A Good Egg!

Did you know that a chicken lays the same egg all the time?  Yes, by species, an Ameraucana will always lay a little pastel blue egg, a Black Sex-Link will always lay a brown egg and a Leghorn will always lay a white egg. But, more than that, each individual hen will lay almost the exact same egg every time she lays!  Some girls lay an almost round egg, some lay long, oval eggs every timem some have freckles.  One of our girls is laying a wrinkled egg quite regularly!  It's definitely one of the young Black Sex-Links, because this is a new thing.  An Isa Brown would not start doing this in her third year.  It's a perfectly fine egg in all respects, it's shell is just wrinkled!  It's the kind of thing you would never get in a package of eggs at the store - egg companies remove this kind of imperfect egg and use it for processing into powdered eggs or baked goods.  It's rather a pity that only 'perfect' eggs are deemed fit for consumption!  I like my eggs with a little character!  Would you be unnerved if you found an egg like this in your carton?  You can have one if you care to come buy some eggs at our farm gate!

The First Pastel Egg!

We've waited a while for the Chicks to start laying eggs.  In the last few weeks we've gone from three eggs a day from the old Hens to about fourteen a day!  When the Chicks really get going, we should get about thirty eggs a day.  But, what I've been waiting for is a pastel Ameraucana egg!  It's why I got the breed, aside from the fact that they are beautiful hardy birds, because they lay gorgeous blue/green eggs!  The  eggs are ultimately no different in taste or nutrition to any other egg, and you don't get the shell served on your plate with your eggs, but still I had a yen for some pretty eggs.

We've been getting brown eggs from the Sex Links, in a small way,  for about two weeks. Finally, yesterday morning, an Ameraucana Hen laid an egg!  Unfortunately, she chose to lay it by the front door, on the outdoor bed for Blaze the Border Collie.  Blaze was the first to spy it and promptly picked it up, brought it to Farmer Man's feet and dropped it!  Splat! went my first beautiful egg.  We figure Blaze thought it was a wee ball and wanted Farmer Man to throw it for him.  There on the pavement was a gorgeous, deep yellow yolk and bits of a truly lovely egg: somewhere between sky blue and mint green.  The picture doesn't really do it justice - it is really a lovely shade!  Oh well, I don't get to eat my first pastel egg but there will be more to come! 

C.S.Egg

In the straw stack!

This post could also be entitled 'The Problem With Free Ranging Laying Hens'!  The Black Sex Link chicks have started to lay eggs.  Gorgeous, tiny brown eggs in various shades, some with speckles.  The problem is they are completely ignoring the nests in their coop.  The first egg found was in a little depression in the bedding in their coop, on the floor underneath the nests and we continue to find one there on a regular basis!  The next was found, a few days later, on top of a bale of straw in the barn.  Then, one was found in a crate up by the garage!  These had to be destroyed because we weren't sure how long they had been there.  Now, collecting eggs involves a flashlight and a complete search of the property.  We're looking through the barn, under trees, behind cans: anywhere the Black Sex Links have been hanging out!  What worries us is just how many we may be missing!  And so far, no little blue or green eggs from the Ameraucanas!

In the goat's stall in the barn.

The Chicks Have Started Laying!

There's always a wee thrill when you find the first egg from a chicken!  We've been waiting since the beginning of June for the Black Sex Links and the Ameraucanas to start laying.  We had thought they would start laying at the end of September, like the Browns and Leghorns a few years ago.  We had to wait a few weeks longer, but they've started!  Problem is, they don't seem even slightly interested in the nesting boxes in their coop - the first egg was found on top of a straw bale in the barn, in a little depression.  The second and third were found underneath the nesting boxes. The problem is that we've allowed these birds to free-range, so it is possible that they will lay under trees or, well, anywhere.  Added to the list of daily chores: having a little tour around with a flashlight to check under trees and bushes in the areas they tend to frequent!

So far, no little blue or green eggs from the Ameraucanas, just brown eggs from the Sex Links!  I can hardly wait to find a little pastel egg.  And these are definitely the eggs of young hens, which are often called pullets.  The eggs are about half the size of regular eggs, but still perfect and tasty with some of the brightest yolks we've seen.  In the last few days, we've gotten two each day, so that number should go up quickly - if we're finding all the eggs!

Look What We Found!

You just never know what you'll find when you take a stroll around a small farm!  Egg production has been down significantly the last week or so.  We thought maybe it was the change in weather, shorter days - something like that.  While I was out this morning, camera in hand, I heard some squawking from the trees beside the chicken coop.  The squawking a hen makes when she lays an egg!  Investigating, I find one of the Browns, nesting in the bole of a large willow tree beside the coop!  There are at least six or eight eggs under her! A second chicken seemed to be waiting her turn!  No wonder egg production is down!  I didn't disturb her; for safety sake all the eggs will have to be garbage.  Why the little hen would decide to start laying outside is a mystery - but at least we know where to look now!

