October 11, 2010: 16 Egg Week

October 11, 2010

Monday, 5:30pm

Ended up with three eggs total yesterday, so that makes 16 for the week – not too shabby for three hens!  At that rate, I’m wondering how many we will get when they are all laying...holy cow!

Two eggs today, Raven at 11am and Ellie sometime around 3pm.  Goldie laid late yesterday, the latest any of the hens have ever laid, so I didn’t think she would lay today.

Yesterday all three laid.  Goldie started announcing at 1:45pm but yet again when I walked out there, there was no egg, not until 4pm.  Silly bird.  Each time one of the hens is on the nest, Farrah is up there poking her nose in, so curious.  Hawkeye sometimes goes into a box and sits down, however, other than that, they are not showing any other signs of laying.  The graphs I have made of laying times are helping me to see the “average” time of day that they lay.  Also the quantity laid also helps me see how they are keeping pace with each other.  They are laying more than the books say they should.  It seems the more I feed them, the more they lay.  They prefer grass and weeds above all else. 

Poor Brian, he got mad last night watching Chanel taking a pounding from the others in the coop come roosting time.  Once he got out of the run, Chanel hopped out of the coop as fast as she could and went back up to roost on top of the nest boxes.  So hard watching some of their crueler behaviors.  Brian wanted to “peck” at the ones pecking at Chanel but I was afraid he would hurt or upset them and they wouldn’t want to lay if they were getting ready to.  It is hard not to interfere with some of their harsher traits, but I try to remember that Nature has somehow worked it out this way for a reason.  I’ve seen just about all of them get pecked at one time or another, except for Hawkeye, however, Chanel has taken the brunt of it on a regular basis.  I’ve been in coddling and petting her more at night.  She gets alarmed at first but then lets out a sort of low chirp, almost like she is telling me her woes but also liking the attention.