Open For Business

 

I am now selling eggs roadside.  My new hens started laying the third week of July.  Buttercup, laid the first egg and then suddenly most of the others started laying too.  At first they did not all use the nest and a couple laid their eggs in a chosen spot on the floor, which is covered in hay. I tried a few configurations/placements of nests before coming up with an 'acceptable' solution. In addition Teaka has found a few nests of eggs outside, and I am surprised the eggs outside didn't attract wild animals but I assume that means Teaka is protecting the property well. Especially when I hear of nearby neighbours having animal encounters, such as a bull moose running through at least two farms pulling down 8 fences that fenced in animals.  They think the moose was likely being chased by coyotes.  Maybe I have just been lucky so far, but I let Teaka out anytime she wants day or night because I want her to do her job of protecting the property.

Ethel being curious:                                                        New small eggs:

This bunch of hens has such a wide range of character traits. Ethel is the friendliest and she always comes running when she sees me and sometimes jumps on my lap when I sit down outside. Duke, the rooster, could be nicknamed Roadrunner as he runs all day from spot to spot trying to keep an eye on his hens as they hang out in their individual cliques. They enjoy free ranging all day and generally like to hang out in the old barn which offers them a perfect spot for a dust bath and to bask safely in the sunshine, even when it was 33 C. I always thought chickens didn't like extreme heat. In the evening Teaka is on round up duty and without her I likely would have lost a couple hens as they like to hide in the tall grass in the field and are hard to find. Rachel, true to her rebellious character, is the chicken we spend most of the time hunting for and flushing out of her hiding spots.

I almost took on 3 more chickens. My neighbour dropped them off after his son had picked them up from the same place Mocha came from because he thought the owner wasn't taking care of them.  But these 3 chickens were not laying hens, they were meat chickens and I couldn't keep them.  Although they were quite docile, two of them would be roosters and all of them were quite large and not very clean.  I eventually found a farm that would take them. 

Enjoying some corn on the cob: