Ok…these birds crack me up! It is an absolutely great way to start each day waking up the 10 chickie babies (although they are probably “kids” by now) listening to their excited eating chirps, and then letting the laying hens out of their coop into the pasture. They are so talkative also. Add in the normal amount of bird calls in this part of the state and it just relaxes me completely.
The big girls (Hermie, Enola, Vin, Emma, Charlotte and Cordelia) survived their first heat wave OK. The four Orpington are very fluffy and did look hot a few days. It got up to 90F which is a lot after being in the high 70F’s at most the week before. But we do get hotter throughout the summer so hopefully they figure out how to use the shade and cool grass better. I did throw ice cubes into the shady grass a couple times a day and I saw Hermie at least go lay on them as I left. Matt also put up an easy up over the nesting boxes to help block the sun. Emma, who acts like the fluffiest goofy lab puppy, probably suffered the most. She is super fluffy especially through her saddle area, maybe chubby, and runs around a lot. Waddles around? She comes running out of the shade the second she hears me, chirping away, so I had to be careful not to talk near the pasture unless I meant for her to come out. I might have given them a bit more cool fruit treats too to help . But now it is back to a high of 80F and they seem to have adapted. Hermie lost a lot of feathers and I thought she might be going broody but it turns out she sits in the nest box about 3 hours to lay big ol’ jumbo sized light tan eggs. Good girl. She is nowhere as fluffy as the 3 chocolate orpy girls. But still has the adorable fluffy butt!
The hens are producing about 5 eggs a day right now and we are seriously talking about selling the eggs. Matt got us certified as raw egg handlers and set up a washing and storage protocol. Looks like $6/dozen pays for their feed so we will start there. Not bad for organically fed, pasture raised hens. All of the Orpington lay a brownish egg although I think Cordelia’s eggs are more creamy colored. Both Hermie and Charlotte lay big tan eggs and I think Emma is the one laying a pinkish egg. Hard to know exactly who lays which egg. With Vin laying blue eggs and Enola laying green eggs, they make a pretty carton of eggs!
When the baby girls start laying we should have more blue and green eggs. And a lot of eggs! It will be interesting to see other shades of brown also. The two Lavender Orpington have very light pink legs so may have lighter shelled brown eggs. And several of the chicks have green or yellowish legs. We still have 4 months or so to see what they do.
In the meantime, the chicks are continuing to grow and get feathers. Definitely not fluffy downy chicks any more. They are looking a bit rough these days with funny pin feathers poking out and then the mix of down and contour feathers. They change so fast! They are just over 3 weeks old and more than doubled in size. A few are getting very big and trying to fly. Matt is cleaning out the second stable because its paddock is already goat fenced so they can start going outside in a couple weeks once he gets an aerial cover. Also, a couple of the babies have flown over the cardboard fencing of the brooder, so out with no food or water (!), so they just need more space overall. I think they’ll move over this weekend. It will be good for them to go into a 15’x15’ foot stable rather than one square yard or so they have now.
Some of the ways they have changed are that they are fully feathered in their wings and almost across the back. The breast is still downy. The contour feathers are very pretty and starting to show the breed differences. They also stand differently by breed. Their combs are starting to show but I think most of these are pea combed, meaning they have tightly held combs across the skull although the big girls have truer combs.
So things continue to move forward here at the farm and so far all chickens have stayed healthy! They are so much fun even though some work but we enjoy them a lot. And the eggs are just amazing!