On Sunday we found our first egg from the new chickens. The chickens are just reaching their 5-month birthdays, and when I saw one of them in the nest box looking all uncomfortable I had a feeling today would be the day. This group of chickens are Barred Rocks, and their pretty dark brown eggs will add a nice color to our cartons which already have white, blue/green, and light brown eggs from our older hens (respectively: Andalusian, Arucana, and Naked Neck). The first eggs are tiny, about two-thirds the size of regular eggs, but they should grow to normal size over the course of the next month. It's good timing too, since our older hens have been laying less over the past month, probably due to either the very hot weather we had or to moulting.
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| Barred Rock hens munching on a row of old chard. We let the chickens graze on areas that are done for the season, which makes them happy, gives them extra nutrients, adds fertilizer, and supposedly reduces insect populations. |
