Jun
22
2009
22
2009
Apr
17
2009
17
2009
Mar
15
2009
15
2009
The first Four-Egg Day!
It looks like the stars aligned and all four of our chickens are laying, because we got four eggs today! Pretty exciting news. The egg tally for all of February was a respectable 38, and by March 10th, we already had over 30 eggs for the month. Quiche, egg salad sandwiches, french toast, you name it, our menu is now leaning heavily toward it. Start sending those egg-heavy recipes!
Feb
12
2009
12
2009
The first egg!
Does anyone notice anything funny in this picture of the chickens? On the ground? Yep, I did a double-take too when I got them their food this morning. Who lays an egg on the ground and then walks away? It’s been awhile since we got our chickens, and we are finally going to start getting some eggs from them. Needless to say, we are very excited.
When we showed it to Hannah, she insisted that eggs didn’t come from chickens, they came from the store. So her first chore is going to be Egg-Hunting, so she can get that straightened out in her head right away.
Dec
14
2008
14
2008
Snow Falling On Chickens
Frozen Chicken
We got snow in Seattle last night, in the usual on-again off-again, is-it-going-to-stick-or-is-it-just-going-to-tease-us fashion. It was looking pretty slushy when we went to bed, but I woke up early in the morning and peeked out the window, just like I used to do when I was a kid, to discover a decent snowfall had stuck around, and even covered the road. But this post isn’t just about the snow, it is about chickens in the snow.
I was really curious how they would do in freezing cold weather. When I was researching heat lamps for them online, I read about people in Indiana and other ridiculously cold winter climates who didn’t feel the need to heat their coops, so I backed off my initial plans of supplying the ladies with a warm red light on all night for them. Anyway, they all snuggle together to sleep, and they can also puff up their feathers to make a nice downy layer of insulation.
This morning when I let them out of their coop they ran right through the snow to their bowl of food, but that didn’t last long. A half an hour later I looked out and they were nowhere in sight — they were back in the chicken house where it was, if not warm, at least not freezing cold on their toes (feet? talons? claws?) I didn’t see them outside all day, even after the snow melted back a little bit. So today the chickens and the humans ended up sticking to the same plan — hang out in the house and wait for things to get back to normal outside.