More adventures in chicken keeping... Last weekend we acquired more chickens from a small animal auction near Lancaster, PA. We said goodbye to our roos and got 8 eight week old Americaunas. Chris' parents live nearby and have also joined the backyard chicken bandwagon, so there's a whole lot of chicken swapping going on...
Mellen bought two beautiful egg laying hens, a lavender Orpington and a white Silkie.
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| We've been calling them "Fozzy" and "Babette" for their time with us. |
Because they don't have a coop built yet their hens have been bunking with ours for the past week. The girls earn their keep by giving us eggs!
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| They haven't been using the nesting boxes, so maybe we'll tweak the design. |
Which is fun because our hens won't start laying for a couple of weeks. The little Silkie is a very consistent layer, she gives us one small and slightly shiny egg every afternoon. The larger Orpington has only given us one large egg, more matte looking, and we've eaten them all! Mmmm, can't wait for our own hens to do their thing.
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| Orpington egg on top, two Silkie eggs on the bottom |
So the other eight Americaunas have been living with Chris' parents until they're ready to go outside, probably another week. We'll split them up with Chris' parents. Those girls will bring our flock count up to around seven. And soon enough we'll have more eggs than we can eat ourselves!
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| Bacon and egg burger |
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| Tiny Silkie egg and goat cheese on homemade toasted bread; breakfast of champions! |
Gah! Eggs! I'll need to DIY a reusable egg crate soon :)
ReplyDeleteHold off on that, I may have gotten you something... :)
DeleteThose hens are beautiful! I wanted a Lavender Orpington so, so badly last year when we got our chicks, but for a variety of reasons, it didn't work out. As far as stray egg laying - stick a golf ball in the nesting box. They'll get the idea and start laying in there.
ReplyDeleteGood tip about the golf ball, I'll have to try that. While the Orpington is gorgeous, she doesn't really play nicely with the others. Our three hens spend their days staying out of her way! But I don't know if that's a trait of the breed or just coop dynamics.
DeleteI think part of it may be personality, but it's most likely an age thing. She probably sees your girls as babies and tries to boss them around. It took our hens a while to figure out their place in the pack - they call it a pecking order for a reason. :)
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