My hens have started their molting time. The coop and run, from a distance, look like there has been a small snow flurry. The hens themselves look moth-eaten and disheveled. Egg production has slowed to a near stand still; I’m getting maybe one egg every other day. About this time last year the eggs stopped completely and they didn’t start laying again until the end of January. That was fours months without eggs. Hello powdered eggs, lets see how you do.
The bugs found the ripe melon. I’m not sure if the earwig dug the hole, or the caterpillars dug it and the earwig was hiding out, but the chickens really enjoyed both the insect and the fruit. I sprayed the remaining melons with diluted Neem oil and Castille soap. Maybe we will get another melon before the bugs do; there are currently two melon candidates for bug roulette.
I made blueberry ice cream the other day and was left a pile of cooked blueberry hulls. What to do? The chickens might like them. It is hot out, so freezing them might be good. I put the strained skins in a paper bowl and popped it into the freezer. When I put out the block of frozen blueberry mash for the chickens and they devoured it. I was hoping for purple stained beaks (frozen blueberries stain my hands something awful), but they were quite clean. It does go right through them, though, so for the sake of their fluffy bum and digestive tracts, blueberries will be a sometimes treat.
One of these things is not like the others.
I had a bit of a surprise in the nest box! A tiny little egg, less than half the size of what my hens usually lay. I’ve read that sometimes there are hiccups in the egg development process and eggs are produced without a yolk resulting in what some people call “fairy eggs”. I had to see if that was the case with this egg!
I broke it open and the egg did in fact have a yolk, just very small. A small perfect little egg. How interesting.
Jade the hen gave me a bit of a start; the back of her neck looked like she had a giant hole. Upon further investigation in the dark recesses, there are new feathers sprouting, so no damage seems to have occurred, just a profound molting event. Interesting.
Critters and Craft 