Finally some exciting news... all chickens are now laying eggs! A couple weeks ago, Spooks starting laying, then Grey, and just this week Lexi and O'Malley joined the club. Since Spooks is a different breed of chicken, I was curious to see if there would be a difference in her eggs. And WOW, is there a difference! Her eggs are HUGE! Well at least compared to the other eggs. I would say in general the eggs have been smaller than the "Large" eggs you buy at the grocery store. But Spooks' eggs are about the same size or maybe a little bit larger than the "Large" eggs at the store.
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We have been eating eggs every morning for breakfast and haven't really accumulated a bunch of eggs yet to give away. However, I did make my first delivery to a friend last weekend. Six delicious eggs! So if you have donated egg cartons - you can expect a delivery soon! We will get tired of eating eggs every day after awhile. I will say that I baked cookies last week and we had one store bought egg left. I went ahead and cracked that egg and added it to the recipe, then added two fresh eggs from the chickens and the yolk color is totally different. The fresh eggs are a deep, dark yellow-orange color, compared to the store bought egg with a pale yellow color. Also, we have gotten quite a few double yolks from the chickens. Not sure why or how that happens??
Since they have all started laying eggs, the chickens have been extra hungry and also quite needy. They expect to be out in the yard to free range at least a few hours every day. And they sure do squwak a lot to remind you - hey! we want out! Here is a video of them following me around in the yard last week.
Anyways the other update... I noticed that the chickens were going through an abnormally large quantity of food every day. I would fill it up at night and then in the morning it would be gone. Like not a drop of food left. And then I noticed a small trail forming from underneath the fence over to the side of the coop. And then I noticed quite a bit of food being scattered around the feeder inside the coop. And usually they just peck at the food and don't really cause the food to spill out. Well one night last week, we had the windows open and we woke up to squawking outside. There was either a raccoon or possum sitting on top of the coop. Grant tried to get the bb gun, but Savannah scared the critter away.
Yesterday morning again, NO food left. So I was determined to block off the food from the outside. I could just picture the raccoon reaching its little paws through the wire and pulling the feeder over and helping itself to all the food it possibly wants! And why not come back every night? Once they figured out they couldn't get to the chickens, they just went for the free food. Don't get me wrong, I would rather have them eating the chicken food instead of the chickens... but if I can keep them out, I'm going to try my hardest!
So I created a barricade with a card board box and additional chicken wire. Tied it up and used metal stakes to secure it. I was pretty proud of my work, until this morning when I went out to check. That raccoon demolished the barricade, totally ripping back the chicken wire and pulling the card board box aside.
UGH! I was so mad! I can not let the critter out smart me. I worked on it some more today and replaced the card board with a much sturdier plastic sheet. So we will see if that helps.
If not, Grant bought deer cameras to be put up out in the woods and it is basically a camo camera that records any activity/movement. So I might put one of those up to catch the critter in action! So I know when and how they are getting to the food. That is, if Grant lets me use the deer camera for the chicken's safety :)
~Peace and Eggs~
Can you tell which eggs Spooks laid?
We have been eating eggs every morning for breakfast and haven't really accumulated a bunch of eggs yet to give away. However, I did make my first delivery to a friend last weekend. Six delicious eggs! So if you have donated egg cartons - you can expect a delivery soon! We will get tired of eating eggs every day after awhile. I will say that I baked cookies last week and we had one store bought egg left. I went ahead and cracked that egg and added it to the recipe, then added two fresh eggs from the chickens and the yolk color is totally different. The fresh eggs are a deep, dark yellow-orange color, compared to the store bought egg with a pale yellow color. Also, we have gotten quite a few double yolks from the chickens. Not sure why or how that happens??
Since they have all started laying eggs, the chickens have been extra hungry and also quite needy. They expect to be out in the yard to free range at least a few hours every day. And they sure do squwak a lot to remind you - hey! we want out! Here is a video of them following me around in the yard last week.
Anyways the other update... I noticed that the chickens were going through an abnormally large quantity of food every day. I would fill it up at night and then in the morning it would be gone. Like not a drop of food left. And then I noticed a small trail forming from underneath the fence over to the side of the coop. And then I noticed quite a bit of food being scattered around the feeder inside the coop. And usually they just peck at the food and don't really cause the food to spill out. Well one night last week, we had the windows open and we woke up to squawking outside. There was either a raccoon or possum sitting on top of the coop. Grant tried to get the bb gun, but Savannah scared the critter away.
Yesterday morning again, NO food left. So I was determined to block off the food from the outside. I could just picture the raccoon reaching its little paws through the wire and pulling the feeder over and helping itself to all the food it possibly wants! And why not come back every night? Once they figured out they couldn't get to the chickens, they just went for the free food. Don't get me wrong, I would rather have them eating the chicken food instead of the chickens... but if I can keep them out, I'm going to try my hardest!
So I created a barricade with a card board box and additional chicken wire. Tied it up and used metal stakes to secure it. I was pretty proud of my work, until this morning when I went out to check. That raccoon demolished the barricade, totally ripping back the chicken wire and pulling the card board box aside.
If not, Grant bought deer cameras to be put up out in the woods and it is basically a camo camera that records any activity/movement. So I might put one of those up to catch the critter in action! So I know when and how they are getting to the food. That is, if Grant lets me use the deer camera for the chicken's safety :)
~Peace and Eggs~
