2 brown (1S,1L)

friday - no eggs.
Bought 50# lay pellets, 5# flax seed $19.93. Several of the older hens are molting, this explains the production drop.

Thursday 1 brown (1L)

2 brown (1S,1L)

1 brown (1L)

monday 1 brown (1L)

sunday 2 brown (1S,1L).

1 brown (1L)

Some of the pullets didn't have white zip tie markers, now all of them are tagged as 2009 chicks with white zip ties on their right legs.

The 18 month hens are molting. So small egg production will be off for a bit... and they're getting old enough that they should be laying larger eggs.

Pullets could start laying in the next month or so, not counting on it until next equinox.

For perspective chicks hatched April 20, 2008 began producing eggs September 19, 2008. 5 months. Pullets hatched June 14,2009 - 5 months is November 13. Since egg laying is sensitive to photo cycle production may be delayed. I also expect the ramp up would be slower if any pullets do start laying in 2009.

1 brown (1L)

1 brown (1L)

2 brown (1S,1L)

Tuesday 1 brown (1L)

2 brown (2S)

Bought scratch $10.99

1 brown (1L)

1 brown (1L)

2 brown (1S,1L)

2 brown (1S,1L)

2 brown (1S,1L)

Tuesday 2 brown (2L)
massive storm Tuesday - 10 inches of rain in under 24 hours.

1 green, 1 brown (1L)

2 brown (1S,1L)

no eggs on Saturday.

No swimming, feel like I've had a bit of flu the last few days - aches and pain throughout my body, minor fever.

2 brown (1S,1L)

Older Americauna was out of the chicken yard this morning, I chased her back after she had made quite a bit of noise. I think she's laying some eggs outside of the coop/laying boxes. Which is unfortunate because I have no good way of knowing which eggs are fresh and which are old. Given the rooster, found eggs could have embryonic chicks in them, which is a real bummer to find when you crack an egg into a pan.

2 brown (1S,1L)

The pullets are getting close to the size of the laying hens. They seem to forage, scratch, etc as a separate group from the older birds.

Rooster tends to stay with the older birds. From behavior I'd say he was 3 months old wen he was dropped off in June, making him 7 months now. In the past month he's become aggressive towards unfamiliar humans in the chicken yard, and I attribute that change with age and an associated increase in hormone production. I better be slaughtering him soon.

1 green, 2 brown (2L)

1 brown (1L)

bought 50# pellets, 5# flax seed. $19.93

I was out of town for 10 days. Chickens were properly cared for, no losses due to predation.

2 brown (1S,1L)

15 eggs saved during the 10 day absence, plus probably 8-12 eaten. Caretaker said they had good production, but then he hadn't been tracking it day by day.