in the package of eggs, over the ones that are slightly smaller. She says they taste different. Not sure how that can be, maybe the ratio of yolk to albumen is bigger in those big eggs, I do know she is a yolker girl. Regardless, they have always been my best and most consistent layers. I totally wonder how many years they will continue to lay. They will be living their life out here, these are very nice girls and they love me to pieces, smiling. I am loved. They deserve to have a life to finish living, they have done me well. I love how they come running to me when they see my car driving by them when they are out free ranging. They know me and the new line is getting to know me too, they come running too, they have learned to do this. (I know, kidding along, all the chickens are users, smiling, they know who brings nice things for them to munch on). I don't recall any of the birds going through a moult last fall, and certainly not the orpingtons, they would have been in their second year, youda thunk they would have molted, but didn't, they didn't stop laying until this fall, so two good years of solid laying without the typical shut-down-in-winter-shutdown. Pretty stoked about buff orpigntons, and I think the new line I have that are coming in to lay will have even larger eggs, they are almost twice the size of my hatchery buff girls, but then, who knows, I heard that size doesn't matter , less than huge birds can still lay a whomper of an egg. Look at the Isa browns' size of eggs. Oh rats, think I have gone off topic somewhat, I do apologize (well, then maybe I don't really, sitting on the fence there). Keep this post going, on and on and on, like the Everready battery bunny...it is fun, it is imformative and I wanna hear more about how much others' eggs weigh Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

Pleeeeeze, friends, weigh the eggs, report your findings, this is just such a blast!!!

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Got stuff to say, but gotta get the eggs from the chickens first and then look closely at them!! Beautiful day, CynthiaM.

OK, so collected the eggs for three days. Four of the four buff orpington pullets have now began to lay, only 2 of the three year old buffs are laying, they have been molting. Buckeyes still not laying, molting and point of lay birds, need to push them, smiling. Two of the four blue cochin gals are laying. I might add the cochins are also coming up to 3 years this spring and the eggs are finally of a decent size. Up until this fall, I would say the eggs have not been of a great size, but seem decent enough now. I took some time to take some pictures, weigh and mark the eggs. There was a 70 gram buff orpington egg, was pleased with that. Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

This is a picture of the orpingtons, the 3 year old gals on the top row, the bottom two rows are pullets. The oblong looking egg, think third from the left is a barred rock one, wanted to show how long and skinny it looks, not sure why, but she just began to lay, coming out of a molt. The orpingtons have a great variance in the colour of the eggs.



This is a picture of the blue cochin hens' eggs, hens coming into 3 years old in spring




Six buff orpington (3 year old hens) on the left, 6 cochin hens on the right (3 year old hens)



This is a picture of the buff orpington pullet eggs, note the weight written on them (26 weeks old)

CynthiaM I was wondering if you have the pictures backwards?
Thanks for posting them, I am finding this all very interesting.

*just so I don`t sound more stupid than usual, CynthiaM has changed the pictures to be the right way around!

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Coopslave, fixed, I had the pictures titled wrong in photobucket, couldn't figure out why the wrong picture was in the right place (figure that one!!, smiling). Made it hard to edit and had to do it a couple of times til I figured out what was up, and what was down, too of course. Yes, Tara, I think that gal is a little on the fat side, fat gathers alongside the vent opening, right, makes for a squeeezed-out-real-hard-to-get-out-egg, I guess, kind of squishes it so it fits out better. Beautiful days, CynthiaM.

Well, this topic started off as a question about how soon eggs from a pullet could be set for hatching and turned into showing off all sorts of eggs. In the meantime the pullet eggs I set from my Cuckoo Maran's hatched into healthy, happy, normal chicks.

turkeylurkey wrote:Well, this topic started off as a question about how soon eggs from a pullet could be set for hatching and turned into showing off all sorts of eggs. In the meantime the pullet eggs I set from my Cuckoo Maran's hatched into healthy, happy, normal chicks.

Perhaps a new topic should be started, to show off our eggs . But I think that the eggs in this thread are not actually being presented here to "show off". That was not the intent. I think the discussion was about the size of the egg, which some person's experience indicated that bigger eggs make bigger chicks, in the end....

I think the posts showing the pictures of the size of eggs is just examples to show the larger sizes to compare to smaller eggs. Still makes sense to me that a big egg will make a bigger chick, a smaller egg will make a smaller chick. Not to say that in the end the chicks grow up to be bigger, but then who knows. I have hatched pullet eggs too, had healthy, happy little chicks, but absolutely had nothing to compare to of the same breed, grown to full, between large or small eggs. Hmmm...my statements kind of sounded a little disjointed, kind of indicating how people can sometimes feel . If this has bothered you, pardon please. The post was not meant to rub anyone the wrong way if it has. Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.