Twelve Makes a Dozen

Now that all three hens are laying eggs we were able to collect a dozen eggs to give some away to our friends.

Twas The Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas....... and all through the house, Creatures were stirring, swimming, barking and pecking. That would be our Dog, Judah, His new friend Marley, 6 gold fish, three hens, our 1 beta fish Action Jackson, and his two new friends Tupac & Franz.

This Christmas since we decided to stay home, we ended up taking on a few new creatures for friends that were going out of town. Two friends asked us to watch their beta fish, we said OK.

Then Lyndsey found a young couple on craigslist that was looking for a family to take in their dog over the holiday so that he wouldn't have to end up in a kennel. We always hated putting Judah in a kennel, so we decided to see if him and Marley would get along.

It turns out that they did, so Judah has a buddy to hang out with. Marley is three year old chocolate Labrador. He is already 90 lbs, so he is quite a bit bigger than Judah. At least he stands a lot taller. He is a joy to have around, even though he is crazy dog. He actually makes Judah seemed pretty laid back and relaxed, which is odd. The biggest difference is Marley is only three, and a three year old lab still acts very much like a puppy. Where Judah is now 5, so he is a couple of years out of the crazy puppy stage.

We are blessed because Judah is very good around the hens. He acts like they are not even around when they are in the yard together. This is probably due to the fact that Judah watched the hens grow from little chicks. Marley on the hand is all Bird Dog. When he spots the hens he tries to hunt them. You can't blame him, because it's in his blood, it just helps us appreciate the relationship Judah has with them.

Eggs Over Here, Eggs Over There

All three Chickens are laying eggs. Bringing us to about 15 eggs a week. It took us a couple of days to figure this out because Dorothy, the Golden Laced Wyandotte, is not nearly as vocal as the other two hens. So when she started going through the egg laying ritual we didn't quite recognize it. She also decided that she would lay her eggs in her own little nest, right next to garden plot #1, and not in the coop house.

We let our hens free range around our yard during the day, so we started to notice that they have began laying eggs in odd places, other than their coop. If they are locked up during the day they will lay their eggs in their boxes. However if they are out all day they will lay them wherever they see fit. For Dorothy that is a little next she made by the garden. Rose on the other hand, started to lay eggs in a shelving unit that holds our water purifier unit.

This random egg laying does add a little excitement when we get home from work, because each day we get to have our own little egg hunt.

The Egg Laying Ritual

Rose, the Rhode Island Red, has been consistently laying eggs now for about two weeks. So far she has been laying around 6 eggs a week, nearly one a day. We have enjoyed the eggs and have even passed some on to friends to enjoy. Up to yesterday the other two chickens were still watching her in wonder until Blanch, the Plymouth Rock, started to act a little peculiar. You see before the hen lays an egg it goes through a little ritual. After a couple of weeks, like all rituals, you sub-continuously learn the shortcuts and how to speed up the process to get right to the point. But like any ritual, before you learn it, it takes a little bit longer to work out the kinks. When Blanch started acting weird we new that she was just beginning to learn the ritual. We were excited because we knew what to expect when she was done.

The steps to the egg laying ritual go a little like this.
1.Separate yourself from the other birds.
2.Let your independence be known by walking around and clucking so people around notice that you are on your own.
3.Find an area to nest.
3.Scratch the area to make sure it is secure (on their first egg this could take a couple of hours)
4.Go back outside of the coop and let everyone know that you are independent and on your own.
5.Go back in the nest area and scratch some more.
6.Start putting wood shavings on your self to hide yourself from predators
7.Give a couple of loud clucks to let everyone know that you are still alone. (If you are new at this you may repeat steps 1-7 up two five times before preceding to step 8)
8.Lay egg.
9.Go outside and give a few loud clicks to let the other chickens know that you are done, and don't want to be alone.

Blanche's first egg was about the same size as Rose's first egg. It was a little lighter shade of brown that Rose's egg, which will help in telling them apart.

Dorothy, the Golden Wyndott, has yet to start the egg laying ritual, but we are confident that she will soon now that the other two are fast becoming old pros at it.