INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

I hope my power stays on! I still have a week to go on 2 dozen silkie and showgirl eggs in the bator! I was talking to a guy that buys my quail eggs and he said he just nade a new incubator and lined the whole inside with ceramic tile! I thought that was a great idea to help maintain temps. Might have to try it.
 
Phew, just finished an essay for one of my classes that has been taking up much of my time over the weekend! What a relief!


Margie is still broody... kind of... In the past, I have tried deterring hens from brooding by blocking the nests, but they always find somewhere else to brood. Not Marge. She wants her nest and no other nest will do! So I have just blocked off the nest she wants and she's out free-ranging, albeit with the broody attitude still. :lol: Goofy bird!

Meanwhile, Rangi laid her first egg yesterday! I was so busy with the previously mentioned essay that I didn't get a picture of it--someone used it. :/ Here is my young lady, though, shortly before she laid her first egg. :D With the size of her comb, I'm honestly surprised she didn't lay much sooner than this!

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In other news, I have had a stunning discovery in regards to some of the eggs I've been getting. My hens are only layers of large brown and green eggs (not including the pullets and bantams, of course), but lately I have been finding some large cream-colored eggs with speckles. Well, my sister is cooking today and used one of these large cream-colored eggs only to find that the inside of the shell was brown! This is not supposed to happen by every account of the egg-laying process! The shell forms white (or blue, for those hens that possess the blue-shell gene) and then brown pigment is layered over the top of the shell depending on the bird's genetics (more or less brown depending on the breed). How in the world did this inside-out egg even happen?!

Then, I remembered reading about someone else with an inside-out egg layer in her flock, and it got me wondering how common this is. The inside of a brown shell should be white--you can test this by looking at the inside of the shell after cracking one open to eat or add to a recipe. Has anyone else seen something like this happen?

I'm going to do some research and see if I can uncover some explanation as to why this happens sometimes. The bird that has been laying these eggs would have had to have been laying normal eggs up until this point, as I have never before seen an inside-out egg in person like this. These birds are always giving me such odd surprises. How fascinating!
 
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SallyinIndiana- Thank you for the suggestions on the feeders. Right now I only feed the one kind of feed and leave out some oyster for those that need it. I do have more than one feeder, so that might work out too. I did end up buying a large garbage can for the winter as I feel pretty strongly that I won't be doing any more building in the winter. I'm pretty much a knitter in the winter. Now I can knit and watch chickens, lol. What an egg you got!!! That was just giant.

Mother2Hens- If your Bonbon really lays chocolate eggs, I will definitely steal her. Chocolate is my drug of choice. I am happy to report that I received the Chicken Health for Dummies and the Once Upon a Flock books this weekend and the Once Upon a Flock is a great read so far! Her writing style is hilarious. I was able to buy a copy that looks new on Amazon for $1.49 with $3.99 shipping so it was a bargain. I love bargains. Also, Adeline is growing up so pretty!
PeacefulWalls- "Oooo--chocolate eggs...maybe they'll be filled with caramel?
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" You and I are on the same page!!

Leah's Mom- That is a pretty SFH rooster you have.

Jchny2000- Thank you for posting those videos.

Pginsber- The site http://chickenfountain.com/ has them in a two pack for $5 and the shipping is free right now. I have four of them and they work great when we have to separate someone (as long as you remember to poke a hole in the bottle...it took me a minute to remember that ;-) ).

Hi Backyard Bitten and Animallover!

Pipd- I can't believe how big Rangi is now! What a pretty girl.

Yesterday my MIL came over and we tilled up a lot of the garden and finished the cleanup around my coop. So excited to feel like we are done with the necessities for winter. I have been reading all the posts about the heated waterer and its funny that I've been thinking of this for the chickens but have never considered it for my dogs. I guess its about time to think of babying the dogs again, lol. The other day I posted what I thought was my first bantam egg, but it turns out that she has been laying them in a little cubby next to the nesting boxes where I have been storing the dust broom. I think she liked the privacy and the tiny box. Now that the poop board and roost is above the nesting boxes, all the girls seem happier to be in the nesting boxes.

My little Appenzeller girl is out and about with the rest of the group again, so I am really thankful for that. She does spend a lot of time in the nesting box even though she's not laying or even broody as far as I can tell, but I will let it go for now. As I wrote in a previous post, my other two AS chicks have turned into cockerels and are now starting to fight with each other, but they do everything else together as well. They need a new home soon. I might post them on craigslist unless one of you or Pbirdhaven would like to have them. My EE roo, Peanut Butter (on my avatar), tried to attack my son and my MIL this weekend, so I did what I saw on here (turned him upside down and told him who was boss) and he backed off. I'm not afraid of him, but I can't have anyone around who isn't nice. Will that ease up as he gets older? I really like him, so I hope it does.

Here are pics of my AS cockerels:





I hope you all stay safe during this storm!
 
Here is a picture of the 'inside-out' egg, by the way. I guess inside-out is not the proper term for it, but the shell at least is kind of inside-out. :confused:

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And next to a normal brown egg shell:

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yea it was supposed to be really bad now it looks like it might rain for an hour and then get nice.Considering it is 65 today this could actually turn out to be the best day of the week!
 
Wow! What a storm! It is really coming down! Hope everyone and their chickens are warm and dry!
 
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