still on our dining room table under a heat lamp but their wing feathers are coming in.
Tag Archives: hen
352/365. a counterintuitive observation about backyard chicken flock size and the number of eggs on hand.
since we downsized our flock from 8 birds to 4 and got out of the egg distribution business we have way more eggs on hand. before with a market in place, we’d sell or give most of the 56 eggs The Girls produced a week and found we were often short of eggs for our own use. now, without any regular customers – whoooweeee – 4 eggs a day can pile up fast!
in hindsight, 4 hens is the absolutely wrong size flock for us. too few eggs to make it worth the effort to set up regular customers and too many eggs for our weekly needs.
305/365. deep thoughts while checking on The Girls.
sometimes it strikes me how odd it is that we have domesticated dinosaur descendants in our backyard that turn house food scraps into delicious domesticated dinosaur descendant eggs. the very same eggs that helped them survive a mass extinction event. and that as a species they’re evolving 15 times faster than expected.
some people think chickens are not so smart. but maybe they’re just watching and waiting us out while they get fitter, faster. knowing they can survive.
288/365. herding The Girls.
that thing where your neighbor calls to let you know The Girls are wandering the streets and you spend an hour trying to round them up. and all this because your malamute loves to let them loose. sigh.
this one, in particular, was So Very Not Happy upon being captured. i don’t think she knows how good she’s got it!
231/365. The Adventuresome Girls.
i came home from work to find two of The Girls in the driveway. at some point the wind blew open the door the fenced in chicken run when nobody was home and even though they have a giant whole fenced in yard to explore these two adventurers will find a way out, over or under the fence. who knows how long they were walking around the neighborhood. this is their “OMG WE’RE BUSTED BY THE GIANT GIVER OF FOOD!!!!!!” face.
a more timid barred rock was, true to character, sitting in the chicken run refusing to even consider the possibility of exploring.
years ago, when we first got chickens and i was unaware of how easily they could get around the fence in the yard and how far they’d roam, i came home to discover a policeman and dog catcher had stopped to round up the flock of chickens that had escaped and were blocking traffic in the street.
the police came back the next day and, more nicely than i would have if it were me, let me know it had better not happen again. i was surprised they didn’t charge me a fee 🙂
195/365. they’re Friendly Girls but i ain’t kissin’ ‘em.
these two are so funny. whenever i enter into the chicken run they’re all super friendly and curious about whether or not i have any compost for them. the barred rock scatters and is all, “nope. NOPE. NOOOOOPE!” i think they even like to be pet, or at least they tolerate it but the CDC says no kissing or cuddling ( seriously gross )!
the dudes look less like ladies!
we’ve been watching a few of the suspect roosters and it’s much more evident that probably three of our latest flock of six are probably roosters, which is a bit of drag because roosters in town are a no-no.
the prominent combs are a giveaway in addition to the fact that they are practicing cock-a-doodle-dooing.
update: a few weeks later.
we found a good home for them with someone who appreciates and can have roosters 🙂