What a crazy time. I finally have a moment to make some interesting comments on our ordeal. We live east of SanDiego and were evacuated like half of our population. Well for us it ment packing up three kids, two dogs, a pesky siamese cat, two rabbits and yes the 13 hens. We moved to my mothers Condo in Mission valley. I put the birds into laundry baskets with large holes in the sides, wrapped them them with light curtins and into the back of a camper shell pick-up they went. By the time we got there it was dark and they were asleep, so I left them overnight with all the screened windows open. In the morning, I lifted them into an impromptu pen I made in the cramped garage, with plastic on the floor. The poor things were damp, I guess from breathing, they smelled seriously like a pig pen. The plastic made their poor feet slip, so I put the curtins down. They stood looking at me, like now what? I then dumped the straw from the baskets down and threw oats in with them. There, that was better, they had something to do! These girls were out of place, had been in a smoky inviornment, were panic'd and now what? It seemed like they were sweating out panic, I have never smelled anything like it. I kept saying, they normally don't smell at all. You know how people thing chickens are filthy. Not true. One of the little RIR's kept leaping into my arms. At one point I came down and eight had squeezed threw the rabbit fencing I had used and were on the two cars and were pooping all over the place. This is where I almost lost it, as I was dragging them from under the vehicles on my belly, my mother was hysterically laughting..........well at least it was ok. So when we got back, those girls raced for their own dirt and literally were on their backs with legs waving in the air, they were so happy to be home!! They didn't like being dirty birds, standing and laying in their own poop! I think they had been holding the eggs and were dropping them everywhere, there were even two in the baskest comming home. Now, two weeks later, they seem to be starting to molt. Is this normal for this time of year? This is my first time and they are 8 months old, so I have no idea. Egg production has dropped big time, only 5-6 eggs a day. The past few weeks there has been a dark spot in many of the eggs. They haven't been near a rooster since I discovered we had one five months ago. I thought it was ash that had moved through their bodies, but on a closer look it was dried blood. Wierd. So this is our story, I know all us chicken folk love to hear whats up, so there you have it!
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