Eggs!

I think I've got another layer. I was down to one chicken laying. She's a good one though because I still get one almost every day and she's done this for almost 2 years now. If I feed her off schedule for a day then she gets pissy and doesn't lay that day. Well, I was on one of those off schedule days but when I did finally go in to feed the poor poultry, there was an egg! No way. It was small though... even smaller than they normally are. I think because of the weather, the competition for food (darn that Mozzerella!) and the passed rooster problems, the eggs have just been small lately. But this egg was even smaller. My baby chickens (bigger than my layers are now) are about 7 months old now and that is a typical time for them to start laying so I was hoping this was going to happen soon. Sure enough, the next day I found two eggs, and one in a different laying nest. I'm sure it's my Rhode Island Red.

Since this is a chicken post you are all going to have to put up with my pictures of only chickens. I don't know if I can get across to you all how much I love chickens. Not in the way that I would be devastated if one died (in fact, I would probably kill a few myself) but just in the way that when nothing else in life is bringing me joy, the chickens are. Call me wierd, that's okay, but I like my chickens.

Here they are:

This is the rooster that I brought to my mom and dad's. They have some of their own chickens (living in luxury) and have even let one of theirs hatch her own nest of eggs. They are probably about 4 months old now and just starting to be distinguished as male or female. Unfortunately for one. My big ol rooster here, Jake (dad named him) could also distinguish which one was a rooster and he killed him! I told you all he was violent! I'm glad he's away from my flock.

This one here is my Rhode Island Red. Isn't she perty?! Not really actually. She has long yellow legs and walks probably similar to how my sisters and I walked in puberty - all limbs.... awkward. You can tell she's red in this picture but sometimes, outside in the sun, her feathers look so dark you almost think she's black. She's gonna be a keeper. They lay lots and long. I like this one.

This is my sumatra rooster. I have mixed feelings about him. Sumatras are one of Dad's favorite chickens so I naturally like them too. They have beautiful black feathers. It doesn't look that great in this picture but under the sun they are sooo blak they look green. The feathers are magnificant. The rooster has great neck feathers that poof out when he's angry or trying to show off. And his tail feathers, as you can see are flowing and long. They are about half the length of his actual body. Sumatras are actually quite small and skittish. They don't like me at all and are kind of wild. I was going to give him away to Dad along with his other half of the pair but the night I boxed them up to bring to mom and dad's, he disappeared and didn't come back in the coop. I think Jake was threatening to kill him. A few days later I found him walking around with my other chickens again. My main rooster actually chased him high into a tree, which was kind of neat. He had found a branch about 7 feet up in a pine tree. A perfect little roost. It's hard to see why they would be a favorite except for their great feathers. This guy seems to have whitish grey feathers around his neck. I don't know if that's normal. I'll have to ask the guy who sold me the egg he came out of. I'm sure he's not mixed.

Here's his little hen half. She now belongs to Mom and Dad and I have no idea how she's doing. She always stayed out of the way at my place since she was a favorite among the roosters (if you know what I mean). She actually roosted the highest of all of them She was always sitting way up in the chicken coop somewhere. Like I said, they are a bit wild.

And finally, here's a bad picture of my speckled wyandottes. If I haven't already given out this title, I think they are my favorites. They are beautiful. I love the colours, the shape, the temperment, and I'm sure that she will be a good layer. I think they are an older breed of chickens. I like that I have a pair. I hope that when she does start laying I can put some of her eggs in an incubator and keep this line going for a while.

Well, that's it for this post. I do have my camera with me now, as you can see, so I'm gonna go update my flickr while I'm here. If you're bored you can check out those pics too. I'll probably make comments on them too so look for the comments.

P.S. You should all get chickens!