The First Eggs

  The last few posts have been about when the chickens were babies. I still have a lot of catching up to do before we are fully up to speed on where the chicks are today but I have to hit the fast forward button because a pretty big milestone occurred this morning.
 Drumroll please... we have EGGS!!! The girls are finally laying and it is a very exciting time! Cory found three white eggs in the coop. Wahoo! Nice work little ladies -very proud!!

Our two White Leghorns. (Betty and Luna)

  The girls are five months old so technically they are a month ahead of schedule for egg laying which is great. Now, we do not know who exactly laid these eggs just yet but we have a feeling it was our White Leghorns because those breeds typically lay white eggs. The other breeds in our brood are brown egg layers. I found a helpful egg color guide on one of my favorite sites Backyard Chickens that gives you a general idea of what color eggs your chickens will produce. (link below)
Backyard Chickens Egg Guide
 

The egg I am holding is store bought

Now, do not be surprised if when your chickens first start laying that the size of the eggs are smaller than what you are use to seeing in a grocery store. That is normal. The eggs might also be a little different in shape. As time goes on the chickens will begin to lay eggs that look like ones you are use to seeing. Surprisingly, our first eggs were better than expected. Only slightly smaller than what we would consider "normal" and the shape was excellent in comparison to a store bought egg.
 There is also a really neat application you can get on your phone that I will now begin using called Count My Eggs. This application allows you to track how many eggs you collect each day. I view it as a fun way to see if there are specific times in the year where the chickens lay more frequently than others. I have read that they tend to lay more in the Summer than in the Winter. I am interested to see the difference in their laying habits this upcoming Winter season. It will be our first Winter with chickens so that will be a new adventure in itself.

The application is free.

  After collecting the eggs you can wash them off and place them in your refrigerator until you are ready to make a meal. Breakfast is served! A little trick that I have just learned of myself to help preserve eggs even longer is rub their outer shell in mineral oil. This is suppose to stop oxygen from getting into the egg and spoiling it, it acts as a sealant.

As the chicken ladies keep laying I will post photos so you can see how different breeds lay different eggs.