Pitiful

That's what it is, pitiful.  Two eggs tonight.  20-some hens, and two eggs.  It's the moult, still ongoing here.

It's about time these girls earned their keeps!

The Boss Man is looking pretty sad with no tail feathers.  I wish the moult would be OVER.

The girls all look great, but I am getting few eggs. 

The two new Ameracauna girls from this spring's hatch are not laying yet. One of the buff cochins was, but I have not had an egg from her in two weeks.  The other appears to be ... not right.  She spends 95% of the time on the top roost, looking down.  She is hunched with her feathers puffed out, but does not LOOK sick... her eyes are bright.  I have picked her up and looked her over twice, but do not see anything wrong.  I keep meaning to have Keith check for a stuck egg.  (he is good at that).  My guess is she is eating and drinking when I am not around, or she would be dead by now. 

The other buff cochin does not appear to be laying.  One of the tiny white hens is laying every other day, the other three are not.  (They include Teeny, and are all four or five years old)

Libby, the black hen, is laying almost every day, but her eggs are usually inaccessible, we have to get a ladder to get them on top of the closet.  The red hen Ruby, the oldest of all the hens and one of our originals, is still laying about twice a week.  Buffy, the Polish girl who was hurt, began laying again, but one of the hens was breaking and eating her egg every day... I would get home and find either a wet spot, or a broken egg and shell.  Now I have not seen one since the possum was killed last week.

In the little henhouse, we are getting six to eight eggs on most days.... but not today.  The only two I got today were from the little henhouse.  Two of the Welsummer girls are laying large deep brown eggs, and I know it is them, because I caught one laying in the rabbit hutch.  Another hen is laying large white eggs in there, so it is possibly the only Wyandotte hen.

She is here with Rocky, they are both pretty calm and friendly... and always looking for treats. 

The little girls, buff brahma bantams, cochins, and cochin crosses, and some home breds - half Japanese half silkies, and the few full silkies I have left, are all laying small to medium nice white or off-white eggs.

We read in our weekly Tonganoxie Mirror last night that 112 families went to our Good Shepherd Thrift Store and Food Pantry for help in the month of September.  There is still so much need for our eggs... so girls

Let's Get it Together!