A third egg!

While it may not seem like that big of a deal to find a third egg in the nest box, I'm guessing it WAS a big deal for the chicken that laid it for the first time. This weekend I put up a new toy for the girls that I received from my brother for Christmas (think of a wire sphere the size of a softball, that you stuff greens into for the chickens to peck at). I noticed one of the chickens wasn't milling around me, and looked in the nest box to find our black chicken, Mifflin sitting in there. Later in the afternoon I found a second brown egg. This was her first egg, leaving just Olive to produce one for the first time.

I'm also figuring out how to manage the eggs in our fridge. This is my solution so far.

Mifflin is the third bird to start laying.

Um, really? You laid it there?

Our birds are young, so I give them a bit of leeway when it comes do trying out new things. Take laying eggs. After installing our next box, we added some golf balls to show them where they are supposed to lay similarly shaped items should they have the urge to lay an egg.

Betsy Ross lays greenish eggs

 

So far, two of our birds have laid eggs. We know one of them thanks to the lovely greenish eggs laid by Betsy Ross, the Americana, also known as as an "Easter egger."

We have found an egg in the middle of the chicken coop on the floor. This one, for example, is not in proximity to any golf balls. Ok, oops, and it hasn't happened again.

HOWEVER

Look where I found an egg recently!

We know who laid this egg due to it's color, Prissy is the only brown egger who is currently laying. So, why on the ramp? Our current speculation is that she was laying in the next box when something disturbed here and she scurried out. On her way down the ramp it kinda fell out.

A little evidence to our far-fetched guess as to why this egg was laid on the ramp is that it was broken when I picked it up. The laying process doesn't tend to break eggs, my thought is that she "dropped" the egg on the run and cracked it. 

Prissy, the ramp layer.

Our first egg!

One of our girls finally delivered an egg! And due to it's greenish tint, we know exactly who's responsible. Betsy Ross, the American,  (also known as an "Easter Egger") is our only chicken who does not lay brown eggs. So Betsy wins the prize for laying the first egg in the flock.

Poultry word of the day: Nest egg: savings (well, not in our case, at least not for awhile!)

It's greenish, so it must be Betsy's!

Betsy is the colorful bird on the right.

Two chickens declare - it's spring

When I started chicken sitting four weeks ago, only one chicken was laying, and sporadically at best.  Today, I found a site worthy of a bit of excitement! Not only was I delighted to find two eggs, I've decided with no scientific backing whatsoever that the chickens have decided it's spring and that's why another one has decided to start to lay.

Lumpy egg?

When I was little we raised chickens on our family farm. I remember the large coop that was already on the property when my folks bought the farm. It was leaning a bit to one side and drafty, but it wasn't far from the house so it was easy for my brothers and I to feed and water the birds, and gather eggs. The actual animal health care, diagnosis and treatment of illness was left to my parents. And I suspect that for a sick chicken, the likely cure was euthanasia. It's hard to justify an expensive vet bill for a $5 animal.

But back to the joys of taking on a new project (like raising chickens), I like the challenge of learning all about a new subject. I took three 1-hour classes on chickens at this year's Wisconsin Garden Expo, but none of them prepared me for what I found in the nesting box this weekend.

I found this large, misshapen egg in the nesting box this weekend.

I found a large, misshapen egg. It was lumpy, the shell was thick and thin and looked nothing like what the hen has been laying for the last three weeks. I checked out backyardchickens.com and found one article with photos of a very similar condition, but not much info. The concluding advice in the threaded discussion was "Was probably just a glitch in the hen's system. Nothing to worry about!"

So, I broke the lumpy egg open and it smelled fine. So I cooked it up. What more mysteries to chickens have to offer, and how much more do I get to learn as I care for a new species of animal?

The possibilities are endless.

Co-parenting chickens

Jay and I had lunch with our next door neighbors last weekend. I mentioned our upcoming lunch a few weeks back. I planned to serve an arborio rice and butternut squash soup. Jay said we had to serve something with eggs, so I made two quiches, one with mushrooms and one with spinach. OMG they were good. And I was reminded of exactly why we're doing this chicken thing. Just look at the difference in these eggs!

Our gathering went exactly the way I'd hoped it would. We got to know one another, talked about what we each wanted from having a backyard flock of gallus gallus domesticus and enjoyed a meal made possible in part by the three hens we are currently chicken sitting.

I could sense both Matt and Marisa's excitement building throughout lunch, and by the end, we planned a field trip together to Cluck the Chicken Store in Paoli, Wis. to learn more about having a flock and to get some coop ideas. 

After lunch we went to visit the girls in the back yard. I popped open the door and was delighted to find someone had left us an egg. I gave it to Marisa (even after today's quiche, we've got lots of eggs in the fridge). 

I am pretty darn excited about this upcoming adventure - that has already begun!