Fresh eggs!!!!!!!

           There are 3 main reasons that you have chickens or are thinking about getting them. Meat, eggs, and show (or in our case pets). Right now we are going to talk about egg layers. A hen starts laying eggs when she is about 6 months old. The first few eggs will be considerably smaller and misshapen compared to the eggs the hen will start to lay in anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.
   
            Once we got an egg smaller than a robin's egg and, because we wanted to keep it because it was so cool, we decided to "blow it." So I got my needle and my steady hand (Actually, its not so steady, my hands shake like a leaf when I  try to concentrate) and I proceeded to poke a hole in the egg and got the surprise of a lifetime when I was about to blow out the insides. There was no insides! The chicken had laid a shell. Then my steady hand went a little crazy and accidentally smashed this once in a lifetime egg and I was really sad. End of story. Now lets get back to business before I tear up.

            Anyway, the hen will continue lay eggs for a few years but at around the 3rd year, the amount of eggs she lays will  decrease. A chicken usually lives to be at least 5 yrs. old (If no animals or sicknesses get to it first) and some have been known to live to be as old as 15!
          
            MYTH: You have to have a rooster to get eggs.  Actually, your hen can lay eggs no matter what, but without a rooster, the eggs won't be fertile. That means that no cute little chicks will hatch from your eggs if if a rooster does not inhabit your yard. (For some, this may be a good thing.)
         
             Good egg layers lay an egg about every 26 to 30 hours. The chicken feels the urge to lay an egg probably the same way a human feels they need to go to the bathroom. The hen will literally search the yard to find a safe egg laying spot and often overlook the nesting box you have carefully crafted for them to find a better spot nestled in between your cucumber and tomatoes (After, of course they eat all the little baby cucumbers) and spend a full half hour constructing their new nest to perfection. Then they might spend another 15-30 minutes laying their egg. I have been lucky enough to get there just as the egg comes out (Well, some people may hesitate a little at that "lucky" statement)  of what we refer to as "the Egg-hole" yes, thats what we call it. (Go ahead, laugh all you want, but its actually a pretty accurate name. I mean, we are talking about a hole that an egg comes out of here, right?)

 Worst case scenario (Actually, its not that bad): You found a hidden egg laying spot with tons of eggs and you have no idea how long they have been there for, meaning you don't know if they are still edible. There is in fact, a very simple solution to your huge problem. Get a clear cup and fill it with room temperature water. Put the eggs in one by one. If the egg sinks, go ahead, eat it raw (DONT!!!!! I WAS JUST JOKING MA!) What I meant to say was cook it first, but it is definitely edible. If the egg floats, or hesitates before it sinks slowly to the bottom, it is bad. Throw it out immediately unless you want your house smelling like rotten eggs! We do this routinely once or twice every two weeks and throw out all suspicious eggs.

Two freshly laid eggs, small compared to store bought eggs, but "oh the joy" you get when you find them.

The chickens lay eggs in the nesting box most of the time but they occasionally lay in crazy places such as the garden beds, bushes, in the grill basket, flower pots and other weird places. (Some of which we have not yet found)

Here is one of the crazy places I was talking about. This chicken (Eggy) laid about 14 eggs in this place before my dad spotted her flying up there and wondered why. This is a honeysuckle vine/bush that grew on top of our 4 foot fence so she's about 5 feet up there. Did I mention chickens love high places?

 

Here is another crazy egg laying spot Ditto (yes, her name is Ditto) has constructed in one of our fenced in garden beds. You may be wondering why she is in a garden bed we obviously didn't want her in, well the answer is: chickens can fly. Do you want to know something funny, Ditto and Eggy share the same father, our rooster Lou-Lou who we had to give to a farm because he was chasing us, and wouldn't stop no matter how much we threatened him. 

This is a beautiful assortment of our chicken's eggs. The Rhode Island Red eggs (the 4 brown eggs on the right side) are medium sized eggs, but as the chicken matures, the eggs will probably become larger. (our Rhode Island Red's just started laying eggs a few days ago!) 

mmmmmm... eggs! Every once in awhile you may get a double or even triple yolk. We had quite a surprise when we got two double yolk eggs in a row from one chicken!

I hope all of these helpful hints have been helpful. Be sure to check out my other post as well, it covers some different information. If you have any questions feel free to comment and I will try to answer your questions. 

your chicken loving friend,

Iris

SOURCES:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_years_do_chickens_lay_eggs_for