Lena asked me a little bit ago what I was planning to blog about tonight, and I said, "oh, just eggs . . . nothing exciting." And she responded, "it actually is pretty exciting." And, I must admit, that she's kind of right.
Our chickens, the six 1-year-old hens who I found on Craigslist and picked up two weeks ago tomorrow, have finally, really, started laying eggs. Knowing nothing about how picky chickens can be, we expected to find eggs the morning after setting the girls up in their fancy new coop. The kids checked all day long, but found nothing. Same story on day 3, and day 4. On day 5, I began to feel a bit annoyed and did a little research to see what might be going on. It was then that I learned that any change in environment or status (i.e. the pecking order) can stress the hens out and cause them to quit laying for "some time." Some chicken experts cautioned that it could be weeks before we'd see any eggs, and some went even further and suggested that we could have actually stressed the chickens out so much that they would up and decide to moult a whole 6 months early (moulting is when the chickens gradually lose all of their feathers and grow new ones. They usually stop laying while this is happening, and the process can take a few months, but generally coincides with late fall/winter when the hens wouldn't be laying much anyway). That would have been a major bummer.
But, on day 9, we received a message of hope from our small flock: a single egg in the nest box, which the kids couldn't keep themselves from checking despite the improbability of finding anything. On day 10, we got two eggs, and we've gotten THREE eggs a day ever since then (I'm hoping that we'll get up to 4 or 5 a day pretty soon). We are suddenly rich in eggs, and it is pretty exciting.
Fresh Eggs!
Zeben showing off his crazy egg collecting skills:two eggs in one hand!
Why are Robin's eggs so very blue?
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3 comments:
Lex, that picture of Zeben is so vibrant and cool - and what egg skill! So, will the same hen always lay brown, or always white? Are they different "brands" to make the medley of egg colors in your robin-blue collander?
I love how you are making the farm dream come true - what a gift to your kids. xoM
It's so neat to see your lives transformed so quickly and beautifully! I'm sharing your excitement about spring, and reading along with enthusiasm and anticipation of things to come.
Yes, each hen does have a signature egg color (and size, for the most part). Over time, you can figure out who lays which egg by being observant about who's in the nest box when (and then checking right away to see what the egg looks like). Egg color is breed specific (some breeds lay dark brown eggs, some lay medium brown, some lay white, some lay speckled, and some lay green!) so we have some idea about who in our flock is laying which egg. The striped-looking hens are laying the dark brown eggs (and because they are slightly older than the other hens, their eggs are also larger). We also know which hen is laying the green eggs based on her feather coloring. We're not totally sure that ALL of the hens are laying yet (though we've gotten FOUR today so far!), but I think that the other two hens (one white, one multi-colored) are laying the very light brown (almost pink) eggs. I love having a medley of colors and sizes as opposed to the store-bought uniform-looking eggs.
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