Now All Five Are Laying Eggs

Our first egg was spotted on January 18, 2013.  The girls were 19 weeks and 3 days old, so not quite 5 months old.  Whoever the first layer was, I don't know, but was a regular producer.  She has been giving us 6 eggs every week.

The first egg that I found in the coop.  When I picked it up, it was still warm.  It was so exciting to get a little "present" from one of the girls. :D  The egg was perfectly formed, but when I placed it in the egg holder in my fridge, it looked dwarfed against the store-bought XL eggs. XD

A couple of weeks later, I've collected enough to make some boiled eggs to be turned into Deviled Eggs.  Little did I know...  farm-fresh eggs are hard to peel when boiled!  I found out on the internet.  Generally speaking, older eggs peel more easily. ^^;  I ended up spending 45 minutes trying to peel these guys and was still unsuccessful.  The eggs were looking pretty sad by the time I was done peeling. T_T

Fast forward to Feb. 12, 2013.  My daughter and I went out to the coop where she spotted a weird egg (See the one of the left, middle row, in the pic.).   I was doing something else for the girls, when she yelled out, "There's a deformed egg!".  I didn't quite understand what she meant by 'deformed'.  It turns out that the egg only had a membrane in place of a hard shell...  Weird stuff we had not expected nor was prepared to see.  She said it was like jelly and creepy and refused to touch it. XD  I picked it up carefully.  Surprisingly, it held without falling apart.  I put it against the sun and I could spot a yolk inside.  So, aside from the freakish appearance, it's a 'normal' egg. XD  Later, I looked things up on the internet to find out that when young hens first start laying eggs, sometimes the first few are not quite fully formed and shell-less eggs can result.  Also, if the hens get too much treats and not enough calcium in the form of oyster shells, they can lay weird shell-less eggs as well.  Considering that other hens were laying perfectly normal eggs, we figured that this was one of the other ones just starting to lay. ^^  Sure enough, we did not see any more like this.

Coco, our Easter Egger (Ameraucana), was expected to lay greenish/bluish eggs, so we have been waiting to see the first egg from her eagerly.  She has had two previous 'attempts' where the shells were so flimsy the eggs were crushed either by being stepped on or sat on.  On the third try on Feb. 18, 2013, she successfully laid a pastel green egg with a perfect hard shell. :D  It was still warm when I picked it up.  It's so pretty!  Here in the photo above, you can see the various shades of brown eggs we get from our girls.  Some are darker and larger and rounder than the others.  But they are all from healthy, happy chickens. :D  I think it's now safe to say that we've bought our last carton of eggs from the grocery store.  We are now getting 3 to 4 eggs a day.  Plenty for a family of three.

Chickens' First Snow

   It has been a really warm fall and early winter, and we finally have snow with noticeable accumulation.  It came on Saturday night, and it has been cold enough to stay around.   The ski resorts in Colorado are just now starting to open for the season.

   Our chickens just celebrated their 13-week birthday last week.  They are all healthy and big!  Amazing how fast they grow.  The feathers are beautiful.  The cuddly ones (Frigglish and Puccini in particular) are warm and soft.  If you've heard that chickens are stinky or smelly, it's not true.  If kept in a clean environment, they smell like sun-dried laundry.

   I got all five of them in a single frame! :D  We have such a beautiful assortment of chickens.  The black and white one is Frigglish (always the sweetest and the cuddliest); the fawn-colored one is Puccini (also tame and loves to roost on our arms); the black one is Tapioca (used to be the black and yellow chick); the white and brown one is Coco (the most streamlined chicken who loves to sit on my back); and the dark brown one is Dorito (the most high-strung one of the flock, rather anti-social with humans).  Each has a distinct personality, which is fun.

   The other day, someone that I had never met before stopped by and gave me some fresh greens for the chickens.  She told me that she was given too much greens for her chickens and was happy to share with me.  I was delighted!  I've always given my girls chopped greens from the SFG boxes (Swiss chard, salad mix, and broccoli leaves), but most of my veggies are now dead (My parsley and broccoli are the only plants that are still green and alive.), so we have to buy the greens from the grocery store.

   The chickens start to lay eggs when they are about 5 months old.  It will be early February 2013 when our chickens turn that age.  It will be couple more months.  I'm very excited about that! :D  

Pics of Chicks at 5 Weeks Old

   These photos were taken on October 11, 2012.  The chicks are 5 weeks old.

   Frigglish is still the friendliest of them all.  So calm and content... about the only one that holds still long enough for me to take a pic in rather poor light (early evening with low level of battery in camera).

   Puccini and Frigglish on a new roost that my husband is building/testing for them.  They look like chickens now.  I believe they are called pullets.

   Puccini looking pretty on the roost.  She was seen jumping and flapping her wings against one of the cats that were trying to climb up the walls.  She wasn't backing down at all.  Feisty girl!  She is very sweet with us, humans. ^^

   Here's Tapioca with almost no yellow left on her.  Her black feathers are very pretty with purple and green sheen in the sunlight.  Unfortunately, this photo was taken in the dearly dust hours, so no pretty colors are captured.  Tapioca seems to weight the most among the five pullets.

