Twiggy is First!

As expected, Twiggy is the first of the pullets to lay an egg. White Leghorns mature more quickly than other breeds. Twiggy turned 17 weeks old last Friday, and this week her comb turned red and flopped over.

Twiggy

In anticipation of the Girls beginning to lay, I placed a wooden egg in each of the nesting boxes. That did the trick and this morning, Twiggy knew exactly where she should go and what to do. She hopped into a nesting box, circled once and sat down. Being a Leghorn, she does everything quickly. Other hens might spend an hour in the box. Not Twiggy. In short order she laid her egg and went right back outside.

egg

The egg is on the smallish side, as first eggs are, but it looks perfect to me!

Comments:

  4. Just wait until she matures and you see the size of the eggs they lay. You’ll wonder how such a slender hen manages.

  5. What a good girl little Miss Twiggy is! I agree, it is perfect. I knew something was up at Little Pond. When I came on, it looked like a party. All animals were out happily moving around. The song ZippityDoDa came to mind. Congratulations Little Pond and Twiggy!

  8. Congratulations Terry and Twiggy. I LOVE her floppy comb! Will the floppy comb pose any problems with winter weather, more prone to frostbite?

    • If she stays dry and out of the wind she should be okay. If the temps are really cold, I’ll slather with vaseline which will insulate and protect it.

      • As fast as she is, your going to be getting a lot excerise come winter time, Terry. Has she settled down any and tamed a bit since she her comb blossomed ?

  9. Yeah twiggy. I just love her floppy comb. I don’t have any girls with a floppy comb. My welsummer ginger barely has a comb at all. All other photos of welsummers I see they have nice big combs. Oh well. Doesn’t really matter. But I just love Twiggy. I

  11. I was praying something “good and happy” would happen for you todayTerry! Twiggy lays the first egg……story book about the new girls and the first egg?

  12. Congrats to Twiggy! My 2 Americaunas began laying last week! Little blue-green eggs at 19 weeks. My 2 duck hens ( Khaki Campbell and a Welsh Harlequin) began a few days earlier, and one was a double yolker! It is a hoot how proud we get of our girls!

  13. An egg at just seventeen weeks!! Wow!!!
    My pullet was suppose to lay at 24 weeks. She is now a week late. She has wattles but her comb is not big.
    yet. Do they lay after they fully grow wattles and comb?

  16. Yay! So glad to hear good news today. Congratulations to Twiggy, and to you as well.

  17. Thought I saw her this morning in the nesting box! Now I can’t wait for the colorful eggs.

  18. Terry, My Leghorn is 20 weeks today and has not layed yet. Her comb and wattles are red but the comb is not laying over either. Do all Leghorns wattles lay over? I am new to this chicken stuff, this is my first flock.

    • There are different strains of the breed. Some have more erect combs than others. Betsy is a bantam leghorn and her comb is erect. But, all should have vibrant red combs and should begin laying by 20 weeks. If your hens free range, perhaps she is hiding the eggs?

  19. I noticed the floppy comb this week. Kinda makes you want to bronze the egg. Or maybe not….

  20. That Twiggy lives life at full speed! Good looking and clever, what more can you want in a sweet hen?

  23. my leghorns started at about 17 weeks , but my red sex links started laying at 16…

  24. Now I know for sure my white hen with her flopped comb is a Leghorn. She’s the one I asked you last year about her yolkless mini eggs. Update: she now lays full size eggs about 50% of the time.

  25. I had my.first wind egg today, also I don’t know.if you ever had this and I should have taken a pic but t broke, but I had a hen lay what looked like to eggs welded together but there was little to no shell but clearly 2 eggs

  26. So exciting!!! Love those floppy combs. I didn’t realize it was predominate in Leghorns, no wonder my road island whites have them too.. So cute!!