Chickens! Part 4

Our First Eggs!


Last Wednesday, I found our first "egg" in the henhouse. It didn't really look like an egg. It didn't have a shell, but was a soft, rubbery, vaguely ovoid mass that had something that looked like a bit of scrumpled up paper attached to it. Yuck!


I thought that maybe the girls weren't taking the grit (oyster shell) that I'd put out in a separate container for them, and this might be why they weren't laying - and would explain the shell-less oddity. On Friday, I decided to grind up the oyster shell into smaller bits. What I'd been sold initially wasn't crushed oystershell - it wasn't a fine powder, but fairly small pieces of shell. I wondered if maybe the chickens didn't recognise it in that form. It was quite difficult to grind it up with the mortar and pestle, so I didn't quite get the fine powder I was after, but at least it was small enough to mix with the feed.




Saturday was the first day they had the grit mixed in with the feed


Saturday 4th September was when we got our first proper egg!


I went to check on the hens at around half past eleven, and noticed that Jenny wasn't out and about with the rest of the girls. I found her in the house, on the nest box, so I opened up the side to see if she was okay, and there she was, trying to incubate her egg. She got up and walked off when I opened the side of the house, so I picked up the egg. It was smooth and still warm.


It seemed quite small compared to the eggs we'd been buying, so I thought I'd get a photo of Jenny's first free-range egg and a bought one to compare the two. The egg with the speckledy shell is the bought one. As you'll see, it's really not that much smaller than a bought "medium" egg.

































Since then, we've had one egg a day from our ladies, though one of them produced another shell-less oddity yesterday, so maybe that's a sign that one of the others coming back into lay. I do hope so.

I ate one of our own eggs the day before yesterday. I cooked a bought one, and one of our own to compare them. Ours had a deeper yellow yolk and a richer flavour than the bought one. Wow!

Here's to lots more eggies from our three ladies.


I'm so glad we've done this. Rescuing ex-battery hens was absolutely the right thing for us.

Chickens! Part 3

We now have free-ranging foraging chickens who are having a great time scratching up our garden!

We let them out for the first time on Friday afternoon. Jenny and Carmen wasted no time getting out of the run - they'd been hovering near the door whenever we go near it for a couple of days by then. I think they were just waiting to be let out.

They've scratched out a couple of dustbathing spots as well as scratching around looking for bugs and things. Jenny found a worm yesterday - had no idea what to do with it though. She pecked at it a few times, then lost interest in its squirming and ambled off. Rosie wandered over to see what Jenny had found, pecked at the worm a few times and then went "scoff" and ate it in one. They've not done a lot of damage - knocked over a couple of the evening primrose plants so they can get at the tender leaves near the tops, but they were in danger of taking over the garden anyway to be honest. They rather like dandelions and linseed as well.

They're still not keen on being handled, and wary of us if we get close. We're trying to build up their trust by taking out treats for them like sweetcorn, raisins or mixed seeds and sitting close by hoping they'll come and investigate and maybe peck a little out of our hands. Jenny got quite close this afternoon, till Rosie pushed her out of the way (she's a big bully that one) but Rosie wasn't interested herself, so I scattered the treats near them, and hopefully, they'll build up an association of us sitting down near them with having treats.

They do like coming to the garden gate to see what's happening in the rest of the garden. I often see Rosie looking through the slats as I'm busy in the kitchen. All three of them come over occasionally to have a nosy. I left some food there for the this morning.

They're quite happy wandering round the garden, and know that there's food and water back in their run whenever they want it - though I've seen Rosie chase the other two away from it quite frequently. That's why I scatter plenty round the garden for the others to find - although they often sneak back to the run when Rosie isn't looking. They head back toward the run as it starts to go dark, though last night because the weather was fine, it didn't start to get dark till quite late, and I was beginning to wonder if they'd need rounding up. Fortunately, by 8pm, they were all in the run, so Seán closed it up. By 9pm, they were settling down to roost, so I closed the door of the house and took out the leftover mash and water.

We still haven't had any eggs, and I'm a bit worried as one of them (don't know which one though) seems to be doing runny poos - it looks like a blob of caramel topped with white rather than a small lump of charcoal topped with white. I'm hoping it's just down to the change of diet now that they're foraging - maybe she just ate something that disagreed with her. I'm keeping an eye on them in case it is more serious. I just wish they'd poo more on the beds and not on the paths :o)

All in all, our ladies are settling in well, and our free-range adventure is working out.