This is Maggie, Lizzie and Alice (left to right)
drinking water out of an old yogurt container:
And some of the girls watching our daughter slide down the slide:
All the ladies are laying eggs now and we are getting between 3 and 5 eggs each day. We can tell (for the most part) whose eggs are whose. This is very helpful because it helps us determine who is laying more regularly than the others. For the most part everything we read has held true. Details below:
Most of the hens take a day off of laying every 3rd day. So for example Alice will lay an egg in the morning on Monday, in the afternoon on Tuesday and will not lay on Wednesday (repeat cycle). This is with the exception of one hen, Jane.
Jane is our Black Australorp. We read stories of Black Australorp hens who laid an egg every day for the first year of laying. We did not expect this, but it is indeed true. Since Jane has started laying we have had an egg a day from her. Big round brown eggs! Very cool.
We had also heard great things about speckled sussex hens making great pets. For proof just read about this woman’s speckled sussex hen, Lenore.
http://blog.mypetchicken.com/2012/02/13/for-the-love-of-a-chicken/
Alice, our speckled Sussex is no different. She is the first to our back door in the morning, pecking and scratching at the door asking for snacks. She is often let through this back door into the kitchen and dining room where she browses for scraps of food on the floor. She is the kindest hen, always happy to sit on our lap and have a nap always eager to please.
I previously wrote about having trouble getting the hens to go in their run after they had been out in the yard. This is still sometimes an issue, but I have found a very favorable solution. It turns out we don’t really have a lead hen, but I’ve found that I am actually the “leader” of the hens. They follow me around everywhere. Why, you ask? Well, I’m the one that gives them treats, cleans their coop, feeds them and gives them fresh water, closes their door at night and opens their door in the morning. I am truly the one that they look to for protection and provision. What an incredible responsibility! That being said, if I want them to go in the run all I have to do is walk in there and they all will follow. What a simple solution!
