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Category: Farm Doings | Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 11:53 am

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eggs galore ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden )

Despite drought, heat, and adjusting to each other, my ladies are laying fine eggs! The young ones haven't quite got the hang of using the nest boxes, so I have to be careful where I step when I go into the coop. Right now behind the water station is a favorite spot for one of the girls. I keep showing them the lovely, well-decorated nest boxes, but they are being perverse.
The older ladies, however, have abandoned their old nest boxes for the newer ones. I cleaned out the old ones and put in new shavings, but they prefer the view from the new boxes.
The girls' eggs are smaller and lighter colored, so I can tell who is using nest boxes and who is playing "hide and seek" with eggs.

egg size comparison ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden )The center egg is one of the young hen's. It is smaller and slightly lighter in color. When they lay an egg it's practically white, but it starts to darken a bit immediately. As they mature their eggs will become a rich brown.
The ladies are actually getting protective of the girls (or my dominant hen sees an opportunity to enlarge her sphere of influence). Two of the girls wandered out into the barn aisle while I was cleaning the coop, and Ruby Begonia went after them, flapped her wings and shooed them back into the coop! Ruby didn't want to lose any of her constituents, I suppose. However, when it comes to catching grasshoppers, it's every hen for herself!






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Cayuga Morning wrote on Thu Sep 29, 2011 3:42 pm:

Hi Marlingardener--I really enjoyed this blog. I have never lived with chickens, so this is all new to me. I learned from it. Your photographs are great too, I think the top one would look great mounted and hung on a kitchen wall.

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eileen wrote on Thu Sep 29, 2011 6:32 pm:

Oh how I'd love the space to have my own hens. Those eggs look great and must taste so much better than those from supermarkets. I have a local farm that supplies us with eggs so I'm luckier than most.

So glad the young ladies are laying for you and let's keep our fingers crossed they learn what the nest boxes are shortly.

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Sjoerd wrote on Thu Sep 29, 2011 10:23 pm:

Great blog entry, MG--
I like chickens and would love to have a few myself.
You must be quite pleased with your egg harvest...things seem to be going very well. Congrats.
Those little chickens have adapted quite well, haven't they. Do you still call them by their names?

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