Eggs | 365 Days of Me

The Chicken Chronicles

Posted by Steve On May 19, 2015

Well, I meant to post this last week, but for some reason I forgot about it. So, you will get last week’s post and an update to last week’s post. 🙂

Another week, another chicken problem. It seems Red has hurt her leg somehow. Red, by the way, is any one of the Rhode Island Reds, as we cannot really tell them apart. Anyhow, we have had to separate her to keep the others from picking on her, and to keep her from trying to go up and down the stairs in the coop. We’re also giving her half a baby aspirin at least two times a day. Right now she is avoiding standing on that foot, but I cannot see anything wrong with it. That leads me to believe she might have sprained it somehow.

In other chicken news, we built a small coop for the babies (the Welsummers) so they can start staying outside all the time. The silly girls wouldn’t go into it the first night though, acting like young kids the first time they try to camp out. 😀 We finally decided to bring them in after listening to crying for an hour. Maybe they will get used to it decide to sleep in it. It won’t be long until it is time to integrate them with the rest of the girls.

We had a good week of laying both weeks, including one day where all of the older birds laid eggs – that hasn’t happened often at all.

This week’s update: Red is doing much better. She is now back in the coop with her sisters, and while she is still favoring her leg, she is much, much better.

Since last week, we have put ankle bracelets on three of the Rhode Island Reds, and amazingly we can now see who rules the roost! There is one of them, tentatively named Pink (because of the pink bracelet) who is obviously at the top of the pecking order, and it seems Blue (you guessed it, a blue bracelet) who seems to be #2). The Easter Eggers seem to not really care either way, but they do recognize Pink’s authority. It’s funny how we could never notice that without some identifier of who was who.

The most exciting news this week, and a far change from what I expected given the update above, is that the babies, the Welsummers, ran into the big girls’ coop one day when they were out running around, and they showed no interest in coming back out. The older ladies are picking on them some, but they seem to be holding their own, so this is where they will stay. 🙂

The Chicken Chronicles

Posted by Steve On May 5, 2015

As I mentioned yesterday, the chickens are earning their keep this time of year as they are becoming the fertilization factory. The portable coop is helping with this tremedously. Next I need to get the next phase of the project done which will allow them to run about in other spots in the garden more freely, yet with protection. I can’t wait to share more on this.

The babies, the Welsummers, are doing very well, though I cannot wait to get them in with their sisters. They are still too small to intermix them without supervision though, as the other hens will have some motivation to show them who is boss. That is, to establish the pecking order. I am writing this part of this on Sunday, and today we plan to let them all out to play together in the yard to see how it goes. Update: we let them out to play together with the older hens, and overall it went very well, though one of the Reds was taking every opportunity she could take to peck at one of the Welsummer’s heads. SIGH.

Egg laying is still not showing an impact from the loss of a bird, so I am thinking she might not have been laying a lot of eggs. We are still getting 51 eggs per week, or 5.67 eggs per week per bird. Not bad. This year we havn’t given as many away because are going through them like crazy in our house. I guess everyone is enjoying the fresh eggs.

The Chicken Chronicles

Posted by Steve On April 14, 2015

Our ladies sure are enjoying this warmer weather! I cannot wait until we get to a point this summer that we can begin primarily feeding them out of the garden. I am smiling as I write this thinking of how much they love tomatoes. Those hens go nuts over tomatoes thrown into their run, but I am not sure whether it is the tomatoes they enjoy or the red color.

Speaking of hens, look at the size of their young sisters, the Welsummers:

Aren’t the Welsummers getting big!?

They are growing by leaps and bounds, and by next week they should be ready to be introduced to the rest of the birds. Whew! I still need to read up on that. I will do this as soon as possible though, as I don’t really think keeping them in a garage without fresh air and sunlight is the best thing for a chicken. Even so, they must be protected from the elements a bit while young.

The hens are really laying well now, averaging about 5 eggs per hen each week. That means we are getting about 7 eggs per day. When the Welsummer start laying, we will have an incredible abundance of eggs, probably near 70 or so a week.

We have been using the portable run to put the hens over grassy areas in the garden, allowing them to earn their keep. 🙂 The problem is that they are enjoying the worms more than the grass! I had to smile when I went to check the area where the portable run is after putting them back in the permanent run for the night. It was as if they overturned everything on the ground EXCEPT the grass. Hmm. Perhaps they need to be reminded that getting rid of garden grass is one of their jobs.

Egg Hacks

Posted by Steve On April 2, 2015

I love eggs, and hardly a day goes by that I don’t eat at least four of them. Needless to say, I love egg hacks, and while I knew some of them in the video on this page, I didn’t know them all. Just a tip though – don’t use a bowl of water to crack your eggs. It is much easier in a drinking glass. 😀 I also find two eggs in the glass does better than one.

The Chicken Chronicles

Posted by Steve On March 31, 2015

There’s not a whole lot of new news this week with the birds other than their egg production is really going up. This week we had 53 eggs, with the Rhode Island Reds laying 23 and the Easter Eggers laying 30. That is 5.3 eggs per week per bird, and I am expecting that to go a little higher. Go ladies!

