Hey there! Such a small world! ^_^
We only built our coop this past spring but we always had chickens when I was a kid. My Mom mostly kept Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks. With a brief heartbreaking forage into Cornish Rocks which the supplier did NOT tell us would not live if kept longer than a few months.
I'm on Facebook, and would love to look into that poultry group. Getting together would be fun. Might feed the addiction too though. XD I'm already having visions of trading hatching eggs and unwanted pullets/cockerels back and forth. I can see it now, da Hubby is gonna kill me. XD
I had just sent the kids off on the bus this morning at 6:45, went inside to start some laundry and I swear it was like five minutes later I got the automated call saying Elementary was cancelled and Middle School and HS were being left out at 8:30. I don't know what they were thinking. Why did they even send the kids in if they were going to send them home at the first snowflake. Eh oh well. Kids got a free day off to play in the snow anyway.
And were home to see my older daughter's favorite chicken, our Buff Orpington, Dumpy lay her first egg.
Now we've got four chickens total laying eggs. My White Leghorn, Angel, the Buff Orpington, Dumpy, and the Gold Laced and Silver Laced Sebrights, Kinda, and Pepper.
I just noticed today that I can tell the Sebright's eggs apart. Kinda lays the slightly thicker lighter colored ones every single day. And Pepper lays the longer thinner darker ones every three days or so. Kinda's are shinier too. I think because she lays more frequently. Her eggs don't spend as much time getting color added to them because they move faster. At least that's what I've figured out from researching how and why eggs are colored like they are.
I've got a motley colorful flock and big dreams of a bright colorful rainbow carton of eggs. The Welsummer and EE's won't be laying till late spring. But so far I am so excited just looking at this picture. They're so pretty already. I can just envision those green/blue and dark brown eggs in there yet too.
^_^
As for getting them to lay in the nest boxes, I think I was lucky. My Angel was the first to lay and she used the back box. Everybody else just followed her lead. Seriously, every time she'd lay an egg the other slightly younger girls would follow her up to the coop and stand around peeking in at her. Like they were trying to figure out what the heck she was doing. Whatever it was was pretty interesting.
That and I don't leave them free range unless I'm out with them or keeping a close eye on them from the house. They lay first thing in the morning, all before noon. And they're locked in the run until after that.
Here is a link to the Poultry group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/PennsylvaniaFarmSwap/ but I warn you, they are a bunch of enablers!! LMAO There is always someone on there looking to get rid of chickens, eggs, and everything else chicken! They are from all over PA, but many in the Scranton area.
Right now I have a tiny coop and run (which is really one big coop). My big girls sleep outside in the run (I let them go in and out as they please) and free range all day. I was talking to another chicken-a-holic and she recommended (since they free range) to keep them locked in all morning (mine also seem to be laying then) and see if they will start laying in the boxes because they can not get to the deck! So I'm going to try that tomorrow. My hubby and I are going to remodel one of our sheds into a chicken coop this spring so I can have a few more! hehe, I said a few...but we all know about chicken math!!
Here is a picture of my first two eggs!!
The bigger one was found on Saturday, and the small one today! If I had to guess I would say my banty laid the bigger one and one of my big girls laid the small one. I really don't know, but that is just my guess!
I didn't get a call at all from the school...not real happy about that! If I hadn't signed up for alerts from WNEP about the school closings who knows how long I would have waited for the bus. I don't know why they didn't call school off when every other school district did! That would have saved me some headache getting my princess ready for school! LOL
Look me up on FB, we can be friends!!
Michelle Mugridge
