Well, we have had the joy of watching and caring for 8 chickens for a little over a week. Jean and Skip purchased our flock from someone in Sebring (I believe), and boy are we lucky! They are quite the diverse crew. We think we have 3-5 Americaunas, and 3 Rhode Island Reds. We may have a couple other varieties, but so far we have only had blue and brown eggs. It is incredible how much tastier they are then from the store! I'll be interested to see what our monthly costs are, but Jay and I just ate our last batch of eggs from publix, and we don't plan on ever going back! How exciting!
So far we've counted roughly 28 eggs a week, and they are beautiful.
Here are the ladies:
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| Ms. Agatha Hobblefoot / Forrest Gump / Drumstick - A Rhode Island Red, she has a limp leg. We're working on getting a ramp that is proper for her so she may get in and out of the hen house with ease. for now, she sleeps underneath. She is a touch shy around people. |
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| Ebony - We think she may be an Americauna - she has a beautiful blue/green tint to her feathers, and brown around the her neck. She is one of the few that roost in the henhouse as opposed to along the windowsill. |
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| Digger - A Rhode Island Red cleverly coined for her digging behaviors... produces brown eggs |
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| Buttercup Creamsicle - Another Americauna, produces blue eggs - she coos pleasantly and LOVES grass! |
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| Omlet (coined after the shakespeare... because she's a barred... (like the bard)... its a long story, but in any case - our only Barred Plymouth Rock hen. |
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| Lucy - our last Rhode Island Red, produces lovely brown eggs like her sisters. |
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| Princess - Our only known Americauna, she lays blue eggs and can be a bit of a bully. Notice the tufts on her face! She was picked on in the place where she first lived - she came to us with missing feathers on her behind and back, but they are now growing back! |
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| Yoko, our only hen who clings to ground laying, she lays her slightly bluish oblong eggs under the henhouse. The first person to guess her breed thought she was a Japanese type, and since she sings she earned her name. The picture does not do justice to her lovely coloring. |
Hi Meg. I'm George & Barbara's niece-in-law (Sheyda--partner of Jonathan--which sounds awfully biblical but I imagine George has told you at least something about us--we set up CV Garden Plot 1!). We are so excited to see all you've done with the place. Especially the chickens. We hope to visit in December, so we look forward to meeting you both. George has told us a lot about you two. In the meantime, thanks for the blog posts--as winter arrives here in Kansas, I'll be looking to these pictures to keep me warm!
ReplyDeletewow I'm so jealous Meg! We have been wanting to raise our own chickens for a while now. Keep us updated on the pros and cons!
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