Saturday, October 23, 2010

Good Egg


When I chose those six new chicks to come home with us, to join Betty in the Bird House chica coop, I believed that I was selecting hens, girl chicas, little layers. This was less of a scientific calculation than wishful thinking. Geoff wishes I did possess more scientific chicken-pickin' skills, because by our most recent count, we have one, two three, four roosters, and two hens with a likely third hen. A four/three rooster to hen ratio is not good. Not good for eggs. Not good for tranquility. Not good for sleeping in. Not good for the safety of small children.

Rooster and hen ratios aside, we have small news. Small and good.


Almost certainly it is one of the two white Silkies laying these cafe au lait eggs. Today we found the second one, still warm, sitting in the nest box.


Aren't they adorable? Can you see how tiny they are? Betty's eggs are by no means jumbo size. Betty's eggs are probably about medium size, but next to the Silkie eggs, Betty's egg looks ginormous.


We cannot tell the Silkies apart any more. We do not know which one started laying... come to think of it, maybe they each laid an egg. Hmmm. As they look exactly alike, and we know eggs are coming from at least one of them, I think it is safe to assume that we do have three hens. w00t


All that remains is for me to get wise, and find homes for at least three of those cocky, eggless fowl. I know, I should have taken care of this by now. Maybe I need someone to light a match under me!

Now, time to make a little breakfast. <----------puntastic humor

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

We have four different kinds of hens that lay different colored eggs so it's easy to keep track of who's laying and who is not. I reccomend arrucana's. Ours is little,pretty, and lays beautiful blue/green eggs :) Hope breakfast was good... You could make your daughter tiny sunny side up eggs and toast cut with cookie cutters. It'd be like a fairy tea party!

Natalie, the Chickenblogger said...

Dear Anonymous,
hello! Thank you for commenting.
Zoe (AKA Zoltar the traitor) was supposedly an Araucana hen, and I was looking forward to those pretty green-blue eggs. Our first round with home hens was about eight years ago, and each of our three chicas was a different breed (http://www.chickenblog.com/2002/09/lunas-eggs-are-delivered-with-boastful_12.html) I miss those chicas, and the Araucana, Gracie, was my favorite.
A tea party fairy breakfast would definitely be a huge hit with Maria.

mtnchild said...

As cute as little chicks are, I really don't want to chance them not making it or, like you, not knowing what I'm getting. I have 2 of my girls, Araucanas, that are not laying, and one older gal that I'm not sure of. The two younger are still laying daily.

There will come the day soon that 2-3 of the girls will be getting mighty chilled, but will warm me in the depth of winter.

In the spring, I will be replacing the girls with pullets that are ready to lay. Then I and my neighbors can rejoice with free roaming eggs once again.

Good luck finding homes for your boys.
Hugs
Yvette

Natalie, the Chickenblogger said...

Thank you Yvette. You are right about chicks. I am a sucker for their cuteness... but the cute factor comes with a big risk! waaa! Three cheers for free roaming eggs!
Hoorah!
Hoorah!
Hoorah!

Frogdancer said...

I'm thinking that our araucana chick is developing into a rooster. Annoying, because like you, I was looking forward to blue/green eggs.

At least we bought our gold-laced Wyandotte and our barred Plymouth Rock from a place that sexes its chicks, so at least 2 out of our pretty pure breds are girls.

We're getting 4 eggs a day from our Isa Browns. It's a lovely feeling to collect the eggs, isn't it?

Natalie, the Chickenblogger said...

Love collecting the eggs!
Especially when they are still warm.
Each one feels like a special delivery.
Do you find four is plenty? Are you baking more, or passing them on to friends?