I’ve been a bit delinquent in posting about our backyard chickens!
It’s been 8 whole weeks since our first hen began laying and our hold-out hen started laying on the 4th of July.
We are getting 3-4 eggs a day at this point – enough that we’ve started bartering with friends for homemade bread, etc. It’s magical I tell you – having fresh eggs. This last weekend the variation in colors blew me away, it was practically a rainbow of eggs!
It’s been almost a week since our first hen began laying. We’ve had six beautiful blue eggs from her and yesterday our sliver laced wyandotte layed her first egg! I snapped a quick pic with the two laying hens and each of their first eggs.
The eggs are still a little on the small side, but I’ve already seen an increase in size from our ameraucana over the last week. It’s quite a delight to watch the hens settle into the nest to lay the eggs, adjusting the nesting material to suit their needs.
I’m a little surprised our buff orpington isn’t laying, as she’s the oldest in the flock by two weeks. She’s not showing any signs of laying anytime soon either. Maybe she’s just a bit of a late bloomer?
And this time she layed it in the nest box next to the blown glass eggs my grandmother gave me. My great-grandmother used them with her chickens in the 1920s and my grandmother saved them all this time. How cool is that?
And it’s beautifully blue! Now if only she can make it to the nest box next time…
Edited to add: a farm fresh brown egg for size comparison (below).
And boy are they are growing fast!
That’s our 7 week old Buff Orphington Korma in the middle. She’s flanked by our two 6 week old Ameraucanas/Eater Eggers, Tandoori on the left and Vindaloo is on the right. Tandoori is normally such a camera-whore I can’t believe she shunned the camera for this shot! We also have a 5 week old Silver Laced Wyadotte, not pictured. They are really showing their individual personalities now! Each one has their own ‘voice’ and I look forward to how they continue to develop.
The 4 of them are getting pretty big for the small cage I’ve set up for their brooder, and I hope weather will permit me to put them out in the coop in about 3 week’s time. Korma could go out sooner, but I don’t want to separate them so I’m waiting for Tiki to fully feather before putting the group outside.
I’ve also discovered treats that they like, and others they couldn’t care less about. Currently, apple and fennel greens are the winners. Freeze dried meal worms (much to my surprise) are the losers.
I have to say, I’ve spent way too much time just watching them go about their daily business – it’s delightfully meditative and entertaining!
Overtly Optimistic 