February 2008 Archives

Fajita again. 4 eggs total.

Torta what is the hold up?

Another egg. That makes 3 from Fajita.

Come on Torta you can do it!

EGG! Again we strongly suspect Fajita.

Come on Torta you can do it!

No egg.

EGG! We suspect it is from Fajita.

Photo of egg

Two more chicks found their way in to our brooder today. The new Barred Rock chicks are our insurance policy for getting a flock of five hens. We are concerned that one or more of the three original chicks could 'fail to thrive' or turn out to be a rooster. So the new chicks are here just in case.

Once we move the chicks out to the hen house we will re-home any extra chicks. Portland is so chicken crazy that we shouldn't have any trouble finding homes for them.

No egg.

No eggs.

We picked up three Speckeled Sussex chicks from Pistils Nursery today. Good thing we finished up the brooder last night because we didn't expect them to arrive until tomorrow.

The Fajita and Torta are 21 weeks old today(ish). 21 weeks is the soonest they should/could be laying eggs.

We have been regularly checking for eggs for about a week even though we knew they weren't old enough to lay eggs. Now we begin the waiting in earnest.

No eggs today.

I got up to let the girls out this morning and left the door to on the run open a bit while I futzed w/ the timer for the brooder lamp. I didn't think the girls would be bold enough to make a break for it. I was wong. Fajita, our boldest hen, took advantage of my stupidity. I have to say I was a little paniced since it was 7am on a Sunday and I was in my jammies. I didn't want to yell for the Boy to come help me, don't want to wake the neighborhood, and I didn't feel like chasing a rogue hen all over the neighborhood in my jammies either. What to do? How do you catch a chicken by yourself? Apparently you chase the hen around the perimeter of the coop several times before luring her in to the run with a great deal of scratch.

Fresh grass and greens are an important part of a hens diet. Greens are what give the eggs the important Omega3. Since our girls don't get to free range much we supplement their commercial feed with fresh greens. The girls love love to nibble on lettuce, spinach, kale and swiss chard. We put several leaves in a small suet cage and hang it from the hen house. Not only are the greens good for them but batting around the suet cage like a tether ball gives them something to do.