Our new flock of Easter Eggers is on its way!
Someday this week, we'll get a notice from the post office asking us to come on down and pick up some chicks! The postmaster will hand a chirping box over the counter. Other patrons won't even bat an eye.
That's because where we live is out in the country, and loads of our neighbors have chickens, too. They've made that same trip to the post office many times before. While there are farm supply stores around us, they don't stock every kind of chick, of course.
And we wanted to re-up on these chickens that lay blue and green eggs. Who wouldn't want to add that kind of color to their backyard menagerie? The eggs are completely normal on the inside - great golden yolks and tasty protein.
We've bought 20 chicks this time, and we'll raise them until they're pullets (teenagers, basically). A couple of hens in our flock are wonderful mothers - and they won't mind a bit that they didn't hatch these eggs themselves. They'll teach them how to chicken, keep them safe, and make sure they eat and drink. Then we've got some friends who'll adopt a bunch of them. It'll take about six months or so before the babies mature to start laying eggs, and the eggs start off small and often. have double-yolks.
This is our fourth year raising chickens. We don't eat them, just the eggs. It's a pretty easy hobby and a good skill to have... you know, in case of the Zombie Apocalypse :) (Actually, if the ZA hits, we'd probably eat the chickens... but until then, just the eggs!)
Oh yes, this is Johnson, our rooster. He's currently got 10 hens to, um, service. Good thing it only takes about three seconds each. (Insert whatever joke you want here!) He's not too noisy and does a good job of herding the hens into the pen at night (the chickens get full use of our backyard every afternoon - used to be all day, but our 70-pound puppy thinks they're squeaky toys, so...). It's best not to have more than one roo, because they'll fight. That's another reason we prefer to buy our chicks rather than let our hens lay the next generation. One year we did that and 7 out of 7 chicks were roosters, which kind of stunk!