Ladies hard at work

Well, winter is coming soon, and the girls are still hard at work.

With the decrease in daylight hours we installed some lights in the coop on a timer, so that even in the winter the hens will still lay a decent amount of eggs. Their egg laying instincts are triggered by daylight cycles.

Here is Fluffy, somewhat irritated I am coming in with a camera.

Barney didn't care however, and was intreagued by the camera.

They both settle in to do their thing....

 

 

 

 

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Happiness is.... Chickens.

So true, so true. We are absolutely adoring our chickens and the notion of backyard farming! The hens delight us with their ever interesting antics, and provide us with the most delicious and healthy eggs we could ask for. My one regret is not getting a bigger coop! With the interest in grass fed free range eggs, we wish we had more to share with others.

 

And I thought I was getting a large coop in this first place. I should have heeded the many blogs and books I have read on the subject that claimed no matter how many chickens you start with, you will want more, so plan accordingly with a larger coop! They were right....

 

This is what we look forward to on a daily basis. Mmmmm. I have read that grass fed chickens lay eggs with higher omega-3's, lower cholesterol than any non pastured egg on the market. I'm convinced its true. They taste great too!

 

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Our first wee pullet eggs! Blue, from an Easter egger

The moment has finally arrived! After rearranging each nest box to her liking, and a triumphant amount of squawking around, one of the Easter egger's laid her first blue egg. It's smaller than your typical egg. This is because she is still a "pullet" or adolescent chicken. Her eggs should get bigger as she grows up a bit more. And then, a few days later, she laid another one. We are officially on egg watch. The eggs are so pretty, I don't want to crack them just yet. Maybe we will blow the insides out of the first egg and save it for posterity. Kind of like how business owners frame the first dollar bill the make.Truly amazing how these lovely animals were created! God is a masterful designer indeed!

Three days went by with no egg and then we were blessed with this HUGE egg... Turned out to have double yolks!

Look how healthy and bright our little "pastured" grass-eating, organic egg compares with the Costco organic eggs. Hmmm, I'm thinking those birds don't get outside all that much....

We are learning something new every day with these wonderful little hens.

 

 

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Homestead Revival: Sizzling Summer Round Up: Born-Again Dirt

Homestead Revival: Sizzling Summer Round Up: Born-Again Dirt: Today we're checking out Noah Sander's new book, Born-Again Dirt , Farming for the Glory of God! You may not have heard of him... yet, ...

The Flock, Now Outside

The girls have spent a few nights in the new house now. It got a little chilly, so I found them all cramming into one nesting box to sleep.

The are adjusting quite well to the new setup outside, and DH is glad to have the garage back in working order. When it starts to get dark, they all pile up somewhere in the coop. So far they haven't chosen the right spots, so we end up putting them into the roost area and closing them in. Sammy seems to always want her people to put her in and take her out. She'll stand at the opening in the morning making noise until we come get her and place her at the bottom of the ladder. Guess she doesn't care for the ladder.

Out for a backyard fieldtrip

Its almost time to move the chicks outside... so we've taken to small little trips to the backyard so they can get familiar, but still be able to return to the nice warm garage housing. At least until the weather is more consistently warm, and they have a few more feathers. I'm thinking one week from now, they'll be good to go live in the big coop. I still might put the heat lamp out there for them, because I worry about them getting too cold!

They had so much fun, it was hard to gather them back up when it was time to go in.

Gettin' Bigger

Its been 3 1/2 weeks now and the chicks are getting so big now.

They are extremely social and love to be out of the tiny box and sitting on their 'people'. We've had to make a new living arrangement for them in the garage temporarily, until they are big enough to go out into the real coop.