Chickens #13: First egg....

Congratulations on your first egg! I enjoyed looking back through your blogs about building the chicken coop.

I am curious, what kind of an outdoor area do you have for them? Are they free range chickens? I had a problem with neighborhood dogs coming after my chickens so I protect them with a movable electric fence. That way they have constant access to fresh pasture but I can keep the predators away. It also keeps them out of my garden and flower beds where they can do considerable damage when I am not looking.

-- Robin, Massachusetts - "Live simply so others can simply live." M. Gandhi

I’m working on finishing the run this week so they can be outside and enclosed. They don’t go outside of the coop right now though… Kinda… cooped up…

Anyway, the run will be 8’x16’, but can be changed at any time.

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

OHHHHHH, I’m so excited for you … what a GREAT SURPRISE this morning! Bet those eggs will taste the best too. :-)

-- "A beautiful garden is a work of heart" -- Royal Oak, MI - Zone 5

WOO HOO! The first egg is always so exciting. Who do you suspect laid it?

-- Xploreorganics, 5b Canada, LFD 06-20

Good news. The ladies are actually starting to work for you. Well done.

-- jroot

Oh boy! Scrambled, sunny-side up, hard-boiled, omelettes, quiche. Yum, I love eggs!

Congratulations on your first! :-)

-- 'To plant a Garden is to believe in Tomorrow'

I know it… I kept saying the slackers needed to do something, but I never expected it to be this soon.

I’m thinking by mid month we’ll no longer need to buy eggs.

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

Congratulations.Your plan is coming together now.Soon you will be selling eggs.

-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more

Congratulations!
So who got to eat the first one?
I am sure you noticed the difference in the hardness of the shell as well as the color of the yoke!!
Enjoy!!

-- Eklectic, Follow my Bliss, South East Ontario 5a

Thanks.. Got the second yesterday and am sure there will be another this afternoon.. Hadn’t eaten it yet. Been too busy with other stuff to worry about it.

Very interested in seeing the differences.

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

It has been over a year now and we still marvel at the difference!
I made some egg salad sandwiches Monday, and instead of “creamy yellow” it was a nice rich golden yellow!

One problem with having your own eggs: when you go somewhere else, like a restaurant, for breakfast, the pancakes, the eggs look “sick”!! So pale!!!

-- Eklectic, Follow my Bliss, South East Ontario 5a

Here’s a comparison I did of an organic store bought egg vs my own (mine on the left)

-- Xploreorganics, 5b Canada, LFD 06-20

X, That’s funny.. I’d have thought that eggs with the high priced over rated (organic) tag on it would actually be comparable to home raised eggs.

I’ll end up doing a side by side with ours as well, though I’m not expecting huge differences. They’re pretty well just on bag food besides what I toss in from time to time, like the pear skins they looooooooved.. After we did more pear preserves the other day.

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

Scott, you must be doing some weeding every so often? If you do, just throw all the weeds in the pen!

And they love dandelions!

When ours see us weeding, they all go crazy and “sing” until we drop our crop of weeds in their pen!

We also give them some flax seeds (which they love) as well as some dried kernels we got for the squirrels!

-- Eklectic, Follow my Bliss, South East Ontario 5a

Weeding? What is this weeding you speak of?

Heck, I’d been lucky to do any mowing. :p

Speaking of, the front yard is half done because the riding mower farted out and shuts down any time the blade is engaged.. :D

It’s a switch issue. Will fix it soon…. I think.

I toss things in from time to time, be it fruit or whatnot. Most times they get a share of the compost bucket, provided there’s nothing rotting or gross in there.

I’ll be interested to see if it does make much difference, just giving them what they have.

Ugh… Really need to finish the run. Picking up the last of the supplies for it today.

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

I’ll be interested to see if it does make much difference, just giving them what they have.

At the end of the winter we found that the yolks were getting lighter in color and even the shells were thinner!
I would pick bunches of weeds from the forest’s edges and just trow that in the pen and within a week we were seeing the difference!!

-- Eklectic, Follow my Bliss, South East Ontario 5a

Hmmm.. Might be an interesting experiment for the science teacher wife.. ;)

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

Very interesting discussion going on there about the weeds and the eggs. Oh, how I miss my chickens. I wonder if I could sneak some back behind my place.

-- jroot

Perhaps you could get a few silkie hens…they could pass for cats…ha. Seriously though they are often considered “exotic birds”.

http://www.backyardpoultry.com/vis/2005/Jaz%20and%20Silkies.jpg

-- Xploreorganics, 5b Canada, LFD 06-20

Silkie hens are GORGEOUS. ... can’t see where they are going, but are pretty to look at. LOL

-- jroot

Naaa… You need some Polish Frizzles.

http://gyma.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/frizzle-chickens.jpg

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

Now those are down right freaky. How did they ever cross the highway? LOL

-- jroot

I think that they have so much open surface area to their feathers that they’re blown up and over traffic as it drives by, shoosting them off across the road.

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

isn’t that exciting. Did you do the happy dance?

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan

Naaa.. I just looked rather befuddled and picked it up. Well… I did hop a bit… But that was the extent.

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b