The First Egg Appears

Depending on the hatchery i got each of the chickens from, some of them lay fewer eggs during the winter and some of them stop laying eggs during the winter. I believe it was a 3 fold problem. One, less chickens were laying because it was winter. Two, the chickens did not like the kind …

Oddly Shaped Eggs

I have had more oddly shaped eggs with this batch of pullets than i ever witnessed from the last two groups combined. fairy eggs, hard eggs that appear to be crinkled as if made of fabric, wrinkled eggs, eggs that appear to have been cracked and then sealed over at some point…eggs with extra bits …

An Eggciting Haul

With the wet weather and high humidity of the past week i have had to wrench the chicken coop door open to collect eggs during brief drier spells: every two to four days. When it is wet the wood door swells and cements itself to the frame. today i collected after not being able to …

A Fairy Egg

One of the chickens laid a fairy egg. It is the first one i have gotten in 4 years. I saw an occasional calcium deposit on the original batch of chickens’ eggs. Ellis and Oakley at times had a weird bump at the top of the egg. However, these new pullets have just been going …

The Pullets Ramp up Production

The pullets started laying an egg a day with the arrival of warmer weather. in some cases it was in the 70s and 80s in the afternoons. The people who were getting eggs from me regularly had discovered free range eggs from homesteaders who had time and ability to stand guard over free ranging chickens …

The Pullets Graduate

I have orpingtons. Everything ive read about these chickens says they are supposed to start laying eggs around 6 months of age. Yet, my second batch of chickens started laying at around 5 months and these last pullets began laying at 4.5 months. I am not complaining. I think its great. I just wasnt ready …

Quality Checking the Eggs

Recently at a party a man i had supplied with eggs for free at one time sat down beside me and told me that the eggs he was getting from the social worker were much better, the yolks were oranger and richer than mine. He accused me of never giving my chickens people food scraps …

Losing Petunia

Losing Petunia brought on a very painful realization for me. I couldnt look at my chickens as children. I mean, to a certain extent, i could, but i needed to plan for the reality that these birds weren’t going to live forever. Chickens get sick. Chickens develop various health problems. Chickens succumb to predators. I …

If You Build a House on Sand…

Unfortunately this bird chose the wrong location to erect her nest. There is a spot where one gutter opens out onto a metal roof and then another gutter continues beneath it. This bird thought the open mouth of the gutter tube looked like a great place to build a nest. It was sheltered from the …

Our Hill Country Trade System

I live in an area where too many of the grasshopper’s natural predators have either been eaten, poisoned, or just moved away. What im trying to say is that there are biblical plague amounts of grasshoppers here that grow to the length of your finger and hop/fly 30 feet at a time. you cant have …