When it is hot, Mr Tom, my neighbor’s cat, likes to lay in wet patches of grass. I had just watered the crossvine outside the corner of the coop, and he took it as an invitation. Two hens went over to say hi and remind him to watch his manners. He was unconcerned.
I have been expecting Magic the hen to shuffle off this mortal coil for probably around two years. She would injure her leg and not be able to get up on the roost, loose weight because it was hard to get around, heal because she had taken weight off the injury, then fatten up again. She repeated the cycle probably a dozen times over those two years. She was the head of the Faverolles, and the most vocal for treats when she was feeling well. She passed away while we were traveling and our friend watching the animals was faced with dealing with her body (they did great). Because of course she would go when I wasn’t there.
We are down to five hens: three Faverolles and two Black Stars.
My friend let my kids and I come pick peaches from her yard again this year. So many peaches. We sorted and washed, and laid them out to dry on the counter and covered them with mesh to keep the bugs off.
I peeled the peaches with a peeler (blanching is frustrating and hot), and sliced them off the stone by cutting wedges and popping them off as I cut. The sliced peaches went into freezer bags for future use. I boiled the skins and obtained a beautifully colored liquid.
We shared some peaches with the chickens, who loved them so much that I needed to put out one for each chicken so there weren’t squabbles.
I had a bit of a shock looking for eggs in the nesting boxes recently, a very tiny egg.
I found it where the new chickens lays their eggs, so I’m certain it came from one of the Black Star hens. I broke it open and there was no yolk.
Maybe the term fairy egg comes from the thought that something stole the yolk? That would be old school fairy thinking, not the new tiny jingling sparkly fairies. Either way, it is not something concerning for the health of the chicken, just a hiccup in the production system. I do believe I have something going on with egg production, though. With six hens I’m finding maybe one egg a day. It could be that they are all older, 5 years old, well past prime laying. It could be the stress of a new pecking order or the heat. There could also be something stealing the eggs, although not fairies, but likely a snake sneaking a snack.
We now have a flock of chickens instead of two separate flocks.
We’ve been keeping the new hens separate from the existing flock, with just a short periods of supervised time together. After three weeks, we opened up all the inside gates and let them mingle. It was already established that the Black Star hens would be dominant, and the Faverolles would run away if she even looked at them, so there was no reason for her to do anything more aggressive than look. We watched in person for a while, then monitored the cameras for the rest of the day. I took the picture above in the afternoon. The breezeway is the coolest part of the run; it is in deep shade and there is almost always a breeze from the shade of the back woods. The best place for all the chickens with summer coming in. Interestingly, they all went to bed in their separate areas. I was hoping the new chickens would find a place in the large coop (there is plenty of room), but they seem to like the little hen house.
Critters and Craft 