Found a hen in the street "Backyard Chicken"

[Irving]

I think my Easter Egger laid her first egg today. Easter Eggers can lay an egg of any color, usually blue or green, so I've been very excited to see what she's going to lay. Well, looks like she'd not very good at this, because the new egg I found today is the same shade of brown as all the others. I think it's hers because it's the smallest chicken egg I've ever seen. I figured her eggs would be smaller, but jeeze.

[Irving]

Small update. My easter egger still has yet to lay an egg, despite squatting and sitting in the nest box every day for at least three weeks now. That tiny egg was just my RIR messing around.

I now how four of my six hens laying. Yesterday, my Barred Rock, which I though was only 14 weeks old laid her first egg. Of the four hens that are laying, two did it in the text book style that followed exactly what I read on the internet.
-Start checking out the nest boxed and sitting in there to "practice."
-Once a hen squats, she'll lay within a week.

So I have one hen that has been squatting for weeks. My last two to start laying don't squat at all and have given zero indication they were ready to lay, so I had to catch them in the act.

Here is the Barred Rock sitting in the nest box yesterday. First time I've seen her in there. She sat in there for at least an hour and popped out her first egg.


Her particular shade of egg is a bit difficult to see in the wood chips.


Yesterday we got four eggs. Pretty excited to have full flock of layers. From left to right is:
Columbian Rock, Golden Laced Wyandotte, Barred Rock, and Rhode Island Red.

[Fentonite]

This is probably a stupid question, but do the different species’ eggs taste different?

[Irving]

There are probably people who'd tell you yes, but I can't tell. I always eat my eggs with bacon or onions, Frank's Red Hot, etc so I'd never know.

I think realistically you can affect the taste of eggs by what they eat, but since they all eat the same stuff, I'll never be able to tell.

Now you're making me think I should do a taste test though. Once I get more eggs than I know what to do with, I'll just give you some and let you do it.

[Fentonite]

There are probably people who'd tell you yes, but I can't tell. I always eat my eggs with bacon or onions, Frank's Red Hot, etc so I'd never know.

I think realistically you can affect the taste of eggs by what they eat, but since they all eat the same stuff, I'll never be able to tell.

Now you're making me think I should do a taste test though. Once I get more eggs than I know what to do with, I'll just give you some and let you do it.

Fresh eggs? I’ll make the drive!

[Irving]

It won't be soon, but I'm sure I'll be able to hook you up.

[Fentonite]

Thanks!

[BladesNBarrels]

There are probably people who'd tell you yes, but I can't tell. I always eat my eggs with bacon or onions, Frank's Red Hot, etc so I'd never know.

I think realistically you can affect the taste of eggs by what they eat, but since they all eat the same stuff, I'll never be able to tell.

Now you're making me think I should do a taste test though. Once I get more eggs than I know what to do with, I'll just give you some and let you do it.

I have a mental image of an egg tasting similar to a wine tasting.
Rinse mouth, spit, eat a bland cracker, Sip Water, Spit again ......
Nibble a bit of egg yolk, breathe with sucking sound.....
Smack tongue and lips....
I taste a hint of apple, green turnips, barnyard feces....
Must be a Rhode Island Red, 19 months old, raised in Arvada, once chased by a fox at age 13 months, almost ready for the deep fat fryer.....
Applause, bow......

[Irving]

Or like the milk tasting scene in Napoleon Dynamite.

[Irving]

So now this chicken experiment is entering what I've arbitrarily have named Phase II. Phase I is the part where I don't accidentally kill them and they get old enough to actually lay eggs, Phase II is the part where they live through the winter.

I'm not going to heat their coop. The only thing I plan to heat at all is their water. I planned on having a larger solar panel and a battery bank at this point, but that hasn't happened. What I'm going to do is get some sort of stock tank de-icer that is small enough to fit down a 6" PVC pipe, and run it through the top of the water tank cap. As you've seen from the build photos, the "water tank" is a 6" PVC pipe with a 90 degree bend in the middle. I can empty the whole thing and pull a de-icer to the middle of the exposed portion of the pipe, and I think that will do the trick. The pipe only holds something like 3 gallons. I have a power outlet right next to the coop, so it won't be a huge deal. Any from other chicken or live stock owners on how much de-icer I actually need would be welcome.

Chickens in the cold. Chickens supposedly have a body temp of 108 degrees F, and their feathers are natural down coats. I've read some where that a single chicken can survive a night of some ridiculous temp like -20F, and colder if there are other birds to huddle near. Common chicken advice is to have wide, flat roosts so that when they sit down to put their feathers over their feet, their toes are flatter and the feathers can cover their whole foot. As opposed to if they had their toes curled around a branch and the feathers couldn't cover the part directly under the branch. The other part is good ventilation so all the moisture from their breath and poop can get out of the coop instead of condensing on the walls ceiling and freezing. GilpinGuy can tell you more about the moisture I'm sure. I'll update as winter goes along. So far they don't seem to be phased. I put the wall of the coop back on and it seems to be pretty pleasant in the coop (no drafts).

Wall back on the coop. You can see that the wide overhangs are effective for keeping rain off the sides. Notice the dry patch of concrete immediately in front of the coop after raining all night long.


Chickens doing their thing and not being bothered by it being 38 F and soaking wet every where.