First Egg!

The onset of lay will vary greatly from chicken to chicken. In general, heavier, heritage breeds take longer to start laying (up to 26 weeks) while lighter breeds and special egg-laying hybrids tend to lay earlier (16-18 weeks). My chickens are 19 weeks old and they are all heritage breeds so I have been trying not to get too impatient.

Look at what Mini Me brought me this afternoon!

Our first egg!

I thought she was punking me when she rushed up to the house, saying she had an egg. Nope, it was the real deal!

A pullet's first eggs are smaller than the size she will ultimately lay. This one is indeed tiny.

Our egg in a carton with large grade eggs from a grocery store

It weighs 1.3 oz. which puts it in the "pee wee" category. I didn't know there was an official size of egg called peewee until I looked it up!

The shell is nice and hard and symmetric. Sometimes new layers can lay strangely-shaped or soft eggs.

I can't wait to crack it open and have a taste of my first farm fresh egg! I'll write a post about that another time; I just couldn't wait to share today's news. It's amazing how excited I am about something that just came out of an animal's rear end!