A couple of weeks ago, at least one of our hens was laying some odd sized eggs, from tiny to extra large.
Here is a picture of the different sized eggs to help refresh your memory:
Different size eggs (likely from the same hen).
Well, we decided to crack open the eggs to see what, if anything, was inside.
Click through to see what we found.
It is now early March and the weather is very warm. The high temperature was over 70 degrees earlier this week. The average high temperature normally doesn’t reach the 70s until June. Even the deepest snow piles have almost completely disappeared. Instead of mid-winter, maybe this is really an early-summer update.
How have the chickens fared over the winter?
Like the goats, the chickens are doing well! On the coldest days, the chickens remained inside the chicken coop with a space heater to help them keep warm. On days at or above freezing, the chickens would usually venture outside as long as the snow wasn’t too deep. During the recent warm spell, the chickens spend most of their day outside.
The chickens out in the field enjoying the early warm weather.
The chickens are venturing out into the pastures during the warm weather and enjoying the longer days.
Click through for more pictures, including an interesting egg phenomenon.
Our most independent hen, Mindy, often spends a part of her day hanging out with the goats. While most of the other hens are either unable or unwilling to get over the fences separating the pastures, Mindy goes right on over the gates to search out the best places to scratch for food.
Below is a picture of Mindy out in the middle of one of the larger pastures as the goats graze in the background.
Mindy out in the field with the goats.
Click through to see more of Mindy with the goats.
Our chickens are losing most of their feathers! They are leaving piles of feathers all over the place and egg production is way down (only 1 egg per day down from 4+ per day over the summer).
Pile of chicken feathers.
A bedraggled hen with missing feathers.
What is the cause of their current distress?
One of the recurring farm chores is to clean out the chicken coop periodically. The cleaning process can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours depending on how long between cleanings and how thoroughly you want to clean the coop.
Chickens coops don’t need to smell bad and a bad smell (usually a strong ammonia smell) is usually an indication that cleaning is actually long overdue.
The chicken coop right before fall cleaning.
Click through to see the before and after pictures from the coop.