eggs

As they grow bigger and older, their eggs will get bigger, too. The eggs in back are from the older girls. I didn't set this up—the chickens like to share laying boxes.

Fresh eggs are no good for hardboiling (they won't peel well), but they poach perfectly. Simmer water in a pan, slide the eggs in, turn over once. When done, lift out with a slotted spoon. Season. Mmm.

Update: Since writing this, I've seen Jules' poached egg experiment and tried it myself. Take a look at what a difference a little glug of white vinegar makes:

I'll definitely be adding it to the water from now on.

3 cuckoo marans join the 2 ameraucanas

More new chicks.

I know, I know...I know. But I happened to mention to my neighbor, the neighbor who raises hens solely for feather and egg variety, that I'd seen local sources for Cuckoo Marans, layers of deep chocolate brown eggs.

Image via Wikipedia

Maran eggs

Next thing I knew, the neighbor was driving out to a farm 45 minutes away. She thoughtfully brought back a few extra chicks for us to raise, as well. Our Ameraucanas were getting restless in the rabbit cage, so DH built a bigger enclosure out of some old closet doors, leftover baseboard, and a partial roll of hardware cloth. It's sturdier than our old cardboard castle and with a few modifications, should be useable as a chicken tractor later on.

So the 3-week olds have more space to move around, and the 10-day Marans are secure in the rabbit cage within the new space. We'll blend these two sets gradually, then eventually get all the hens used to each other. We have 11 older hens, the 9 March chicks in the barn, and these 2 sets of young'uns. Not the smartest set up, but I think it will all work out eventually.

And the March chicks? They're all well. This one, whose tailfeathers we've been watching grow longer and more beautiful by the day, even started crowing.

chicks and eggs

When the chicks start regularly roosting on the top of their cardboard enclosure, they'll probably do well in the barn. We moved their heat lamp, and set down more litter and a bigger waterer. They were curious about the new place, but seemed to like it fine.

We had another reason for moving the chicks. Due to a mishap in the original order, a second group of chicks was being sent. From this batch, we received three Ameraucanas.

Actually, I have a hard time looking at this picture. On the same day we took it, our terrier killed the beautiful chick in front. S was extremely distraught; I felt horribly guilty over my negligence about locking Maggie up. It was a mournful afternoon.

But life is a mixture of the sad, the sweet, the joyous and the fun. Our neighbor dropped off a box of her eggs for us. She keeps bantams, including banty ameraucanas who produce tiny green eggs. I love the mixture of sizes and color. (Yes, freshly collected eggs from hens sharing nests are sometimes dirty, especially when it's wet outside; we wash all our eggs just before cracking.)

One day I sat and made tissue paper eggs, which I had seen on this show passed along by a friend.

 

The next day C decided to do pysanky eggs, which we had tried when the kids were younger. C does not often ask to do crafts these days, and I was surprised that he even remembered this. When S saw his brother making eggs, he asked to do some of his own. S had no recollection of doing pysanky before.

Pysanky eggs are a fairly long process of alternately drawing with wax and dyeing in successively darker colors (there are special pysanky dyes, but we used regular Easter egg colors from the grocery store), then gradually melting off all the wax with a candle flame. It's very relaxing, even if we are far from expert at the process. I had to laugh when I saw the finished eggs and realized that C, our sports fan, had made one egg into a football.

This is the season that reminds us how life cycles on: from baby chicks to older chicks to hens; from a child decorating eggs to a young man decorating eggs. Being able to share these days with my growing kids has been and still is a blessing, and I am grateful.

spring

The rains have stopped, and we are again drawn outside. The chicks are more than 3 weeks old already, with nicely developing wing feathers. They're still in the garage, but should be ready to move to the barn in another week or so.

top to bottom: Silver Laced Wyandotte, Buff Orpington, Barred Plymouth Rock

There are weeds everywhere.

We work at them with every method at our disposal, hoeing and pulling, mowing—

and burning.

And anyone who wants to help is welcome.

Happy Spring!

