Today’s Eggs!

Another good egg production day despite freezing winter weather! With the exception of yesterday, which rose just above freezing, we have had temperatures primarily in the single digits abs teens. Today got into the mix 20’s but wind chill had to be far lower due to high winds, which have been an issue in the last few days! Have continued to get anywhere from 8 to 10 days on average. One day I didn’t get out there to grab the eggs until late in the day and the eggs had all frozen and the egg shells cracked from the pressure of the expanded, frozen yolks abs whites. Fortunately no mess since they were frozen! 

Today was a record day out of these last few freezing winter days with 13 eggs from my 14 hens! Amazing! Light therapy each morning on a timer from 3:30 am to 8 am, with natural daylight until around 4:30 pm. And ceramic heat lamp bulb to take the edge off the cold when the temperature at night drops below 31 degrees. It automatically turns on when the temperature drops to 31 and automatically turns off when the temperature rises to 38 degrees. I close the windows at night in the hen condo whenever the temperature is expected to drop below 20, especially when there are high winds. Plenty of ventilation at the top plus the hen entrance, which I leave open. The hen condo had a cleaning out yesterday to reduce moisture and ammonia levels in the air, especially for when the windows are closed. I just have shutters over the windows, which do not seal tightly so there’s still some air coming through for added ventilation. The intention is to block the wind from just blowing inside there. 

So, great day for eggs, and, they didn’t freeze! A nice mix of white, brown and blue eggs! Love it! Eight out of my 14 gals lay white eggs (6 leghorns and 2 of a breed I’m not sure of), 3 lay blue eggs (Easter Egger plus 2 True Blues) and the other 3 lay brown eggs (2 Rhode Island Reds and 1 Barred Rock). 

I ended up with so many more white egg layers because I just LOVE my white leghorns! I ended up with 6 Leghorns in my flock of 14 hens! They are phenomenal egg layers! And they only weigh 3-4 pounds so they take up less space at night! And of course because they’re a smaller breed, they eat less feed too! So the cost per egg is slightly lower with respect to the amount of food they eat! So between their awesome and consistent egg output, and reduced food requirements due to their size, they are an excellent breed to have! Plus, I do love their personalities! They are friendly but feisty! They think they weigh 10 pounds and they tend to be higher up in the pecking order, if not the highest! They don’t take any crap from the other hens, even the larger breeds! They exert their dominance for sure! They don’t seem to have any idea how small they are! LOL!! Fun to watch! And at night they look like little white fluff balls on my WiFi cam! So cute! And one last thing to mention is these little gals are very strong and hardy birds! But I still love all of my hens of course! 

One other hen to mention is my Easter Egger! She lays blue eggs. She’s so cute and sweet! Typical Easter Egger personality! Very nervous, hyperactive and vocal! My previous Easter Eggers were the same way, and she is so much like my two that were named Loretta and Lizzy! Especially Lizzy! OMG! She looks like a cross between Loretta and Lizzy as far as her coloration and beard. Her coloration is more like Lizzy but her beard is thick like Loretta’s was. And her feathers have thickness of about half way between Loretta and Lizzy. But her personality is so similar to Lizzy that I can’t help calling her Lizzy! LOL! The only difference is that Lizzy used to go sooooo broody on me constantly! When she was broody, she wouldn’t leave the nesting box area! And she caused so much disruption for the others who were going in to lay their eggs! She would try to kick them out from all 3 nests in the nesting box! She wound steal every egg to lay on! She was broody and not laying eggs more often than she was not broody and laying eggs! I used to have to separate her from the others in a separate brooding area so the other hens could lay their eggs in peace! But Lizzy also loved any emotional support I gave her in the process! She pretended not to like it but if I ignored her, she was very vocal about it! I swear she was talking to me! So I’d talk to her too. She just wouldn’t be ignored! She was a cutie! So I can’t help but be attached to this little gal! 

When I first started raising chickens, I named them all. But, by naming them I found I got more attached to them, and it made it difficult when I lost any of them. Or had to rehome them when they got older and stopped laying. If I had room to keep the ones that stop laying, I would loved it! But due to limited space, I just can’t keep any that have stopped laying. It may seem cruel but the reality is that I can’t continue to feed chickens that aren’t earning their keep! I have chickens for the eggs. So I stopped naming them. So, the only one that has a name at this time is my Easter Egger, and that’s only because she is so darn much like Lizzy! I kept calling her Lizzy by mistake, and now it has stuck! Darn! 

I also started out with fewer chickens initially so it was also easier to name them all. But naming 14 is a challenge, and keeping the names straight for each and every one of them would be impossible! The 6 white leghorns, for example, look so much alike, there’s no way I’d be able to figure out who is who, unless I put a color coded band on one leg for each of them so I could tell them apart. The rest of the hens would be fairly easy since they all look different because they are different breeds. But even the ones I have two of, like the two Rhode Island Reds, are difficult to tell apart! There are also 2 True Blues that look pretty much identical as well as another breed that I have 2 of that look like the True Blues only the True Blues have beards like the Easter Egger (they lay blue eggs just like the Easter Egger). Whatever breed they are, they lay white eggs. And they’re not the greatest egg layers either! I thought they were black sexlinks but I believe black sexlinks lay brown eggs and are excellent egg layers! I just can’t figure out what breed they are! 

Anyway, today’s eggs!! All 13 of them!