Eggs!

Cleaned up and sitting pretty!

Okay, logically I knew this was coming...but after doing some reading earlier this week, I had decided I was starting my egg watch a little too early.  So, yesterday when I let the girls out, I did not look inside to see if they had left me an presents as I had been doing every morning for the entire week (Wednesday they turned 18 weeks).  However, when I peeked my head through the pop door with my handy "flashlight" app on my cell phone (looks like a Mag light, it's awesome), I found a broken egg under the roost!  Boo!  I was so disappointed that my first egg had been broken!  But, not wanting to give them any bad ideas, I opened up the large door to the coop, moved some pine shavings aside and climbed in to retrieve the busted egg.  From what I could tell, the egg had been broken in the process of the girls going to bed.  The "mass" looked fairly fresh and seemed to be "all there", so hopefully I managed to avoid creating an egg eater...  Much to my surprise though, buried in the shavings near to the broken egg, was another egg!  A tiny, very pale brown egg that was nearly covered in shavings!  Yeah, for putting down a deep layer!  Thre white egg is a store bought size Medium egg there for comparison.

Before clean up, the mess on the left egg is all from the right egg.

Both eggs were cold to the touch, so I really don't know if one is a day older and I missed it or if two of the girls started laying yesterday!  Of course, the broken egg was larger than the intact egg...the shell was maybe half an inch taller from what I could tell.  But, the whole egg weighed in at 1.3 ounces!  Very small for both Wyandottes and Plymouth Rocks (who both lay Large eggs - Large eggs should weigh around 2 ounces), but not bad for a first try!

I was curious as to what was the "official" size rank and found a decent answer, oddly enough, at Answer.com.  According to the "answer" there, the following is egg sizes by weight.

• Peewee : 1.25 oz.  

Generally where I see egg sizes talked about, we call "peewee" eggs, "Bantam eggs", because these are the eggs laid by those tiny chickens called "bantams" that are basically miniaturized versions of all the other breeds (and two breeds that only come in a tiny package).

• Small : 1.5 oz.
• Medium : 1.75 oz. 

 This is what we currently buy from the store...only because that's what comes in the "bulk" pack of 5 dozen.

• Large : 2.1 oz. 

This is what my girls should be laying...when they get "good" at it.

• Extra Large : 2.25 oz.
• Jumbo : 2.5 and above per egg.

I saw a post, here, yesterday of an egg that weighed in at 5 ounces!  I agree that the chicken that laid that egg had to have had a funny walk after that egg...

Also, in my search, I found this article, "United States Standards, Grades, and Weight Classes for Shell Eggs".  It's a good read if you are about how they grade eggs and such.  According to this, my unbroken egg falls somewhere between Grade A and Grade B, but more towards the "A" since there were no stains or anything on it.  I saved it to read thoroughly later.  The slight discoloration on the pointy end of the brown egg is a thin spot in the shell...I'm going today to get Oyster shell for them to up their calcium!

I'm still hoping for another egg or two this morning, I think I got them up too early today in my excitement!  But, while I'm here....check out my awesome ceramic egg tray!  This holds 9 eggs and I found it at Ross' almost 2 years ago.  I had been using it for finger food type stuff and the rare hard-boiled egg feast, lol.  Also, looked great with colored eggs in it too.