Australorp's first egg is HUGE

[FunnyBunny89]

Look at this! I have 6 EEs (21 weeks old) and 1 Australorp/EE mix (19 weeks old) who just started laying. My Aussie laid her first egg today and it is huge! She was very noisy about the whole thing, now I know why.

Here's a picture of it next to my EE eggs, and another picture next to a guest EE chicken of ours who is 1 year old. She was the biggest egg layer, but now Midnight has taken the mantle on her first try

Does anyone know if the smaller eggs will get bigger as my hens mature or will they always be on the small side?

Either way, Midnight is giving me eggs that are bigger than the ones I get from the store. Amazing!

 

[cavemanrich]

I think that large one is a double yolk.
I think your Aussie will start to lay smaller eggs like the others on table.
Your EE's eggs may increase in size as hens mature.

WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and

 

[aart]

Yep, double yolker. Not uncommon for new layers.
Can take days or weeks...or months...for eggs to get up to the 'normal' size for that bird.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yes, almost certainly that is a double yolker. Egg laying is a pretty complicated affair, a lot of different things have to go right for a perfect egg. It can take a while for some pullets to work all of the kinks out of their internal egg making system. You can get no shells, thin-shells, really thick shells, no yolks, double yolks, or just plain strange eggs when they first start. I'm impressed that so many seem to get it right from the start. Most seem to sort out those problems in a few eggs. I don't worry about weird eggs for a couple of weeks after they start laying. After that you may have an issue.

Pullet eggs are usually pretty small, especially if they start laying fairly young. They should get larger as she lays. If you save one of those small eggs and compare it to an egg that same pullets lays in a month you should see a difference. As aart said though, it can take a while for some pullets/hens to get up to normal.

 

[FunnyBunny89]

Yes, almost certainly that is a double yolker. Egg laying is a pretty complicated affair, a lot of different things have to go right for a perfect egg. It can take a while for some pullets to work all of the kinks out of their internal egg making system. You can get no shells, thin-shells, really thick shells, no yolks, double yolks, or just plain strange eggs when they first start. I'm impressed that so many seem to get it right from the start. Most seem to sort out those problems in a few eggs. I don't worry about weird eggs for a couple of weeks after they start laying. After that you may have an issue.

Pullet eggs are usually pretty small, especially if they start laying fairly young. They should get larger as she lays. If you save one of those small eggs and compare it to an egg that same pullets lays in a month you should see a difference. As aart said though, it can take a while for some pullets/hens to get up to normal.

Very nice, thank you for the tips!

 

[FunnyBunny89]

It was indeed a double yolk! As was my other hens first egg.

 

[Yard Farmer]

It was indeed a double yolk! As was my other hens first egg.

Look at that, what luck! Very cool.