   They are getting so big and eating a lot.  We are on our 3rd bag of feed.  They are spending more time outside in the run as well.  They love collard greens, lettuce, and Swiss chard.  All of them still like to jump up on us and roost on us, which is pretty sweet.  Chickens have been definitely more fun than I expected. :)

Chickens Are Now 4 Weeks Old

   Our chickens are now 4 weeks old.  Hard to believe it has been that long since they came to our house.  Here's a picture of four of our five chicks (The black one to the left is Frigglish.  The black one next to her is Tapioca.  The light one in the upper right corner is Coco.  And the brown and tan color one in the lower left is Dorito.  Missing from the shot is Puccini.).

   Here's a good look at Puccini.  Her body is pretty much covered with nice feathers except for her neck and head.  She still has fine downs in these areas and looks a little funky. *giggles*  Her face is starting to show some pink colors (will eventually be red) as the comb is starting to grow.  The white-ish blur in the foreground is Coco barging in onto my arm at the last second to photo-bomb.  She is so 'in your face' with everything she does...

   Right after the previous shot, she 'confronts' the camera. XD  My kitty, Marshmallow, looks on right outside the run.

   Frigglish sitting on my knee, perfectly well-behaved.  This girl is so sweet.  She was the first one to warm up to us and never complained being handled by us.  Such a good girl!  We love Frigglish.

   Tapioca, looking pretty.  She is another one that really warmed up to me in the past week.  She likes to sit on my shoulder as I clean their coop.  Very calm, content, friendly, and trusting.  Sweet bird!  She will be all black at maturity.  Should be gorgeous.

   They are growing fast and very healthy, judging from their behavior.  They like coming out of the coop when it's bright and warm outside.  They are scared by the cats lunging onto the chicken wire every so often, but they run quite fast.  It's fun to see them run around when one of them has something in the mouth that everyone wants ... like a piece of leafy green. XD  Chicken football.

SFG in Fall

   It's been a long time since I wrote about my Square Foot Garden boxes.  As the weather gradually cools, the production has been slowing down.  I am no longer getting my favorite Swiss chard at the rate I would like, or  the eggplants.   Strawberries are still producing, and I am still picking and using carrots.  I miss the peak of summer when I could get Swiss chard and an eggplant to use in my lunch every single day and the garden looked as if nothing has been harvested.

   Now that it's October, and the morning low is in the low 40s, things are slowing down.  That's just nature's way.  The focus is shifted to the fall/winter crops.  I did convert my Corn Box into Winter Greens Box at the end of August.  I pulled out all the corn plants, replenished the soil with compost that I had been "cooking" in the corner of the backyard, and planted the box with some chrysanthemum plants and veggie seeds.

   You can see the red and yellow mums in the corners and the seedlings in many of the squares.  I have Japanese winter greens, radish, carrots, lettuce mix up.  I've also planted spinach seeds, but they are not up yet.  The Japanese greens are said to grow even in winter, and cold weather improves the flavor.  I am looking forward to having fresh greens in winter.  I use them in so many things in my cooking.

   On the far end of the photo above, you can see my three pots of flowering kale plants.  The lower leaves turn beautiful shades of orange and pink, while the center is starting to grow pink rosettes. ^^

   When I was growing up in Japan, chrysanthemums were everywhere in fall.  There were chrysanthemum festivals and shows (exhibits).  They came in so many shapes and colors, I loved going to those juried shows as a child.  I still love them for their long-lasting and cold hardiness.  And I love the distinct scent of the leaves and flowers.

   Here's a look at the old Spring Veggies Box.  It produced all summer long and still looking quite wonderful with some second crops growing.  The marigold and broccoli are getting huge.  I have the second crop of peas and lettuce mix.  I still have a lot of carrots left.  The Swiss chard has been my favorite and the chicks' favorite.  ^^

Photos of Chicks at 3 Weeks Old

 
   That's Tapioca leading down the ramp with Dorito and Coco watching.  Our kitty, Chaba, is watching the chicks. ^^;

   Here's a picture of Frigglish roosting casually on my daughter's wrist as Puccini looks on from the ramp (with Chaba in the background, photo-bombing yet again XD ).  Frigglish is very friendly and loves to fly up on our arms, shoulders, and heads.    These photos were taken on Sept. 27, 2012, when the chicks were 3 weeks plus a day old.  The feathers are now covering most of their bodies and they are losing the baby chick down every day.  They look like mini-chickens. ^^

Chicks Are Now Two Weeks Old

   It's been two weeks since we got the chicks.  They are all healthy and growing so fast. They look more and more like small chickens than chicks now that they have feathers instead of fluffy downs that made them look so adorable as baby chicks.  But they have become so tame and friendly, it's so fun to go inside the run in the morning and open the coop door for them to come outside.  They usually jump on my feet and arms as if to say "Hi, Mom!"  Just adorable!!

   Tapioca, sitting on my hand.  They don't mind being picked up now, but most of the time, they just jump on us as if we are their perches.  Their feet feel so warm on our skin (Chicken's body temperature is around 102F degrees.).

   Coco.  She is the Easter Egger, which will lay blue/green eggs.  Her feet look kind of green.  And she is the only one that has 'cheeks'.  Cute.

   They come and go and switch places.   Here, I've got Dorito, Frigglish, and Tapioca.  Photo-bombing in the background is my kitty, Marshmallow.

   At one point, I had four chicks on my left arm.  They like to jump and sit on our arms so much. ^^;  Their little claws leave small scratch marks on my skin, but they don't hurt.  I guess it's just dry skin. lol  XD