Illinois...

[Faraday40]

Feeling sad yesterday, so I took some pics.

Godiva laid her 1st egg on Thurs!!! She's the smallest orp but I love her round little body. She turned 6 mo old today.


Muppet is a giant pullet. Like her bro, Moose, she has a lot of filling out to do. My orps tend not to get the full round look until after they're 12mo old.


Here's their sister, Marshmallow. She was/is the smallest of Trouble's chicks.


One "Spitzington" is going to have a crest. (The 2nd, not pictured, may also get one.)

 

[ChicagoClucker]

Feeling sad yesterday, so I took some pics.

Godiva laid her 1st egg on Thurs!!! She's the smallest orp but I love her round little body. She turned 6 mo old today.

I really like her! Godiva is a pretty girl.

 

[cavemanrich]

@Faraday40
Do you think you can photoshop your Godiva on this image.

Silly but funny.

 

[Faraday40]

Here's Lady Godiva riding naked through the country side. LOL


Godiva is my fav brand of chocolate, & she's my fav choc orp. It makes sense. However, she's always had an aristocratic view. When I'm throwing treats down to the flock, she's often too slow to get any. This upsets her, so she walks right up to me & starts squawking loudly until I make eye contact. She demands that I feed her directly so she gets her share of the treats. (She also believes that her share should be all of it - like a typical orp! LOL )

 

[ChicagoClucker]

The CROWING, has been crazy yesterday and today.

I usually wait til 8 or 9 on the weekends to let the flock out, let the neighbors have a peaceful weekend. But since they were crowing I let them out early, figured they would stop, but NO! Time to try no crow collars again. Hoping to work on the new run today, bought some pvc and making a second run on the big coop for the winter.

 

[Faraday40]

Mine have been under daily hawk attack, so the crowing sessions (after the initial 8am start up) usually mean something's up. It's the panicked alert calls that get me running out there with the dogs.

Science Fair Project update:
DD & I went to Trader Joes & Whole foods to talk about their eggs. Trader Joes explained that IL has strict egg laws. The sale of eggs (labeled fertile) is onlyavailable in the western region of the US & their store could not even order them. Whole Foods sells a brand called Vital that sells patured raised hens' eggs. The prices ranged from $5.50 - &8.00 /doz. We bought the cheapest one & cracked 1/2 a dozen. The eggs were only 10 days old, but only one looked like a maybe fertile. The other five were clearly not fertile. We were hoping that birds on pasture would require a roo's protection, but I believe that this brand buys eggs from multiple farms & simple grades & packages them. I'm beginning to wonder if selling fertile eggs for consumption is illegal in IL. The omelet tasted just like ours, so at least we got a meal out of them. (Boy did it feel weird buying eggs!)

So far the only fertile eggs found were the quail eggs. They were labeled "product of Canada" with only an expiration date. No way to estimate the age.

@chickendreams24 Would you be willing to help a little with our research? When in small rural grocery stres in WI, I noticed that there were used egg cartons with "ungraded" eggs for sale. Each carton had the exp dates crossed off & an address/ ph# label of the indiv. farm. If I could have a few ph#s to call a few, I could find out if they have roos with their hens. I know in IL you must wash, refridgerate, have an egg liscence (There are diff levels depending on hen numbers), grade, & only use new cartons in order to sell eggs off your property. (like to a restaurant, farmers market, store, etc.) Each state has it's own rules, but if I want fertile eggs from IL, it looks like we'd have to go get them directly from the farm.

 

[chickendreams24]

I can look certainly but I doubt you'll have much luck around here. I know our local butcher/meat market sells eggs but Idk anything about the eggs. I've only seen them there once and they were pullet eggs. I'm guessing you're talking about farther up north where you went?

 

[MeepBeep]

DD & I went to Trader Joes & Whole foods to talk about their eggs.  Trader Joes explained that IL has strict egg laws.  The sale of eggs (labeled fertile) is onlyavailable in the western region of the US & their store could not even order them.

The people you talked to were fibbing, making up stories or improperly schooled... You can in fact sell eggs labeled 'fertile' in Illinois as long as they submit a letter of proof to the State... I suspect since those 'chain stores' likely get eggs from multiple independent regional farms and simply repackage, it's just not worth their effort to get every farm to comply...

b) No eggs shall be advertised or labeled as “organic eggs” or
“fertile eggs”, including but not limited to any other claims of
unusual interior quality or superiority, until a statement of proof
is submitted to the Director and inspection to confirm the claim is
made. An egg shall be considered a fertile egg when the ratio of
roosters to hens is not less than 8 roosters per 100 hens. An egg
may be advertised as an organic egg when it has been certifi ed
organic by a USDA accredited certifying agency for having met
all the conditions of the National Organic Program (7 CFR 205
(2000)).

https://www.agr.state.il.us/programs/consumer/egg/EggRules&Regulations.pdf

Have you looked at any small independent grocery stores or ethnic grocery stores? I'll would have to swing by and confirm, but I believe I have seen fertile eggs for sale in some of the ethnic driven grocery stores in the area, but of course I could also be dreaming...

 

[Faraday40]

Have you looked at any small independent grocery stores or ethnic grocery stores? I'll would have to swing by and confirm, but I believe I have seen fertile eggs for sale in some of the ethnic driven grocery stores in the area, but of course I could also be dreaming...

We got the quail eggs from a smaller chain called Garden Fresh Market. (TJs & WhFoods didn't even carry quail eggs.) The smaller chain store only carried the common chicken egg brands, though. There's a popular "H Mart" in Naperville, I may try a drive out there later in the week. Do you know what ethnc groups may prefer fertile eggs? We have a Polish deli,La Huerta, several Itailian grocery stores, & a couple Asian markets.

 

[MeepBeep]

Do you know what ethnc groups may prefer fertile eggs?

Can't say I just know that I have seen a better selection of 'off brands' eggs as ethnic grocery stores that I have visited hear and there...

Ironically I was at Garden Fresh myself today, and noticed they had a Sauder's Farm brand that advertised 'Amish Country' and had a website where you could get more info, so I took a picture of the carton and plugged in the 'farm code' on their website just now... As should be expected the and I know to be mostly true the label is quite deceiving...

Here is the link to the farm the eggs in my local Garden Fresh came from...

http://www.saudereggs.com/farmcode.php?code=260

I do love the very misleading description...

"The eggs they provide are from caged hens, meaning the hens are place in wire cages with feed and water being provided to each cage. The birds are housed with several hens in each cage, with plenty of space for comfortable movement."

A quick glance at the photos shows that to be a big farce and lie... Plenty of space? They can't even stand up in those cages... Needless to say we know those are not fertile...