Easter NON-Egger

Lottie and Wanda are giving us a dependable two eggs per day, always in their little nesting box, but Maude is being a little b&*ch and refusing to lay eggs. She's also skittish and squawks like we're killing her when we have to pick her up. So, we're stuck with an Easter non-Egger. I mean, she's 7 months old, she should be laying by now! C'mon girl, earn your keep!

Susan Orlean on raising backyard chickens: newyorker.com

I read this article last night in my new issue of The New Yorker. It really captures so many of the great things about backyard chicken keeping, and also gives a shout out to the Eglu inventors. For those of you who are interested in taking the plunge into chicken keeping or just want to understand those that have, this is a must read!

Susan Orlean on raising backyard chickens: newyorker.com

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We caught Wanda...

in the act!

SECOND EGG!

Finally Lottie is earning her keep around here! Wanda has given us an egg a day for almost a month now, and Lottie decided to join her yesterday. I really hope our slacker easter egger Maude will get with the program soon.

EGG!

Egg alert!  I discovered it this morning while casually checking the nesting box. I'm pretty sure Wanda was the lovely lady who delivered this special treat.  So exciting!

No Eggs, but a Video!

Still anxiously awaiting my eggs, so until I can make that triumphant first egg post I will give you some more chicken eggcitement.  It seems like I never have my camera when they are at their funniest, but this will give you an idea of the weird little chicken noises they make when they are cruising around the yard.  I was cleaning out the garage and happened to drop some gift wrapping bows, which of course they had to come investigate. 

Eggwatch

The ladies are just about 18 weeks old. This means they are ALMOST ready to start laying eggs. The general consensus seems to be that they will start laying when they are between 20-24 weeks old. (By general consensus I mean the opinions and wisdom of strangers off the internet, as we don't know anybody else who has chickens.)

This is both exciting (this is the reason we got the chickens in the first place!) and daunting. Chickens can apparently be a little wacky when it comes to their egg laying habits. First of all, I'm supposed to somehow train them to only lay eggs in their nest box. The nest box is the convenient little compartment on the side of their Eglu, where I can ideally just open the hatch from the outside and collect my egg. Sounds simple, right? 

However, I'm not sure how to train them to do this. They now free range around the backyard. I feel sorry for them if they have to stay in their cage all day long, so they are given free reign to flap their wings around our small urban plot. Although small, our yard does offer places for wily chickens to lay their eggs unnoticed, such as the two raised beds which house herbs and the rather large and overgrown pumpkin patch. The prospect of an Easter egg hunt every single day sounds really unappealing, so I'm just hoping they have some sort of instinct to pop those eggs out in the proper area.  I'll keep you posted.