First Eggs!
Jan and Noel pass a key milestone
Orly:
About two weeks ago, I was helping Monica in Vermadise and I noticed 2 small pinkish eggs in Jan and Noel's pen. They are only about 6 months old. Noel was born on Christmas Eve and Jan was born on New Years. At this young age they wouldn't lay more than an egg a day, so unless we overlooked something, it means that both chickens are female and starting to lay eggs. Yay!
Jan and Noel are important to us because they were born in the middle of winter and survived. By creating a genetic pool within our chicken flock which can produce viable offspring during the offseason we can ensure a 4 season harvest. Since Jan and Noel will soon be joining the rest of the chickens in the big pen we put bracelets on them to tell them apart.
The baby chicks and ducks have been quickly growing. So far we've transfered 20 newly hatched chicks (all named Ebb or Flo) and 2 ducklings (Luna and Darkwing) over to the brooder, but after about 2 weeks they were rapidly outgrowing the brooder--we needed more space.
Luna and Darkwing follow Orly to Vermadise
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We had some big tires around so we decided to make a small outdoor pen for them. We stretched chicken wire across the bottom (to prevent animals from digging under and getting in). Then we put the tire down and covered the chicken wire and half the inside of the tire with wood chips. The other half of the tire we filled with water.
We put the chicks and ducks in there and covered the top with fencing and chicken wire. They have been living in the tire pen for the past 2 weeks and once again are starting to grow out of it. The chicks all have their feathers are trying to fly. At the moment we are working on moving them into a big pen where they can roost. Stay tuned...
Notes From Windward - Index - Vol. 68
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