Morning everyone,
Eggs, Oh my goodness. I am getting 8 eggs a day now. As soon as I can get to my workshop and to my scroll saw I will be making a large sign that says we have farm fresh eggs for sale now. Come and get them to those who live nearby and need some. We have plenty of them.
My lovely chickens are not shy about laying even in the wintertime and the size of them are huge, even for new layers. Some of them so far are "double yolks", some of the eggs are so huge I really thought it might be a triple yolk, but was only double.
My chickens get fresh water and all the food they want plus I also give them a small amount of scratch grain in the afternoon. At noon I also during the winter I also give them greens (collard, spinach, kale) depending on what I find at the store. Mixed all together with some of the following at different times, cantaloupe, watermelon, oranges, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs + shells, old bread, old crackers, apples, grapes seedless, lettuce, cabbage. Just to name a few.
Needless to say, my chickens get a well-balanced diet, they stay happy and healthy. No sick chickens on my end of the world. I also keep their "covered pen area" cleaned out and kept fresh and dry, and their shed where they sleep and lay eggs, is kept clean and dry, we use cedar shavings on the floor and I use cat litter on a shelf just under where they roost scooped each morning and it is clean and dry also. The shed has two windows and a vent on the back, so fresh air is always going through the coop.
Oh my at the fresh eggs, there is nothing like them for taste. The color when cracked open is perfect, such as dark yellow yolks, and the whites are not runny nor cloudy.
We have now even covered the huge chicken yard with bird netting to keep the overhead predators at bay. We dug down around the covered smaller pen area and around the shed and attached rabbit wire underground to stop the digging of animals like coyotes or foxes. They are safe from raccoons, possums, skunks. So if we left for the day and night we can allow them to be in the covered pen area and they come and go to the shed as they want and we do not have to worry.
Using the overhead heater we got for them when the outside temps dip really low, I know they loved that, we only have the two gunnies and one or two chickens with large cones which could freeze if not protected, we have had NO problems and the temps dipped as low as single digits during this last winter many nights and this was their first winter.
And to say the least, our chickens are pets and we love them and I get to pet them each day, they follow me around like a little puppy in the yard. I LOVE it.
Margo
