L7 Farm

3/26 - Priscilla's foot hurt again, some blood, after being all healed up for two weeks. She's not limping or having other problems but I was unable to catch her to wash her out when I was in the chicken run, will go back and tend to her later. Concerning.

2/25/22 Violet appears to be semi-broody, if that's a thing. She'll go and sit on a pile of eggs the other hens have laid, or go over to a nesting box with a single egg on it, and stay there, but will come down if there's treats. I collect the eggs, she comes back, looks disconcerted, talks to me for a bit, and then goes back out into the yard to look for something to eat.

2/24-25/22 Priscilla appeared hurt yesterday midday, after having been fine in the morning, couldn't get up from a spot in the middle of the chicken yard. Appears to have a strained leg/tendon; no visible injuries detected. Removed her to the chicken hospital. She was drinking and dragging herself around today and managed to stand briefly on the garage floor. She laid today, though!

2/20/22 - gals are laying up a storm, but five of the six of them want to always use the same nesting box and there are regular three-way fights for the box. I figure they'll work it out, but will put a golf ball out in the other nesting box tomorrow as incentive.

We're going to try to add a standalone third box when the weather gets warmer.

2/7/22 - Betsy laid an egg today after a month long layoff.

We continue to battle squirrels; in the spring we will upgrade to quarter inch fencing. It won't keep them out of coming up and over through the aviary netting but we don't have a rooster to chase them off so hopefully it will at least slow them down.

1/10/22 - cold weather update. Hens have slacked off to about 3 a day; Betsy the Easter Egger has stopped laying entirely, the Buff Orpingtons are laying more than the Barred Rocks. Also...I dropped my first egg (broke on the frozen icy ground immediately). I feel strangely guilty, like I let the girls down. I apologized to Hortence, whose egg it was. Otherwise they are handling the cold quite well.

12/14 -- 3 days after Betsy first laid, we have our first six-egg day!

I wish we had more hens, but town rules are town rules. We are at peak production....

12/11 -- Betsy has layed! First egg! GREEN! Woot! Age 179 days, which the internet tells me is early for an Easter Egger.

We can match all the eggs to specific hens except for two of our Barred Rocks, who seem to lay close to identical eggs. The third one lays a bit paler and speckled. Awaiting our first six-egg day, which will be the max...

A couple of milestones today:

- we sold our first dozen "extra" eggs (and donated the proceeds to our regional food bank) -- we've been giving away our excess as thank-you's previously, but are now pivoting to sell-and-donate.

- not coincidentally, our first time having back to back 5 egg days. (Still waiting on our young Easter Egger to start laying).

11/12 - Five egg day! Counting this as Violet's first egg but she probably layed one we couldn't attribute earlier in the week.