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Eggs Don’t Get Fresher Than This!
The chickens were making a ruckus this morning just after sunup. They often do that when one of them is occupying a favorite nesting box and another wants in. Finally, I got up and trudged out to the chicken house.
My Black Sex Link hen, Blacky
When I let the chickens out of their house into their run today, one of them–the Black Sex Link hen (Blacky)–hadn’t quite finished laying her egg.
But as they always do, the hens made a run for it when the door opened. Blacky included. They hopped out and followed the Rhode Island Red in the pursuit of grass and worms and other things chickens like to eat. That’s when I noticed Blacky waddling along, trailing the other hens. That’s unusual for her.
The Black Sex Link hens lay brown eggs
It soon became clear why. She had a fully formed brown egg halfway out. I’ve seen some strange things since raising these hens from when they were baby chicks housed in a big tub in my kitchen. But this was the strangest.
I reached down to see about giving the egg a bit of pull when Blacky decided to push. I caught the egg before it hit the ground.
* * *
First book in the Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries
If you enjoy reading about gardening, keeping bees, raising chickens, and creating delicious recipes, you might want to check out my novels from Kensington Publishing.
The Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries are available online and in tradition bookstores everywhere, in hardcover, kindle, and mass market paperback formats.
Novel #2 in the Henny Penny Farmette series, available Oct. 1, 2016
The MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE will be released in hardcover October 1.
Help–There’s a Chicken on My Back
My as-yet-unnamed Rhode Island Red thinks she is my best friend
Collecting eggs, I bent over into the chicken house. Suddenly, a large chicken land on my back and start talking to me in her chicken language. I immediately knew it was my Rhode Island Red. She follows me everywhere.
It would have made a cute picture, but here’s the thing: you don’t want chickens tarrying too long in one place because they are famous for frequent and abundant droppings.
The Rhody is the most personable chicken in my flock and the one I handled the least when I cared for the flock of baby chicks in a tub in my kitchen. However, the chicken I handled the most from my tub of baby chicks was the yellow Buff Orpington, and today she’s difficult with the other hens and its also the first to have gone broody.
As I do chores around the farmette, the Rhody keeps me company. When I go inside to work in my office on my writing projects, she often hangs out under my office window, clucking or making an number of various chicken sounds. She also responds to my voice when I call out her. If I had it to do over again, I’d have a whole flock of Rhode Island Reds, just for the personality.