New Eggs With Blood On The Shells

   Today, we had NO soft eggs. Hurray! And now two black australorps are laying. We had an amazing egg day. Eleven eggs!

   My husband gave away a dozen to some family who were nearby in camp. They ate them all before they left.

   Now, the black australorp hens are good sized hens. They have just begun to lay, but their eggs are not starting out as tiny as the golden comet's and cherry egger's eggs did. Instead of small sized, they are starting out almost as big as our biggest medium sized eggs are.They aren't large yet, but they have just begun.

   Most pullets lay small to medium eggs starting out. Sometimes extra small!

   But since the black australorp ladies (hens) are so large and wait so late to start laying, I would guess their body's are more advanced at egg making, lol.

   Now here is something new to me. (Remember, this is my first time to raise chickens, so there will be many things I am still learning.)

   The black australorp chicken eggs have been having a little blood on them when they are layed. So I looked this up. (This is two BA, not just one of them doing this.) My husband and I guessed that this is because the eggs aren't small, but the chickens are still newbies. That is what I found on the Internet to confirm this theory. The hens are still not as flexible as they will be, and the eggs aren't very small, so it their bodies have to get used to stretching inside. Fun for them, huh? Poor lady hens! I pray they will become flexible without being harmed quickly.

   As time goes by their eggs will continue to get bigger. All of our chickens are supposed to lay nice large eggs that we bought from Cackle Hatchery.

   The ones that we bought from our local feed supply store remains to be seen. And they are taking longer to mature. We are not sure where they acquired the Ameraucana chicks, so we don't really know if they are true Ameraucanas or if they are Easter Eggers.

   Since they are taking so long to begin to lay, I dare say they may be the real thing. Their colors match the Ameraucana club's website. But I guess it doesn't really matter as long as one of them or both of them lay pretty, pretty eggs.

   I bought them for the eye candy their eggs will be in my cartons, lol. But you know, they are wonderful hens too personality-wise. At least mine are so far. Now if they would just start laying.... but the longer they wait, the more it looks as though they are authentic for taking so long to mature inside. I heard the easter egg chickens start to lay about the time my earlier chickens began. So it's a good chance they may have actually gotten them from a genuine Ameraucana breeder. We'll see...

   My other's who have yet to lay (that I know of) are our Sussex chickens. I've heard two different stories of when they should start laying as well. But they are getting to be nice sized! They are as big as our black australorp hens. While the Ameraucanas are looking like they will be about the size of our golden comets.


   But the two sussex pullets and the two ameraucanas are apparently not ready. When the rooster even thinks about mating with them they absolutely refuse him, loud and clear. I am kind of glad, he is a huge black australorp and the ameraucanas are bult like jungle birds with their light frames. Especially the one we call Mrs. Owl. The other is Mrs. Hawk and she is built more like a regular hen that Mrs Owl. 

   Our rooster stands right on the hens when he mates. I don't even know how the golden comets and cherry eggers take his weight. One time I heard popping noises like joints popping. That made me realize he may not be able to stay. He is so cute, but he is sooo big! I'm sure he's fine for the bigger hens, but the smaller ones may not fare so well when he grows even larger. Our chickens are only twenty six and twenty seven weeks old. So Mr. Rooster is still a growing rooster!