A few nights ago, preparing to bring the goats in from their pasture one night, Farmer Man heard some tiny meows!  Investigating, he found two little kittens out on the barn floor!  Afraid the goats would trample them when they came in, he looked around and found a little nest in some hay with two other little kittens!  The mother is not very friendly, so he placed the kittens in and we've largely left them alone since then, except for some peeking and a photo op.  The kittens definitely have the genetics of our barn cats with their orange or beige coloring.  I haven't been able to check their tails because a bob tail or short tail runs through this colony, too.  They are as cute as the proverbial buttons, for sure!  Anyone looking to bring a new kitty into their homes?

Teeny Perfect Egg!

Out to the chicken coop first thing this morning (well, after my first cup of coffee!).  Not in the nest boxes, but in the corner under the roosts, I find this perfect little wee egg.  It's such a beautiful little thing!  Now, The Girls, the Leghorns, are a year old and have been laying since June '09.  Why one would lay such a tiny thing is a mystery to me!  For the photo, I've included a quarter, for perspective ( a shiny new Canadian Olympic quarter!) as well as some of the regular eggs.  I wonder how they actually make those awesome, handpainted Ukrainian Easter Egss........

The Chicks are Growing Up!

The little fluffy chicks we acquired in June have been laying for a couple of months now. The eggs are always small for the first little while. But, The Chicks are coming into their own. The sizes of the eggs are improving, including this monster! Almost three inches long! Way to go, little one!

The Chicks Are Becoming Hens!

A banner day on the farm! Six eggs from The Chicks - four small, a medium and a monster! Probably has a double yoke; we'll find out at breakfast tomorrow! We started with two eggs the first few days, then none (that we found), then four yesterday and six today! The Chicks are getting bolder, too. Farmer Boy had them out for a little walk today. Only five went, but he had the barn door wide open while working in the area and the group was following him everywhere so they went for a stroll. We've not been able to pasture The Chicks like we have The Girls, so this was quite an exploration for them. They seemed to pay absolutely no attention to Rocky and The Girls, who were quite close by in their pasture. The other Chicks stayed in the pen, settling into all the new straw Farmer Boy has put in. So cute as they were taking little dust baths in all the new straw. We thought, perhaps, they were also creating nests, but no eggs so far in that area.

The Chicks Are Growing Up!

Farmer Boy went out early this morning to let the chickens out. What did he find? Two little brown eggs in the pen with the Isa Brown chicks! One, unfortunately, was broken but the other is a perfect little egg. And not a real tiny egg, like some of the first from The Girls - a really decent-sized, medium egg in a gorgeous shade of brown, like coffee with a lot of cream!

One of These Ain't Like the Others!

Careful what you wish for! We were wishing that all the 'girls' would lay monster eggs. What we got was the world's tiniest egg, so everybody else's egg looks monstrous! This little egg measure just barely an inch in length! It's so cute! (the 'c' word, again). Farmer Boy can hardly wait to crack it for Sunday breakfast just to see if it has a yolk or not! We're thinking it may have come from a little chicken we call 'Funky Butt' who has a funny twist to her rear end and tail feathers. Farmer Boy has often wondered if she'll be able to lay at all - and we have leveled out at fifteen or sixteen eggs a day from twenty hens.

You GO, Girl!

Somebody is doing very good work! Everyday, for the last few days, one of the girls is laying a monster egg! Bigger than what we would get if we bought large eggs! Rather puts the others to shame. When we first got the hens at nineteen weeks of age, we were getting four or five small eggs a day. The number has increased to sixteen or seventeen a day and the sizes have been getting consistently bigger. But,so far, no one else is laying the monster eggs. We'll have to do some more reading and see if it's genetic, or can we look forward to all happy hens laying huge eggs!

The Girls Are Settling In!

All our little hens seem to be settling in well. They are spending all day outside, scratching and clucking. It's so.....farmyard! It's adorable! They immediately head to the row of old spruce we incorporated inside their pen - good protection from the red-tail hawks we know are in the neighbourhood. They finally used the nest boxes Farmer Boy faked up for them from old nursery pots. Much better then trying to collect eggs off the floor! We do also find at least a couple of eggs under the spruce trees - a hard crawl to collect those. We've noticed the eggs are getting to be a better size everyday; they've been very petite so far, with yolks the size of quarters. Now, to get Farmer Boy to build the proper coop.........

The Girls Are Here!!!!

Well, the girls are here.....twenty little hens, just starting to lay eggs. About nineteen weeks old. Now, I am aware of how trendy it is to have chickens but we have been planning on it for a couple of years, really! We're on a farm, so we can have a few, too!! We got 'the girls' rather on short notice, so we had to fake-up a quick home. Straw bales and an old camper top. Farmer Boy has been looking over plans and getting quotes on lumber but no proper coop yet. It will come quickly now, though, because we have 25 chicks coming on June 4.

The makeshift coop seems to be working well. We were told to keep 'the girls' inside for two days so that they would know that the coop was their home. We kept them in three days because the third day was soooooo cold. They've been roamin' around outside for a day, now. We're getting about five small to medium eggs a day, yolks the size of quarters. So far, so good!