Yay Sutton!

Sutton, the last hold out, is now laying eggs :) So all four of my girls are earning their keep!

Yay Sprinkles!

Sprinkles is officially a "hen" now! She laid her first egg over the weekend :) Right on schedule too. Most pullets start laying around 20 weeks old. I had her figured at 19 this week.

Sprinkles' first egg inbetween two from Ruby.

Her first one was laid in the nesting box. I found another one today, but it was laying next to the waterer.

New Additions!

On Friday, I received a call from the woman I get my chickens from. She needed to find a home for one of her girls. She had a pen that was attacked by a dog and had spent around $100 to save this chicken's life. This chicken had just had stitches taken out and needed to go back outside. Here's the kicker... she was given a very strong antibiotic (Baytril)* and now her eggs cannot be eaten. Ever. My friend sells eggs, so that would not work. This chicken lays white eggs, all of mine will lay brown. So, I drove over and picked up that chicken and another.

This is Thea - She is a 2 1/2 year old Appenzeller. She is missing tail and back feathers from the dog attack, but they will grow back.

In the first pic, that is Ruby behind her. Ruby is only one year old and quite a bit bigger than Thea. However, Thea has experience on her side and stands up to Queen Ruby. She stares her and Sprinkles down, it's the funniest thing. She can nearly flatten her crest/bonnet and I think it freaks the others out.

And this is Sutton. She is a 13 week old Speckled Sussex. She is the same age as Sprinkles, the Barred Rock, but quite a bit smaller. Sutton gets chased quite a bit and hangs out in the coop most of the day. I lock her in a crate overnight in the coop because I don't want her to get cornered and attacked. Hopefully I won't have to do that much longer. She's very sweet!

Sprinkles, Thea, Ruby

Ruby, Sprinkles, Thea, Sutton

* Some people say that there is a withdrawal period for Baytril. However, it is banned in the US for meat and egg production birds because it's possible that it may cause resistance to human antibiotics. I cannot take that risk for myself or my family. She has not laid since the attack. If she does start laying again, her eggs will be discarded.

Hmm...

Me: What do our chickens give us?

Connor: Um... food.

Me: Ok, what kind of food do our chickens give us?

Connor: ...... Nuggets and sauce.

Me: Alright... what do Ruby and Lace give us?

Connor: ...... Nuggets and sauce!

Me: ... and?

Connor: Oh, eggs!

Me: What kind of noise do they make?

Connor: EGGS!!

We may need to work on this.

Eggs!

So for now, only my Rhode Island Red, Ruby, is laying. I'm getting about 6 a week. But on some days... there will be two eggs in there. Usually there were 0 the day before. So either someone else is laying, or she's covering them so well I miss one. I don't know. It's impossible that she's laying 2 in the same day. The coop is only 4x4... Anyway, here's a dozen from Ruby:

Pics

First - the girls:

Teeny tiny egg found over the weekend, next to what I've been getting:

and a Lace close up:

And... Connor got an early Christmas present from Grandma B (Jon's mom)!

He asked the chickens if they wanted to ride in the tractor... they declined.

Getting Cold!

We had to break down and turn the heat on the other day. It was 50 in the house, it was time. I just hate it because that means our electric/gas bill goes sky high.

I closed the chicken's window today and secured it for the winter. It's on the south side, which should be fine, except with how our property is, we get most of the bitter winter wind from that side. It's weird, but we have trees on three sides and it just whirlwinds around. You can see snow tornados when the wind kicks up in the field.

Right now, I'm getting one egg every other day. I've had a few that are soft shelled and had to be tossed. By the time the other two start laying, it'll be winter when they naturally slow down...

First Egg Details :)

My first! Laid yesterday. I locked them up last night in the dark and somehow didn't step on it. I found it this morning before I let them out. I'm assuming it's from my Rhode Island Red, Ruby, who was hatched on Mother's Day... so she's what, 22 weeks? I found another egg on their perch, but it was a soft shell and was cracked. I don't know if she's just been busy, or if one of my other two are laying. Lace is a Brahma, Goldie is a Buff Orp, both supposed to be a month older than Ruby, but I think Goldie is younger. She's just now not sounding like a baby chick.