Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Coop cleaning day
Whew! lots o poop in there! All surfaces were thoroughly scrubbed, the hens received fresh water, food, grit, shell... and last, but not least, fresh straw in the nest boxes. Wait a minute... WHAT'S THAT! Yep that's right, Gidget laid not one... not two... but THREE EGGS! What a nice surprise! and after four months of store bought eggs, it's definitely a welcome surprise. Thank you Gidget!
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5 comments:
WOW...that's amazing. Is it normal for a hen to lay 3 eggs in a day. Right now only 1 of our hens is laying and it's one a day (acutally it's been so cold her she's hasn't laid an egg in over a week).
Aren't you the lucky one! I didn't know that was possible either. With 15 hens, right now I've got an overabundance, about 8 dozen in my fridge. The neighbor is afraid of them and my daughter has eaten so many, I think she's burned out. I found a recipe on Smitten Kitchen for Clementine Cake which calls for 6, so I'm trying that today. I'll let you know how it turns out.
I spent yesterday afternoon doing the same thing as you. We're having bitter temps for the next few days, so I didn't want the hens to keel over from ammonia from being inside so much.
Oh, I see the confusion. No, she laid one egg a day for three days. I had not even looked in the nest box for several days. I had totally given up on seeing any eggs until spring. With all the moisture we've had, the door to the nest boxes was swelled shut and I hadn't bothered to get it unstuck.
The EE that's laying is so proud of herself... today she came out of the coop all huffy and I knew she must have laid another... sure enough she had. I love the way they announce it to everyone.
My theory is that if hens are acclimated to the cold from early on, they'll just keep laying through winter, but if not, they need warmer weather to get the egg production going again. Alisa, you said this has been an unusually cold and snowy winter where you are in France? and Susan, is this winter a typical one in Ohio?
Oh, silly me! I should have known there was a more logical explanation.
This weather is fairly typical for here. We usually get a couple of bitter cold snaps every winter that come from the Arctic clippers. The local news just makes such a drama out of it. I think it makes one feel like it's worse than it is.
BTW, the clementine cake was truly awful. My husband wouldn't even try it. I had my doubts, but I needed a recipe that used a lot of eggs. Well, I wasted 6 eggs, 12 ounces of almonds, a cup of sugar, and a lot of gas for the cooking and baking process. I won't be keeping that one in my repertoire. ((shudder))
LOL, my verification word is 'skier'. Don't think I'll be doing any of that today with a high of 7F predicted.
OK, I'm just going to come out and say birds FREAK ME OUT. Don't think fresh eggs would be worth it!
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