Well, it's that time again. Time for the weekly chicken update here at "Fuss & Feathers" homestead. Encouraged by my friends and followers I have decided to provide weekly updates on my chickens here 
The girls for those of you who are first time viewers of the Gazette, Shelly is absent but you can meet her in the next photo
As you know I have been battling a hen who gets broody, its "Brownie" she was separated from here friends but has now been reunited. It only took a couple days for her to cool off in isolation. So far so good.
However, I did just this morning catch Shelly and Sweetpea in the nest box together! Pea was sitting on the egg and Shelly apparently wanted it! I removed the egg from under Pea, placed in the second nest box and Shelly jumped on it. She was carefully trying to nudge it up under her breast to sit on it. Well, I took the egg from her, hope she is not trying to become broody. I will check again later to see if she is nest hogging!
Busted! I removed Shelly from the nest box
Here is Shelly acting like the egg is hers
Sweetpea, Brownie and Shelly are all Easter Eggers, they lay small pastel colored eggs. Easter Eggers are small, the least nervous and are easy to handle as opposed to the Leghorns who are not!
The acreage was mowed the day before yesterday and the girls enjoyed their supervised daily free-ranging outing by chasing little grass hoppers around and pecking at grubs. While turning the compost pile the girls raced over and delighted at the grubs I had revealed for them to snack on. They also enjoyed their dust baths in the field.
Dot, the golden lace Wyandotte is still waddling around with her beak open due to the heat. That's just who she is I suppose, she likes to wander alone kinda like me. She lays nice large brown eggs every other day this time of year. She is still beautiful!
Blue the part Cochin (with feathers on her legs) is doing well. She loves to forage in the leaves under groups of trees, she really gets into looking for tasty morsels. She suddenly realizes her flock mates have moved on and gets panicky. Calling and squawking she sees them across the yard and takes off like a bat outta h_ll! It's amusing to watch her fly a foot off the ground carrying on. Blue, like Dot lays every other day-a nice greenish egg.
Blue looking for tasty morsels
The Leghorns
Blanche is my least nervous white Leghorn. She is still laying daily as are her sisters Maryann and The Professor, they lay large white eggs. The Professor has given us at least 6 whoppers-huge double yokers.
Blanche is a bread stealer, she is so fast If I'm not careful she jumps up and steals the whole piece of bread. I use it as bribery to get them back in their run.
One of The Professor' whopper double yokers
I purchased a 50 lb bag of layer pellets, dehydrated meal worm treats, and hay for their nest boxes and 10 lbs of scratch. Forgot the granite grit. The egg count is slightly up this week to 31.