I've got a 6 month spreadsheet!
You've made me feel sooooo much less weird! We just started and about a month in when things started to get busier I decided I needed to keep track of them. If I could figure out who laid what I'd probably keep track that way, but for right now it's 4B (brown), 3E (eggers), 1A (Ash is my bantam's name). I do have 4 eggers, 2 lay blue & 2 lay green.. but I can't tell the blue layers apart and I can't tell which green egger lays which egg so they get lumped together. Loki is the only brown layer I can identify b/c I physically saw her lay her egg last week & her eggs are long and pointy.
We use a kiddie pool for a dust bath. Need to when you have more than a few chickies wanting to bath at the same time. No tarp over it, but we have it tilted a bit AND DH drilled a buncha holes in the bottom. We used a mix of fine sand and concrete sand(?), well it's a bit bigger then fine sand. They use it.... but we still find holes around the edge of their run where they use regular old dirt to bathe in. It's funny when DS goes to *pet* one of them and a huge plum of dust rises up from them... like a mushroom cloud.
The dust cloud is my favorite thing! I love watching them walk out of the trees and fluff their dusty feathers. Petting them is interesting b/c I find myself trying to pick the debris from their feathers. All my white birds look gross and dirty too, but it keeps away the mites so I won't complain.
I Feed them fermented feed ..then the poop doesnt smell as bad and deep litter I add fresh litter on top and circulate it some
I've thought about the fermented feed. But the article/post I read about it made it sound like they only gave the birds a small amount of fermented feed at a time & it sounded like they used mostly scratch grains to make it which I thought wasn't supposed to be that great for them. They did say you can use whatever feed you want, but it seemed like if I mixed crumble or pellets w/ water I'd just end up with mash.
I have a Sebright pullet that started at 20 weeks and averaged 5-6 eggs a week. After 6 weeks she went broody, now that's over, and we can soon get those delightful tiny eggs again. I'd like to get more of her line and start a tiny egg company.....but frequent broodiness can really hurt the averages. Tiny eggs are great for partial recipes, hors d'oeuvres, little kids, etc.
Are sebrights usually broody? I didn't think they could go broody so young. Maybe it was just a fluke, mine is at least 32 weeks now and hasn't been broody yet. I was pleasantly surprised w/ her egg production. I'd read they only lay 52 eggs a year and she's been one of my best layers (partially b/c I KNOW her eggs are hers). We made Deviled eggs w/ her tiny eggs for Labor Day, but we used a recipe my daughter found on pinterest.
http://www.recipes-fitness.com/muffin-tin-deviled-eggs/
They were ok, but not as good as the normal way b/c the egg white was rubbery. Could just be how I cooked them though... Our oven is electric and stupid sometimes (ok, all the time). I have a guy at work who's been buying eggs from me and I gave him one as an extra and he looked at it and said 'What and I supposed to do with this?', lol. The partial recipe idea is awesome! It's just me and my 2 daughters, I hate making some things b/c it's way too much & I don't want to eat the same thing for 23 years. Now I can 1/2 recipes that use 1 egg! Brilliant!
I want goats, too! There's a small herd on the way to work, and a couple of weeks ago, the guy who owns them pulled his boat into the field (storm was maybe coming) and twice that week I saw a goat on the boat. It made me happy.
My mom wants a goat. I asked her where she was going to put it, she said in w/ the chickens. Um.. no. I live in an apt, the chickens live at my parent's house but I take care of them. She also tried to drag home a couple of dogs this summer. 14 chickens, 3 cats, & a dog... We don't need anymore animals.
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