Chicken Tales

This week has been an eventful week with the chickens. First, we had two very tiny eggs (on separate days) in the Leghorn pen--they had no yolks. I think this would be very marketable--yolk less eggs--you'd never have to separate them; they'd be great for recipes that required just the whites.

After having those two abnormal eggs, we had an unusually large egg--it had a double yolk. I guess that made up for the yolk less ones.

Finally, T.S.'s tiny game hen (for lack of a better word), Bob, is laying eggs. (You'll recall we got them before Easter because I couldn't say no.)
T.S. was very excited that his chicken was laying eggs:
"Mom, can Bob lay me a chick?"
"No, she's too little and the rooster's too big."
"Oh, Bob can't lay me a chick because Bob's a boy."
"No honey, Bob is a girl."

New Zoo Members

We'd like to introduce you to the four newest members of our zoo:
Our friend Teagen is in first grade and they hatched their chickens recently. He needed a place for his to stay, so we gladly offered for them to come live at our zoo. Right now we can't tell if they are cocks or pullets (boys or girls). One already has a comb starting, so I'm pretty sure he is a cock.


For those of you who have lost count of our zoo, here's the latest tally: 1 donkey, 2 (year-old)bottle calves, 3 cats (remember when we bottle fed those), 1 dog who is now walking a bit sideways, 2 bantam roosters (free to good home), 6 Leghorn hens, 5 Rhode Island Red hens, 2 Polish bantam chicks, 1 bantam chick of unknown breed, 4 leghorn chicks, 1 rat, 1 gerbil and one cabbage named Freddy.

Mama just can't say no...

We had to go to Tractor Supply Wednesday to get bedding for the rat and gerbil. We had just gotten in the store when Sadie announced they had baby chicks. I looked around and saw nothing. She had heard them and made a bee-line straight to them. So we came home with these:

Yes, chicks--four "assorted bantam chickens." We were attracted to the "fancy hair" on three of them and the smallness of the third. I'm a little worried about the assorted part--with our luck they are roosters. We'll see.

Notice that the little one gave Sadie a "present" this morning. (It was quite comical.) I'm pretty sure saying, "Sure, Daddy won't care." Gives me some more points for Mother Of the Year.

UPDATE: The gray one, Chloe, passed away last night. The other three seem to be doing well--they are developing nice wing feathers.

Highlights of the Day

Here's a brief synopsis of our day today:

• The wind blew, AGAIN.
• Collected only 3 eggs (I'm wondering if the weather/wind affects this. But not enough to launch a full scale inquiry/experiment.)
• The roosters are fighting--they've been best buds for months and now they are going at it; there's even blood. If it hadn't been so dang windy, I would've tried to get pictures for you.
• T.S. swallowed a "coin." He was a little bit upset about this to say the least. I actually think it terrified him. Here's hoping we can collect our "change" in a day or two.

We have an egg!!!

I know, what's the big deal about an egg? The big deal is we have our first egg from one of the Rhode Island Red pullets... she's choosing to remain anonymous at this time. That means, eventually we could be getting 12 eggs a day, if everyone that is capable does her part.

The picture is labeled so you can see the difference in an egg from a mature hen and a first egg. It is a pretty good sized egg for a first one. Eventually the Reds will lay eggs that are comparable to this, but maybe not quite so big. Our two old Leghorn hens lay really big eggs.

Here are some pictures of the chickens today:

Remember, in August they looked like this:

In September, they looked like this:

Chicken Update

This is T.S. in the chicken pen with the eggs he collected. The next pictures are of the "baby" chickens. We're also including one of the older ones--that's one of the Leghorn hens and a Cochin Bantam rooster.

Free at Last

The last few days we have been watching the chicks get a little braver. We figured that one would escape any day, so we moved them outside to their pen today. It was fun to watch them "spread their wings" once they had room to move outside. Chicks that are figuring out they can fly are good entertainment. Notice how much their feathers have changed since we first got them. The chickens in the neighboring pen haven't even noticed them yet.

Cheep Cheep

Today we picked up the newest additions to the zoo. We now are the proud owners of 5 Leghorn chicks and 5 Rhode Island Red chicks. Sadie was taken with them as soon as they brought them out of the back of the feed store. They are currently residing in a plastic tub in the kitchen until they can go out to the chicken pen. I had forgotten how cute and fun new chicks are.

(Zoo Tally: 1 fish, 1 gerbil, 1 rat [that is on notice for possible eviction], 1 dog, 2 calves, 1 lamb, 14 chickens)