Scrambled

After an apprehensive start, our chickens seem to be on the right track -- they are laying more regularly, and we are enjoying the results! 

The dark brown egg on the left is from our Blue Copper Maran, Cooley -- it took her quite a while, but now that she's laying she is the best layer of the flock! Of course, it's easy to tell which eggs are hers, because of their chocolatey coloring. 

We also recently found our largest egg to date in the nesting box -- a whopping 82 grams, compared to the average 60 gram eggs we usually find. I wasn't surprise to find that it contained "twin" yolks! On the same day, a different chicken laid the smallest egg we've found at just 47 grams. And no, I don't usually weigh the eggs! *wink* These two were just so unusual that I had to find out how they compared to our usual finds.

Largest and smallest! The 82 gram egg on the left measured 3 1/2" from top to bottom

We recently found five eggs in the boxes in a single day... which they compensated for by laying none the following day. My "goal" is three eggs per day (that's each chicken laying every-other-day, which should be a very reasonable expectation), and I'm hoping that with Spring well on its way, warmer temperatures and longer days will help increase production. And they're getting quite close to that quota lately, even surpassing it now and then! It's been lovely making our breakfast scrambled eggs with all (or almost all) our own eggs -- especially when there's homemade bread and fresh strawberries to accompany them!

The Brood

They're all here now -- six little hens, ready to provide us with eggs and entertainment.

We have three Speckled Sussex (Flurry, Dorothy, and Cosette), two Domniques (Sally and Penny), and our Blue Copper Maran (Cooley). Here's Dorothy, with Sally close behind and Flurry far in the background.

I'm quite excited that we found Speckled Sussex sort-of-close to home! At this point we didn't want to take the time to raise chicks, so buying already-laying birds was our best shot. Cosette, below, has just graduated from pullet stage and is definitely at the bottom of the pecking order (hence her name, which is French for "little thing"). Poor girl pretty much stayed inside the coop for her first few days with us! But now she's ventured out, and while she's still picked on (pecked on?) if she's too forward, she's holding her own. I always try to throw some scratch or mealworms her way at treat time, because she's usually about two or three feet away from the "action."

Would you believe that naming the chickens was quite a challenge?! Flurry was so dubbed because she has quite a bit of white speckling on her back, like a bit of snowfall. Dorothy came from "Dottie," again because of her speckled back. Cosette I've mentioned, and Sally and Penny were named for Sally Henny Penny from The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy Winkle (and other Beatrix Potter stories).

We're finally getting some tangible benefits from our chickens, because we found this in the run on the very first day we brought them home!

Flurry has been laying from day one, Dorothy started laying soon after, and one of the Dominiques has laid an egg for us, too. Hopefully the rest will get the idea... at any rate, our breakfast scrambled eggs this morning were entirely "home laid," even if we did have to save for a few days to get enough! It's always so exciting to find an egg (or two, or three) in the nesting box!

I'll have to post a picture of the completed coop soon -- it was a labor of love (mostly...), and I'm pleased with how it turned out!

First

...and suddenly, we had a chicken! Really, it was about as sudden as that. After the fact, the decisions came more slowly -- realizing that the coop that came with the chicken wouldn't be large enough (we want to max out the six chickens we're allowed in our area), planning a new coop, building a new coop, stopping work on the coop every time a storm came through (thanks, Matthew...), finishing the coop. 

But here she is, our very first chicken. Her name is Cooley, so dubbed by her previous owner because she has such a calm disposition. 

Laddie is completely in love with her, and keeps trying to touch her. Which she, of course, loves. *cough* Fortunately for her sake, she's much faster than he is.

This was one of her first days with us, still in her former coop. 

I'm pretty sure she's a Blue Copper Maran -- I had NO idea just how many breeds of chicken there are! And some of them are quite stunning (I'm looking at you, laced Wyandottes!).

Cooley (or Coo Coo, as I generally call her) seems quite happy with us, and is so funny and curious about everything. Her little chicken noises are hilarious, and she loves yogurt. She'll eat out of our hands, especially if there are dried mealworms involved! I've even held her a couple times, though I'm not sure which of us is more nervous when I do that. Here she is having a refreshing "bath:"

Still no eggs, which has me a bit worried (she's probably at least two years old -- we didn't realize when we bought her that her prime egg laying days are likely past), but she also hasn't been getting enough protein and that can contribute to "no eggs." Now that she's on the proper food for laying chickens, I'm hoping we'll find some dark chocolate-colored eggs soon!

Five more, and we'll have a proper hen party.