Let's talk eggs

I love my chickens.  I really do.  But the thing I love most about my chickens is getting fresh eggs every day.

Here's the haul from the past 2 days.

Eggs gathered the past 2 days

Fred, Pebbles and BamBam

It smallest egg you see here is from our Duck Wing Bantam hen, Pebbles.  She's a good looking lady!  She's a great mama. 

Gus and Greta

The smaller, lighter colored eggs are from our Braha Cochin Greta.  She's a nice hen & a great egg layer.  I haven't given her the opportunity to be a mama yet.  I may let her try this year.  We'll see.








The larger brown eggs are laid by our Rhode Island Reds Missy and Sissy.  They are great egg layers.  They each give us about 320 eggs a year.  I haven't let them be mama's yet either because I wanted the eggs... and once a hen starts setting, she's not giving you any more eggs for about 3 months.

Sissy and Missy

The darkest egg comes from our Copper Moran, Jet.  She's about 8 months old and just started laying in the last month or so.

Henry

Right now, Jet is housed with Gus and Greta, Margarette and Henry.  In the Spring, Henry and Jet will be getting their very own accomodations.  Henry is the same age as Jet.  He's a nice Rhode Island Red.  If I was a purest, I'd continue to keep my breeds separated.  But Gus, Greta, Sissy, Missy and Hexter were born during the 2009 season.  So, I need to get another pair mated and established before something happens to the trio's I have established now.  Margarette is the same age as Jet and Henry.  Being a Brahma Cochin, I'm going to keep her with her breed.  I'm hoping Jet and Henry will start my "yard chicken" flock. 

I don't let any of my chickens out "free range" right now because the guineas pick on them horribly.  And every other predator within 1000 acres wants to eat them for dinner.  But, I'd like to start raising some smarter chickens... my own kind of chicken... in hopes that I could have birds out and about free range.  So, having a mixed pair might help with that.  It's an experiment I'm going to try.  Anyway, when Jet has enough eggs laid that she gets broody, I'll let her sit on them.  And we'll see what happens from there.

Here's a picture of some of the chicks I've hatched out in the incubator in the past year.

Rhode Island Red chicks

I love my chickens.  They're my friends.  I'm very particular about the feed I give them.  Layer crumbles is what I prefer.  I don't give them medicated feed, since they have NEVER been exposed to any other poultry.  The chickens, guinea and quail get the same feed.  I even use the same feed for chicks (I just grind it up finer in a mortar). 

I love the sounds the birds make.  I really enjoy listening to them interacting with each other - even when Sissy and Missy have to argue over who's turn it is to be in the nesting box!  And we really enjoy the eggs.  That's the special bonus of having chickens.  Eggs. 

And we're an egg loving family.  Custard, pickled eggs, pudding, quiche, egg salad, cake, omelet, fried poached or scrambled.  We love eggs.