Chicken Update: Eggs For Sale!!!

It's true!  The chickens are finally starting to earn their keep!  They are laying eggs, some of them are anyway.  Here is one of our Buff Orpington's hard at work in one of the next boxes.  We are getting 7-8 eggs/day and I have even sold a few dozen so far.  This will help pay for their grain, which surprisingly is not cheap.  Don't worry Ed, I am not stealing your egg customers at work.  :)

I clean out the coop once a month and lay fresh straw down.  This is one of the chickens' favorite times because the hay is all fresh and fluffy and they love to scratch around in it and nest in it as well.

We chose the breeds of chickens that we did because we liked the way they looked and wanted a variety.  We couldn't be happier with the color palette that we have.  They seem to fit right in with each season so far.  Could this photo look any more fall?

This is "Roadrunner Boese."  She is a Golden Penciled Hamburg.  A supposed breed of chicken but I am convinced that she is part dinosaur part roadrunner.  Sweet but weird.  She, during the day, lives with her life partner "SunButter."  See the photo below of the little English Game Hen, that's her.  During the day, if they were to be with the main flock, they would get picked on mercilessly so they get their own run outside.  At night the flock, being more sedate in the evening as chickens are, coexist with them peacefully.  Chickens are fascinating animals.

This is "Pachyderm."  Our Blue Silkie Chicken.  She is a bantie, which is a smaller breed of chicken.  She is named "Pachyderm" because she is grey, like an elephant.  And yes we have a grey house cat named "Elephant."  Gangloff, this one's for you!

This is our "White Capped Black Polish" chicken, "Lola."

A bowl full of fresh eggs made all the better tasting by the varied diet that our chickens eat.  The eggs you get in the store are typically at least a month old before they hit your table and you can tell that they don't get fed what our chickens do by looking at the pale color of the yolk.  Those chickens are not pets and live in cramped pens as well.  Because people ask I will tell you that the only way eggs get fertilized is if you have a rooster to mate with the hens.  We do not so there is no chance of having a partial chicken in any of the eggs.  Plenty of people ask and for all that do there are probably plenty that don't sp there you go!

And apparently an ostrich snuck into the coop!  The egg on the left if a normal, large egg.  The egg on the right is obscenely large.  The other egg would fit inside it.  I feel like I should examine the hens and find out which one had the episiotomy.  Then I would know who "delivered" it.

Here it is in an egg carton for another perspective.  Couldn't even close it!