Speaking of birds, check out the Welsummer chicks! They are really growing! It won’t be too many more weeks until we can begin to put them outside, and I think they will be more than ready. By this time the container we are keeping them in is getting a bit crowded for them. I cannot wait until these ladies start laying. They are supposed to lay a beautiful dark-brown egg.

Welsummer Pullets

Oh, I shared a picture of the new portable run last week, but I wanted to share another with the birds in it.

Portable PVC Chicken Run

You will notice the ladies checking out the milk crate, which I had hoped would be a good make-shift nesting box in case one needed to lay an egg while in the portable run, but they rejected that idea. We’ll have to find something else today. While you cannot see it in this picture, they love the roosting bars in this run. I added them more for stability, but I am sure glad I did now.

As I mentioned yesterday, you are not going to want to miss tomorrow’s post. My youngest son has drawn a comic which I think you will all enjoy.

The Chicken Chronicles

Posted by Steve On March 24, 2015

Whoa! Spring is here! As I said yesterday, you can tell it in the weather, and the ladies must be able to also. They are really increasing egg production! We now are getting 8 eggs a day most days again. Here, the totals speak for themselves. The Rhode Island Reds laid 20 eggs and the Easter Eggers laid 30 eggs. That is a total of 50 eggs or 5 eggs per bird per week. Not bad!

Speaking of birds, the Welsummers are really growing! It is hard to believe that they will have their feathers in just four more weeks, but I guess that should make sense, as we saw tail feathers for the first time a few days ago. I cannot wait to get them out with their sisters in the pen, though I suppose that is some time away. As I understand it, we will need to allow them to get to know one another first so they don’t get injured by the older hens.

Yesterday I wrote about the new run. I have a few chicken projects underway, this being one of them. The idea was this: a portable run that is lightweight, yet strong. It must also allow the hens plenty of space so they can stay in it for long periods of time without overcrowding. I must be able to move it at least once a week to keep the grass from being destroyed in any one area in the yard. So, here is what I came up with:

Portable PVC Chicken Run

This was made with 1″ PVC pipe, 2″x1″ fencing, and a 14’x14′ piece of bird netting for the top. It is 10’x10′, which is more than enough run room for the fourteen total birds we have. It is best to give them 10 sq. ft. per bird, which this is short of, but combined with what they already have and the movable nature of this, it will work. Once you see the next project, you will understand why I say that. A last minute addition was a roosting bar made of PVC on the inside. This not only gives the birds a place to roost, but it adds stability too. I don’t know what it weighs, but one of my sons and I can move it. It is easier with four people though. I am sure my neighbors are wondering how much more stuff I will put in my yard, but that’s okay.

As I said above, I have a few projects underway. This was one of them. I would also like to extend the chicken run under the coop on the south side, but that is the last project. Before that comes, I have another secret project that I will share as I get closer to doing it. Many of you already know what it is though, as you have seen others doing it and have shared it with me on Facebook. 😀

The Chicken Chronicles

Posted by Steve On March 17, 2015

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

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.

Dairy Tips

Posted by Steve On March 13, 2015

I ran across this video of money-saving tips a week or two ago, and I thought it was worth sharing here. I especially like the one regarding eggs, since there is such a reduction in egg production in the winter.

The Chicken Chronicles

Posted by Steve On March 10, 2015

As I wrote yesterday, this has been a hard week. The weather has been far less than desirable, which has meant that our chicken coop has had the tarp over it all week long. That usually takes a toll on the Easter Eggers, but they actually had a pretty good egg laying week. The totals ended up being 20 for the Rhode Island Reds and 20 for the Easter Eggers, but that is not the big news for the week. The toughest part of the week may not have been the weather, it may have been the day a hen had to lay this egg!

The Giant Egg Compared to a Quarter

The Giant Egg in an Egg Carton

Look at the size of that thing compared to the others! It is monstrous! In fact, it was nearly 3 times as large as a typical egg. If you are like me, you want to know what is inside of that thing though. Well, you get to find out. I videoed the cracking of the egg, revealing something you may not be expecting. Check it out!

Candidly, I hope that is the last monstrous egg I see, but if nothing else, it made for an interesting video. 🙂

The Chicken Chronicles

Posted by Steve On March 3, 2015

This has been another week that the chickens have wished would end. The ladies are so tired of this bitter cold weather, and they have learned that they don’t like snow, not even a little bit. We have however, been able to lift up the tarp some and give them some light, which has helped a little with the egg production.

I can’t remember if I have shared this before, but we have one, Cinderella, who is a guard of the eggs. If we check the nesting boxes after they have gone into the coop to roost, she will rush over there and peck at our hands as we are checking for eggs. This makes it exciting, let me tell you. 🙂 Hearing her run over to the boxes reminds me of the velociraptors in the kitchen in Jurrasic Park.

Blondie, the Guard Chicken

The egg production, as I said, was up a little this week. Not much though. Here are the numbers:

Total eggs: 32
Rhode Island Red: 20
Easter Egger: 12

Not too bad.

This week we are planning on getting two more hens: Welsummers. You know what a Welsummer Rooster looks like, and you may not even know it. Cornelious, the Kellog’s Corn Flake rooster, is a Welsummer rooster. Anyhow, they are supposed to be excellent, friendly birds that are intelligent and great foragers. Most of all, they lay a very dark brown egg. I can’t wait!