Yay! We have 4 layers!! I’m pretty sure it’s 2 of the Golden Girls, one Barred Rock, and a Leghorn. How do I know you may ask? Well, I’ll tell you. I know that Henny Penny was our first layer, and by the way she has laid like 4 or 5 double yolk eggs! Is that just something that particular birds are prone to do? I thought it was something more random than, but she seems to do it too often to be that random. Anyway, I saw a Barred Rock sitting on the nest one day while another of the Golden Girls stood by patiently waiting to use the nest next. And the Leghorn, well their eggs are white! Yep, we have a white egg layer, and they kids were so excited to see the white egg! While I like brown eggs better because they look more “farmy” the kids seemed to think that the white were pretty neat. Dunno why, perhaps because they are used to the white eggs from the store.
The sizes of the eggs vary of course. HP usually lays pretty good medium sized eggs, except for the doubles which are EXTRA large! The rest of the eggs are still pretty small pullet sized eggs. You can see in this photo the different sizes. One is HP’s normal sized egg and the speckled one is the Barred Rock’s pullet sized egg.
And here you see HP’s “normal” sized eggs, her double yolk egg, and a pullet egg in a row.
Ahhh, they are lovely! I can’t believe I’m so crazy about chicken eggs, but it’s just so much fun!
In other chicken drama, our dog nearly did away with one of our girls last week. It was not a happy day! What happened was that Qade caught one of the hens (happened to be a current layer too!) and was carrying it above dog level. Well, I know enough about canine psychology to know that this kicks in the “that thing is something I want to get” instinct. Lucky kept jumping at the chickens feet, and I was telling Qade to put the thing down. Then up comes our big dog, Cisco, whom we’ve had no issues with him and the chickens whatsoever. Right at that moment Qade decides to “free” the chicken by throwing it into the air. BAD idea! The flapping chicken’s body language says “eat me” to the primal dogs, and Cisco had it by the neck in a second! I ran as fast as my only sock-clad feet could go to get to the dog. I thought for sure the chicken was doomed, but as soon as I reached them, the dog let go and I… well, I’m pretty sure I convinced him in no uncertain, pack leader terms that he was NEVER to go near a chicken again. I didn’t see him again that day till nearly dark. 😉 Oh and the chicken walked away unscathed, so I think he must have been “playing” rather than attacking. Regardless, it’s not something we can tolerate.
On another note, I had to chase off a chicken just so the puppy could eat! The girls have developed a taste for dog food and they come to the yard (despite the fence and gates) several times a day to “check” for yummies. Today I was trying to feed Lucky and one tenacious Leghorn had it in her mind that she was going to have some, and indeed she scared him away from the dish a couple of times till I chased her out of the yard. Silly hens! Never really thought I’d have to protect the dogs from the chickens. 😉
Oh, and the other day I found this deformed egg!
I’m not sure why or how something like this happens, but of course you’d never see an egg like this in your store bought variety. Just to be on the safe side, I fed it to the dogs, but the shell looked pretty cool!
Anyway, there’s the egg update. I found 4 eggs for the last 2 days! I’d like to think that I have purchased my last carton from the store for awhile anyway! 🙂 Let’s hope so!