2 weeks old

We are going to lose all vestiges of "chickness" very soon. They're two weeks old and already starting to look a little ungainly.

Scraggly tails, big feet, mixed patches of feathers and fuzz. They're still adorable, though, and their personalities are already quite evident. The splotchy little Wyandotte on the lower right is often the first to come jump on my open hand when I take some feed in. She also chases the others away from me, which may be a play for queen of the roost or may turn out to be the first sign that she was, in fact, a rooster. Time will tell.

If you're a parent who has experienced the feeling of your children growing up astoundingly fast, think about the poor hen who sees this change in a mere two weeks:

larger quarters

Tiny tailfeathers:

And a tiny proto-comb:

We've been dealing with some pasty butt (I've linked to a page explaining it, but if you're sensitive, you may want to skip it) in a couple of the chicks. Last night I sat down and performed the unglamorous job of unplugging the Rhode Island Red; another chick will get a simple cleaning today. Her health is not at stake, whereas I was becoming concerned about the Red.

Over the weekend we scrounged some cardboard cartons from a local business and set up a larger environment for them. This looks crazy, but it should keep them from perching or flying over the edge once they're teens.

This morning, we moved them in.

And now they really have room to grow.

chick update

The chicks are growing quickly, going from little round balls of fluff to slightly more stretched-out birds with lengthening necks and a few more wing feathers. I wanted to document the development from amorphous fuzz to the beautiful feather patterns of the Barred Plymouth Rock and the Silver Laced Wyandotte.

Barred Plymouth Rock, 3 or 4 days old

Barred Plymouth Rock, about one week old

Silver Laced Wyandotte, 3 or 4 days old

Silver Laced Wyandotte, about one week old

After our first heat lamp blew, we got a fixture with a red-colored bulb. It doesn't have the glaring brightness, which is nice for the birds but not so nice for trying to capture them on video. But you can see that they are active, pecking and scratching and moving around a lot. These are all good signs.

new chicks

S, age 3-ish, with a newly hatched chick

We haven't had new chicks in a long while. The last batch we got, 3 years ago, came during a distracted period in our house; and we relied on a good friend to start them for us. Previous to that, we'd had a fairly steady combination of new chicks hatched here and hens we adopted from people who had given up chicken keeping for one reason or another.

This year, Jake of Tour de Cluck put me in contact with some people who were organizing a chick purchasing co-op. The minimum order from most hatcheries is 25 chicks. Our city has a limit of 6 hens per household, so combining orders is a way to get a specific mix of breeds in smaller numbers.

The chicks arrived yesterday morning with feathers beginning to show at their wingtips—if memory serves, that would put them at 3-4 days old.

a little Rhode Island Red

We brought them home to our set up consisting of an old rabbit cage, a heat lamp, a chick waterer and feeding tray. They are on the workbench near a window so sunlight can reach them during the day.

A blanket adds insulation, and hay makes a nice floor and bedding material. For the first few days, we want to keep the chick environment at around 90 degrees. We'll gradually lower that, as their feathers come in, by raising the heat lamp and pulling away the blanket.

Here are the chicks:

To the left is a Buff Orpington. In front of her, a Silver Laced Wyandotte. Right in the center, facing left, is an Ameraucana (a mutt which has the dominant trait of laying blue-green eggs). And just to her right, a little toward the rear, is the Rhode Island Red. Another Wyandotte is front right, and another Buff is at the right edge of the picture. The black one in back is a Barred Plymouth Rock.

S, now much older than he was in the top photo but still a softie when it comes to baby animals, picked out a fluffy Buff Orpington.

This breed is my favorite, as well. They tend to be gentle and easy going, lay large brown eggs, and are themselves plump and hardy.

Ameraucanas, by comparison, despite laying those beautiful green eggs, are usually skittish birds who only lay well for the first year or so.

But I can't resist a pastel green egg, and C asked specifically for more Ameraucanas this year.

The breed that is new to me is the Wyandotte. I've always loved their feather patterns and decided to take advantage of the purchasing co-op to get a few. I'll try to post pictures here as the feathers grow in.