Double Your Pleasure

As Rob Base says: "It takes two to make a thing go right, it takes to two to make it out of sight." When it comes to eggs, I have to say I agree.

When I checked the chicken coop this afternoon, I discovered two eggs that weren't there this morning. Crazy! So now I know that at least two of my white leghorns are laying.

I was just reading that the leghorn lays about 250-280 eggs its first year, and I have three of them! That's a whopping 750-840 eggs that will be dropped over the next year. And let's not forget that I have five other hens that haven't started laying yet. Anyone want eggs? I'm going to have a lot of them...
Drop me an email if you want some. Seriously!

And I don't know about you, but I like the whopper, *&(* the big mac.
You just gotta love Rob Base if for no other reason than the cheese factor.

Woo-Hoo Number 2

Just wanted to quickly report that I found our second egg today. I am happy to report that this egg was not cracked, so I suspect someone will be eating it for breakfast tomorrow morning. The egg was not in the nesting box, however, so I will have to investigate how to encourage the hens to lay where I want them to. More on that in a later blog post.

The Incredible Edible Egg

Behold! OUR FIRST EGG!

We had an amazing surprise when we checked the chicken coop yesterday: our very first egg!
I was so excited that I screamed out "We got an egg!" to no one in particular quite like a maniac. The kids came running and couldn't wait to take turns looking at the egg where it was laid in the nesting box and then holding it. Once we had taken loads of pictures, we called a couple of friends to spread the news. It really was a big day.










The egg did get cracked slightly on one end when it dropped into the nesting box, but still it is a beautiful thing. And I am so proud that the hen (a white leghorn by the way) knew to lay it in the nesting box!

Safe and Sound

Just wanted to update you that the three missing chicks made it through the night safe and sound. I found them scratching in the yard the next morning about 20 feet away from the coop. They seemed completely unaware of the sleeplessness they caused me. Typical!

I attribute their survival in part to the big black dog. We've been letting him sleep in the garage (with the door open) at night so he is free to come and go. I think having a wandering 80-pound dog roaming the yard keeps a few of the predators at bay.

You may now remove your yellow ribbons from the old oak tree.
Phew!

Tie a Yellow Ribbon

We're not having a good night at ole Peterson's Peeps:
We're missing three chickens.

The kids let the chickens out this afternoon to scratch in the yard and forgot to prop open the door to the coop. I was in and out of the house and it didn't occur to me to make sure the door was still open.

Normally, with the door open, the chickens put themselves to bed for the night, and I go out at dusk to lock everyone up safe and sound. Because the door was closed, they couldn't get into the coop. I found four of the chickens (the two roosters and two hens) standing at the door of the coop trying to get in through the chicken wire. I found one of the buffs sleeping on a foot-high rock and another one roosting in a nearby tree. The last bird, a white leghorn, was sitting on top of the monkey bars on the kid's swingset (how she got up almost 9 feet in the air is beyond me). Right now, I am still down two white leghorns and one dominque.

I have searched high and low looking for the three remaining missing, but have had no luck. Either they are hiding/roosting for the night and will be back in the morning or they made for a nice dinner for a lucky raccoon or fox. Let's hope it's the former and not the latter. I don't know how the kids will handle losing three all at once. I'm pretty upset by it -- and angry too as this was preventable.

I'll update you in the morning.

Dirty Birdy

I've heard of mud baths ... but dust baths?

Yep, you got it: a chicken's way to get clean is by sitting in dry dirt or sand to take a lovely bath. Even though it sounds counterintuitive, the dust and the preening that follows helps a chicken rid its feathers of irritating parasites. It also helps them control them control their body temperature and prevent injury (though how it prevents injury is beyond me and my handy Storey's guide does not say).

So how do they take a dust bath you ask? Ok, so you didn't ask, but I'm going to tell you anyway. First, the chicken digs a hole in the dirt, then she sits and flaps her wings working all that nice filth and grime until she is well-coated throughout. Once the chicken is done wallowing, she stands up and gives a nice shake so that you can see all the dust billowing in the air. Refreshing! Here's a quick little video of the wallowing part.

Cute Chicken Contest

Just in case you haven't seen quite everything yet, the McMurray Hatchery is holding a cute chicken photo contest. Check out the McMurray Link to vote for your favorite chicken picture under the That's So Sweet heading.

http://www.thesurveyplatform.com/survey/MM0001/Instructions.html?a=email


One last thing - I was away on vacation for two weeks, which explains my lack of blogging. It's good to be back!