August Round Up
August has been an egg-citing month and with both Chickie Parents being fairly analytical, we of course have been keeping stats on each hen's egg production not only to ensure everyone is healthy, but also to determine our ROI.
We never expect our backyard fresh eggs to come close to grocery store prices but knowing our egg factories are well cared for, knowing what is going into the production of the eggs, and getting high quality product is especially important to the Californian in the duo. The Ladies are pets. Productive pets. (Not to say our 3 sun lovers aren't free loaders, but their hunting skills and guarding ability have room for improvement.) The hours of entertainment and tranquility that our girls bring bring at the end of the day are perks that cannot be easily quantifiable in our calculation, so even if we end up near a costal farmer's market price per dozen? So be it.
SPOILER: We're not anywhere near that right now because Chickie Momma always wants to buy them treats and extended her monthly chicken stuff subscription another 3 months. Oops, but not really because it's still a way less expensive escape path than say, a weekend out of the country.
So, for the 68 of eggs laid in August here's the break down:
Team OG: 23! It's a known fact that Polish varieties are not that strong of layers and often get a later start so our Amelia? We're not (as) worried that she's a he, and with Mae being a super star layer the team's numbers are solid. Although not a long enough time frame to make a conclusion, early data suggests Mae takes Saturdays off from laying. Team OG is the only verifiable total we have, given that both of our non brown egg layers are paired up.
Team Middles: 30! Vera had a slight head start ahead of Gerty, and with her distinct shell color all 18 eggs laid by Vera are appropriately credited to Vera. The fact she is very vocal when an egg is on the way also helps her accurate stats. Vera would like you to note that one of her eggs was a double yolk. Gerty's shells closely resembled Nettie's in the beginning but with each egg the color darkened and by the end of the month her dark brown freckled eggs were very distinguishable. Gerty likes to reorganize the nesting box hay as she sits waiting for her egg to arrive and after laying 12 eggs this month, a lot of hay has been shuffled.
Team Littles: 15! Nettie woke up one day in the middle of the month decided to lay an egg and she hasn't really stopped since. Her warm beigy pink colored eggs are very round and she likes to take her time laying them. She is often in the nesting box for an hour, hogging the nesting box much to her sisters' displeasure (so much so that Mae actually laid of one her eggs while sitting on Nettie). Ada has demoed her egg squat and frequents the nesting boxes but hasn’t yet produced her first egg. Perhaps all of her running around with Wilding Amelia has rubbed off and she’s just not quite ready to pay rent.
In addition to the fully formed eggs, we've had a few decalcified eggs found in the coop. All the books report that this is a common thing while hormones get in sync. The girls love gobbling up oyster shells and crushed egg shells for extra calcium. Of course they love gobbling up just about everything we give them (or they find in the yard) which is fine as long as they keep producing these fabulous eggs!
