Chicken Diaries – Part 3 EGGS!
It’s been four and a half months since we brought our baby chicks home.
The chickens are now almost fully developed. Their personalities are really shining through now in pecking order and the likes. We have changed their food to 16% layer feed pellets. The 16% refers to the protein content and it also has more calcium to replenish them while they lose some when laying eggs.
(If you’d like to follow our chicken diary on Instagram search #jbaughchickendiary and/or follow me at DishinAndDishes)
I had my bet on Mabel to be the first one to lay an egg because she grew so fast and her comb and wattle started coming pretty quickly. Did you know that a chicken and rooster both have a comb and wattle and they serve to help keep the chicken cool in the hot summer?
But as you can see, her comb still has some growing to do, so we will just say she’s become the most inquisitive, aggressive, adventurous and how shall I say this….
STINKERISH?
Yes that’s it.
Mabel is by far the first one to run out of the coop when we give them some free-range time…and she’s the hardest one to herd back in…she’s made us look pretty silly chasing her around on more than a few occasions.
But it is this little darling that started doing the chicken dance and singing the egg song earlier this week and exhibiting other signs of egg laying nearness.
Did you know a chicken sings an egg song and behaves quite erratically when she’s about to lay an egg?
Yeah me either, but when you think about it…it’s kind of like giving birth every day or so.
I’d act the fool too!
As you can see Ella’s comb, wattle and the red areas of her face are fully in. She looks like a real grown-up chicken now.
And she gave us this…
Actually that’s the second of the eggs she’s given us in four days so we think we’re on our way to being organic egg owners on a regular basis and it’s so exciting!
We fried up the first one, put it on a plate and split it down the middle that first day.
Because it was the right thing to do.
***UPDATE!!!!
I set this post to publish today but wrote it yesterday. When I got home from work I ran out to check for an egg from Ella and guess who sitting in the nesting box laying?
An hour later we found a beautiful brown egg! Go Mabel!