Feathered Friend Friday

Welcome to our series "Feathered Friend Friday." Every Friday I write a post with interesting facts, photos, or funny stories about my chickens and guineas. If you need to catch up, you'll find all the Feathered Friend Friday posts here.

Four of our hens will be turning three in August. Everything I've read says hens lay best in the first 18 months or so then it's a gradual decline from there. Lately, things have become a little unpredictable with their laying schedules, and Chickabod is the most recent one to have some issues.

She has laid tiny little eggs before (people in the know refer to these as "fart eggs") with no yolk just a little bit of white, so when I got one of those from her last month I didn't think much of it. But after that tiny egg, she stopped laying altogether for over a month. I was really worried because typically that is the first sign that there may be something wrong. I watched her closely and she seemed to be healthy and normal, so I just waited it out. I've heard of hens going on "egg strikes" before but it had never happened to mine.

Finally, she started laying again a couple of weeks ago, and I breathed a sigh of relief. She had to lay a few practice eggs before she got it just right.

Fart egg on the left, normal sized egg on the right.

The tiny eggs are so cute I don't want to crack them open! But I am curious if there is yolk in any of them, so sooner or later my curiosity will get the best of me.

It also appears that one of our new pullets is laying. We've found four smallish cute eggs in the nesting box over the past week or so (normal sized egg on left for comparison).

Not sure who is laying them, so I've been doing some investigative work to get to the bottom of it.

They wouldn't talk, so I'm off to explore other potential leads.

~Tammy

Like Us On Facebook!

After several requests from friends and family, I made a Facebook page for Our Neck of the Woods. I will link all new posts to Facebook so if you like the page, you will see updates right in your news feed. This way there's no excuse not to read! :)

To follow us, you can go here and hit the like button, or simply click the like button in the right sidebar here on the blog.

See you over on Facebook!

~Tammy

Duchess, One Year Later

It's hard to believe, but we've had Duchess for over one year. June 18 was the actual anniversary but somehow I missed it. Lately I've been remembering the past year and thinking about how far she has come.

When we first brought her home, she was absolutely terrified of us and everything around her. She always kept her head down but would constantly keep her eyes on us to make sure we weren't getting too close. If we got in her personal space, she would run the other way.

It literally took her about 3 months before she would let me get near her. In those first months I just tried to provide a peaceful home for her. I talked quietly to her and gave her some space. I didn't push her too hard.

Eventually she started to open up a little bit, meaning she didn't run away at the sight of me. It really was baby steps with her. I just kept trying to prove to her that she was safe here and no one was ever going to mistreat her.

After about 4 months she would let me get close to her and I started giving her hugs. She would not look at me, but would stand still while I hugged her and talked to her. I was determined to turn her around and show her a happy life.

From about 6 months on she really started to open up. She became more playful and trusting with me. She was still terrified around David, though. He didn't spend as much time with her as I did, but I also started to suspect that maybe she's had bad experiences with men in her past.

Lately she has really been blossoming. She will go on walks with David and she always gets so excited and jumps around when we grab the leash and ask if she wants to go on a trail. She even takes treats from him now! She's become quite the master at digging holes, too.

I'm just so happy that she's finally comfortable here with us and knows that she is safe. More of her playful personality keeps coming out everyday and I can't wait to see where she is next year.

~Tammy

Rainy Days and Mondays Always Get Me Down

Rainy days used to get me down, but now I am rejoicing because we finally got a good rain last night. I remember looking at the clock thinking, "Wow, it has been raining for one whole hour!" then another hour passed, then another. I don't even remember the last time it rained at all, let alone for hours on end.

Of course when I was a child I was upset when it rained because that meant I couldn't go outside and play. But now I understand how important rain is and I never curse the rain gods (well, maybe I did a little last year when we had a crazy flood and my basement got full of water when we were under contract to sell...but that's another story).

For the most part our plants are loving it. This morning the black-eyed susans were looking fabulous.
 

Some plants didn't fare quite so well, though. Being so tall, the canna lilies (or "cannies" as my grandma calls them) didn't have much of a chance against the weight of the hard rain.

Some of the four o'clocks cowered under the rain as well.

Under normal circumstances, with a rain like this our creek would be full of rushing water (like it was here), but this morning it was bone dry.

Seems like around here it's always one extreme or the other. Record-breaking floods last year, record-breaking drought and heat this year. I guess that's what we get for living in Missouri!

~Tammy