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The Chicken Chronicles

The ladies have had a great week this week.  The warmer weather and the lack of snow has meant they have gotten to have time out roaming the yard.  With the completely saturated ground, the worms are abundant right now, and the hens act like they are starving and at an all-you-can-eat buffet!

Last week I was so excited to post the Unbelievable Egg Video that I totally forgot about the other big news of the week: we have new chicks!  As I wrote a few weeks ago, I wanted a couple of more hens.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t buy them in quantities of two, so we ended up with four.  We decided to go with Welsummers, which sound like a wonderful bird.  They are known for being more intelligent than the typical chicken, and they are great foragers.  Even more exciting is the fact that they lay a very dark brown egg!  I can’t wait to add that to the mix of eggs!  We will certainly have no shortage of eggs now.  😀

Welsummer Pullets

Welsummer Pullets

One of the other interesting things about Welsummers is that you can determine their sex by a couple of feather pattern characteristics,  First, a Welsummer pullet (young hen) will have a well defined triangle on the top of their head, and they will also have “eyeliner” coming out from their eyes.  If these characteristics are faded or not well defined, it is a cockerel (young rooster).

Back to the topic of eggs, this week was another good egg laying week.  The total was 39 eggs, with the Rhode Island Reds laying 18 eggs and the Easter Eggers laying 21 eggs.  We are quickly approaching the point where we can start giving eggs away to the neighbors and family.  In fact, we gave a few away this week.  I really enjoy blessing folks in this way, even though it is something small.