much ado about VA

[Picky Chicky]

Just checking in with my local folk to make sure everyone is alive and well.

Happy 2009! Hurry up Spring - I'm ready for some swap events!!

 

[silkie-mom]

Still hanging with the chooks, spoiling them rotten.

I'm getting eggs now!
About 1-3 each day from 6 hens.

Isn't the wrong time of the year for them to lay?

Silkie eggs are good!!
They have a richer flavor yolk. Must be considered organic ?
They are small, it takes 2 of them to equal a store bought egg.....but man are they delicious!

 

[Picky Chicky]

Quote:
Mine just started laying around Christmas Eve - how exciting. Even the banty girls felt left out so they both started laying over the past weekend. I have the five girls, so I probably get at least 1-3 eggs a day depending - I'm with you.. I thought it was the wrong time of year. I had already told myself not to get my hopes up for any eggs until early Spring - at the soonest!

I need to pick me up a silkie or two!! I still can't believe I don't have one yet. Those banty eggs sure are tiny though - I haven't had the chance to try one yet. I think tonight I will for dinner.

 

[silkie-mom]

They really are small and cute eggs....I hard boiled a few to add to my dinner salads too. I made scrambled eggs for dinner last night. I had to scramble 6 of them to equal 3 eggs. They were a very rich yellow after cooking. Not pale like regular eggs.

I had another egg today, but my dog found where I set it down while I tended to their water. She ate it.

So now I have an egg-sucking collie!

She was actually cute the way she looked all disappointed when it broke.

I am trying to find friends that want eggs because I am not using them fast enough and am getting a full fridge!

What will I do when they all start laying an egg each day?

I heard it may have to do with using lights in the coop at night. On cold nights I turn their heat lamp on for them (red bulb). I don't do it in the hopes of making them lay, just to keep them warm.

 

[Picky Chicky]

Oh wow I bet that would be adorable - hard boiled banty egg.

We've got a heat lamp on for the girls in our coop as well - we had some pretty bitter mornings there for awhile... then this miserable rain set in. My ground is so soggy between the house and the coop. I feel like I'm swimming in my backyard!

I have a couple friends who have offered up their requests for extra eggs - so I'm hoping if I get to that point, I'll be OK. If you can't get rid of them all, I bet you'd have the killer Easter Bunny Egg Hunt stash of the county! Donate them to the kids!

 

[basicliving]

Hi Virginia! All is well here in the Shenandoah Valley - even if you factor in the ice and rain of the past 2 days!

20 hens and getting anywhere from 7 to 14 eggs a day. I'm giving away, pickling, frying, boiling, and eating lots of eggs! Started making plolymer clay eggs from the ones I blow out and they are really nice. Little Chicken Racing Team wrote up a tutorial on it in the Hobbies forum.

Hope everyone is doing well. Think warm - think spring!

Penny

 

[silkie-mom]

Yes this rain is awful the last couple days.
I slide all over in the mud going to the coop.
I threw down a few pounds of wood shavings in their pen today to try to keep them out of the wet mud. It helps.

They are too dumb to go inside when it rains.

I just went out and closed them inside the coop for the night. They just looked at me as if to say "Hurry up and turn the dang heat on!"

It's pretty frigid out there.

 

[roosters97]

Glad to see ya'll are doing good with the chickens!!

 

[Picky Chicky]

I don't know how you guys faired last night, but I thought all of that crazy wind was going to blow my chickens and the coop away!

 

[basicliving]

I heard there was wind in the forecast, and it was blowing a little when I went to bed - but I slept so soundly I don't know if it kept up all night.

I know what you mean though - high winds terrify me, especially when the ground is so saturated. We are surrounded by trees and hearing the wind whipping through them just terrifies me. We do a good job of cutting down any that are rotted or appear not to be well rooted, but we still occasionally lose one or two during high winds. I worry about the coop as much as I worry about our house!

I think the chickens are about fed up with this weather. They weren't near as excited as usual to get outside this morning. They perked up a bit and are wandering around now - but I think they are as ready for spring as I am!

Penny