Perfect Egg Day!

Yesterday was the first day that we got 8 eggs from 8 chickens!  That is so exciting!

To date we have found a total of 146 eggs.  All but a handful have been nearly perfect, and some have even had double  yolks!  

The girls are just learning how to lay their eggs, and it can take a while for them to be "regular".   Here is a picture of all of the eggs in the past 3 days…what a nice assortment of colors!  (Any time you set anything on the patio they come running-they think they are getting a snack)

6 of the girls have laid their first dozen, and those are the ones we eat.  The eggs from the other two are still being saved in their own cartons until they figure it out.  

It sure has been fun having chickens!

Moving Day

We moved the chickens into their enclosure last Saturday.  It went well, but it took several days for them to realize that they don't have to huddle in the same eight square feet anymore!  Just look at all this space...

It is much harder to get close for pictures now, because I can't get as close to them…they just run away!  I took a few tonight, but I waited until it was a little too dark to get good pictures.  Tomorrow I will go out in the sunlight, with my zoom lens and see if I can get some nice close-ups.  Here are just a couple from tonight.

Oreo

Sunny

 Finn

 Stormy

 Olive

Olive being a camera hog

 Fiona the Second

See you tomorrow!

Chicken Update

Hi!  It has been a while since I have had time to corral these girls and take some decent pictures!  You will not believe how much they have changed, and they are really growing!

Are you ready?  

First of all, this is Fiona, who turned out to be little rooster, or cockerel as they are called when they are young.  I took him back to the breeder, (thanks Rick!) and he traded me for a more obvious pullet (a young female chicken). 

We will miss you little buddy.

Fiona the Second

6weeks 5days 

Olive Egger

So here is the replacement, Fiona the Second.  She is an Olive Egger.  She was bred from a Blue Marans rooster and an Americauna hen.  She will lay olive green eggs. She is very shy and very sweet, and does NOT like to be handled for photos.  I got ONE shot, and this is it.  So sweet. 

Stormy

6weeks 5days

Blue Copper Marans

She is the biggest of all the girls right now, and pretty much keeps to herself.  Not overly shy, but really not interested in humans.  She is a Blue Copper Marans and lays chocolate brown eggs.

Olive

6weeks 5 days

Black Copper Marans

Miss Olive keeps to herself and doesn't bother anyone.  She looks around like she is curious, but then she gets scared.  I think she will come out of her shell (no pun intended) pretty soon.

Sunny

5weeks 3days

Golden Sexlink

Sunny Side Up is the head chicken.  She bosses everyone around, and LOVES humans.  She is always the first one to pop out of the brooder when we open it to clean it.

Finn

5weeks 3 days

Buff Orpington

I think Finn is the right hand hen to Sunny.  She also loves humans, and jumps right out of the brooder too.  Sunny and Finn seem to hang out together a lot.

Oreo

5weeks 3 days

Silver Laced Wyandotte

This is by far the FASTEST chicken we have.  She runs around like a crazy person and pecks at you when you try to get her out of the brooder for pictures.  Silly bird, don't you know I am still the boss of you?  

The jury is sill out on her though-her comb is a little more orange than everyone else's…I am hoping it is just the tendency for SLW pullets to develop red combs earlier than other breeds.  No huge wattles, so I am still on the "hen" team.

Devil

4weeks 2 days

Americauna/Easter Egger

This little princess is very sweet.  Her legs are turning such a pretty shade of green!  She will lay some variation of a blue or greenish blue egg, and the green feet are common in this breed.  By the way, it is very difficult to take pictures of chickens.  You should try it sometime.  Sunny's hiney is in the background of this picture, not to be confused with part of Devil's.

Katniss

4weeks 2 days

Barred Rock

Katniss has developed quite a friendship with the medium sized birds, Sunny and Finn.  She is trying to be a big girl!  She is always out of the brooder with the blondes.  She tolerates me, but I don't think she has much love for me. (compared to Sunny and Finn, who love me! --thats what I keep telling myself anyway)

They are getting restless in the brooder, and are almost ready for their eviction notice.  Kevin has the coop in place, we just need to finish the enclosure.  (Guess what is on Kevin's HoneyDo list this weekend?)  

I guess that is pretty much a complete update!  I will update again in a week or two!

Eggs

Did you know there were so many colors of eggs?  I had NO idea before I got into this whole chicken thing.  My eight chickens will each lay a different colored egg.  (Several will be varying shades of brown)  BUT, it will include chocolate brown, reddish brown, army green, light blue and even pink.  I cannot wait for them to start laying, when I can start posting pics of THIER eggs.  For now here are some cool pics of fun colored eggs.

…And the Final Three!

All three of these chicks are three weeks old, and you can see how many real feathers they have already.

This is Stormy.  She is a Blue Copper Marans, and she will lay chocolate brown eggs.

Here is a stock photo of an adult.

This is Olive.  She is a Black Copper Marans, and also lays chocolate brown eggs.

The adult hen.

And the final girl is an Olive Egger.  She does not have a name, and needs one badly.  Her eggs will be army green.

EDITED: After an extensive cry for help with her name, she is now known as Fiona.  (And I am still hoping she doesn't turn out to be Shrek.)

She might turn out to look like this.  This is the first year the breeder hatched olive eggers, and so he really doesn't know for sure how they will look.  I hope she is this pretty!

 I know you think I am just exaggerating about the eggs.  Who knows how mine will actually look, but here is a picture of what color these girls eggs are supposed to be.  The top is the olive egger and the reddish brown ones are the marans'.

HATCHED FEB 3 2013 Rolo Farms, Emmett, ID

8 Chicks 1 House? I think yes!

Okay, so I thought that having 3 chicks was the cutest thing ever! But when I came home from a friends house today I found that to be false. Now that we have 8 chicks in our home, I am never bored. I can always count on them to make me happy when I am bored. I think I have found myself 8 new best friends. \(^.^)/

Here are two more!

This is Katniss.  She is only 3 days old.  She is a Barred Plymouth Rock...she belongs to Ashley.  She spent about 20 solid minutes pecking away at the paper towel at the edge of the brooder.  The exact same spot.  She was very serious about this!

This is what she will look like as a grownup:

 

And this is Devil.  She belongs to Alexa.  Alexa is going with an "egg theme".  As in "deviled eggs".  This little chick is an Easter Egger, and she is also just three days old. 

  

Easter Eggers can all look a bit different, but here is an example of one.  

They lay blue-green eggs.

I also brought home three more.  I have too much to do right now to keep blogging, but I will post them soon!

HATCHED FEB 20 2013- Zamzows

The first arrivals.

Here are the first three girls!  Alexa, Ashley and I will each have our "own" chicks to name and care for.  They really all belong to the family, but that is how we decided who will name, them, etc.

This is Oreo, who belongs to Alexa. She is a Silver Laced Wyandotte.  I included a stock photo from google of each of the girls so you can see what they will look like when they grow up.

This is Sunny, who belongs to Alexa.  (Get it?  Sunny Side Up?)  She is a Golden Sex Link.  The name comes from the way they are bred, which always yields a female chicken.

And this is Finn, who belongs to Ashley.  She is a  Buff Orpington.  These chickens are really fluffy!

We are  picking up a few more tomorrow and Saturday.  I will post those soon!  Check back often to see pictures of the girls as they grow up!


HATCHED FEB 12 2013- Dunlap Hatchery

It begins...

In about one hour, we are bringing home 3 of the first babies!  The brooder is set up and holding a good temperature.  I am waiting for the kids to get home so we can run to Dunlap Hatchery and pick them up before I go to work.  Very "egg-cited"!