My first egg... and it is a doozy!

[Guest]

Hi all -

Well, my little flock is finally producing!  I have a trio of 4-month old Ameraucanas, but I have 1 6-month old blue Wyandotte pullet (2 roos), 4 Maran pullets that are about the same age (and 2 roos) and a silver-laced wyandotte (w/gold laced roo) that are a few weeks older than my Ameraucanas.

Well, after about 10 days of someone messing around in the nest boxes but not laying, I came home today to my first egg!!!  And the surprise is that it is HUGE for a pullet egg.  So I was hoping that one or more of you might be able to guess what may be going on.

The egg is light brown (about the same as a store-bought brown egg) and not reddish in tinge at all.  So that makes me think it is from the blue Wyandotte.  But it is so big (2.2 oz compared to the 2.1 oz egg my friend\'s RIR layed - and she has been laying for at least 6 weeks) that I am wondering if it could have come from one of the Marans... they are supposed to lay dark reddish brown eggs, and this is nothing like that, but they are also supposed to lay very large eggs, so maybe this would be a normal sized Maran pullet egg?

Anyone with either Wyandotte or Maran experience that might be able to shed some light on this question?

Oh - and BTW - I DID look all over the yard for any sign of any old pullet eggs that may have been layed elsewhere.  No sign of eggs or shells or anything like that.

Thanks for any insight!

Danielle in Utah

[Mike Gilbert]

Why don\'t you just pick up your pullets and examine them to see which is laying?     It\'s usually not too difficult to tell.

[verycherry]

I agree with Mike.  I could tell by examining my hens that it was my RIR that laid the first egg.

Also, not all Marans will lay the nice dark brown eggs.  They should, but not all of them will, especially if they\'re hatchery stock and not from a breeder.  If you look up \"Marth\'s Hens\" on youtube.com, you will even see Martha Stewart showing off her Cuckoo Marans eggs, and they\'re about the color of my RIR\'s.