Chickens

We have 36 chickens. We bought eight of them as day-olds two and a half years ago. This year we bought 25 laying chicks and 20 meat birds as day-olds. One of the laying chicks disappeared, so there are 24 of them left. One of the meat birds died and fifteen went to the butcher at the beginning of September. Now we have four left to be butchered, and we plan to try to do it ourselves.

The older hens lay one to four eggs per day between the eight of them, and the 24 younger hens lay between two and six. The eggs from the older hens are extra extra large, but the younger hens have been laying medium to large eggs so far. (By the standards of the regular eggs that can be bought at the grocery store. By the standards of the eggs we are used to from our hens, these eggs are small.)

The shell in this picture is from an egg from one of the younger hens. Though not very large, this egg had two yolks. Since then we've found a few more double-yolkers.

I just took a break to do the chores and found seven eggs from the younger chickens. It's getting better everyday.:)

Justine