Hens do occasionally lay small eggs. These might be only white or have a bit of yolk in them. Pullet eggs are different.
Raising Chickens
In April, I rode to Cackle Hatchery and brought home a box of fluffy chicks. They were a variety of colors as there were several varieties of chickens.
Fluffy chicks don’t stay fluffy very long. Feathers sprout pushing the fluff off which is a good reason to not raise chicks in the house. The dust and fluff go all over.
Once the chicks feather out, they start looking like little pullets or cockerels. The big tip off are the combs as pullets tend to stay small and cockerels tend to get big. A little later cockerels get long feathers beside their tails and longer feather in their tails.
Then There Are Hens and Roosters
My Easter Egger cockerels began crowing in only two months. This was disappointing as I had ordered all pullets and ended up with three roosters and eight pullets.
By three months these noisy ones considered themselves big, bad roosters. The pullets were not impressed and fled squawking setting off chicken races.
Finally, my first pullet eggs are arriving. The pullets at almost five months are now becoming hens. Roosters are still not very appreciated, but are tolerated.
Pullet Eggs
These are small. It takes nearly three to equal a large egg. The pullets are still small too.
As the new hens finish growing up, their eggs will increase in size. Then I will gather up medium to large eggs.
Right now I am more concerned with moving my new hens to the big hen house. This is one way to get lots of exercise as I can only carry three at a time making nine trips. In a week or so they will move into the hen house on their own.
The next goal is convincing them to lay in the hen house nests. Perhaps the older hens will start using these nests again too. After all, the black snakes are going to bed for the winter. But that’s another story.
