Fresh Eggs | 365 Days of Me

Just like yesterday’s post, this one is two weeks in one. I forgot to schedule both of them last week. DUH!

The Welsummers are now about 13 (now) 14 weeks old, and they are FINALLY starting to venture out with the big hens some. Up until this point we have wondered if we made a mistake putting them into the coop with the older hens, and perhaps we did, but now they seem to be coming out of their shell (pardon the pun) a bit. 😀 We are still cornering them by themselves in a separate cage almost daily to give them time in the sun without having to worry about the older hens picking on them.

One of the issues we have had with the Welsummers is that they just roost on top of the nesting boxes instead of the roosting bar. Last night I put a branch in there near the nesting boxes and was happy to see a couple of them on the branch when I opened the door to the run this morning.

The laying is going full steam, and we have been able to bless family and neighbors with several dozen eggs so far. It sure is nice to see the smiles on the faces of folks when you bring them a dozen fresh eggs, especially those who really enjoy them.

Speaking of eggs, the silly Welsummers are roosting on top of the nesting boxes, so there ends up being a mess in the boxes all-too-often. I need to get another roosting pole put in the coop in an effort to prevent this – it’s not happening this week though.

Speaking of chicken projects, I also need to get the roof patched. There are a few leaks, which aren’t causing trouble now, but I sure don’t need them to continue. I doubt I will get to that this week either. And that isn’t it. I have another project I have been putting off for a while, though I will save the details of it until later.

Let’s start off this week with a picture of the elusive “pink” egg:

Fresh Eggs – Capturing the Elusive “Pink” Egg

If you look in the second row from the bottom, second egg from the left, you will see what I call the “pink” egg. Even after all this time, I can’t with certainty say this is an Easter Egger’s egg, but I think it is. You will notice the Rhode Island Reds’ eggs are much darker brown. They are the far bottom left, right side of the second row from the bottom, and the left egg on both the first and second row from the top. The Easter Eggers mostly lay blue eggs, though there are a few that are more olive or green. This pink one is the unidentified egg though. Chickens are supposed to lay the same color egg, generally, daily. Easter Eggers can lay pink eggs, but I am supposing the coloration for one of the Rhode Island Reds may be off too. In other words, I DON’T KNOW! You have no idea how tempted I am to set up a camera. 🙂

I have been surprised lately – the Rhode Island Reds’ egg production has really slowed down. They are only averaging 3.75 eggs a week now, whereas the Easter Eggers are averaging 4.16 eggs a week. That isn’t a big difference, but the Rhode Island Reds are supposed to be the more voluminous egg producers. I keep whispering to them that they have to earn their keep, it’s either eggs or meat, but I don’t think they believe me. 🙂

Speaking of egg production, this is the lightest week in a while. There were only 40 eggs total produced, which has really impacted what we can give away. Thankfully, they upped the production the last few days of the week.

The number of eggs is not the only thing we are watching. I also pay attention to the weight of the eggs, which I haven’t reported lately. In the past the ladies were laying small eggs with a few mediums. Since that time the egg size has grown quite a bit, and we are solidly in the medium egg category now. The Rhode Island Reds’ eggs are averaging 1.85 ounces, and the Easter Eggers’ are averaging 1.775 ounces. The average for the flock is 1.78 ounces. We did have two much larger eggs this week, both weighing near the extra-large egg weight (above 2.25 ounces).

The rain we have had lately has put a real damper on their outside time. Though they play in the run all the time, Charity usually tries to let them run out in the grass daily, and that hasn’t happened as often due to the rain. I suspect it will become even less as the days get colder.

Tag: fresh eggs

The Chicken Chronicles

The Chicken Chronicles