Since the Pandemic began, I've spent almost every minute at home. As the days drifted by, I found myself staring out the front window, looking for anything. A squirrel. A distraction. Or better yet, the mailman. I have decorated the front door with colorful drawings and a simple note thanking the front-line delivery people for …
Egg machines
https://youtu.be/_qT89oIaO6w Someone's singing the egg song! Staying at home since the beginning of March has left me an urban farmer's dilemma: What to do with all these eggs? As I have hunkered down during the pandemic and carved out a space to work in my dining room, in many ways it seemed as if the …
Losing Loretta
I've been losing Loretta almost from the beginning. In her first year, she had a short but spectacular laying season. Her rich, deep brown eggs did not disappoint. But midway through the winter break I saw things had gone awry. The feathers on Loretta's bottom, her chest and eventually her legs disappeared. She had already …
An egg???
Every day when I trek up to the chicken coop to collect eggs, I chuckle and remind myself that it's singular. Egg. My Olive Egger, Gigi, provides a green egg almost every day. But Loretta, our Black Copper Marans, hasn't laid an egg since last summer. And truthfully, it's been almost two years that I've …
Difficult decision
Nellie was my favorite chick from day one. I loved cradling her in my palm, and as she grew, she seemed to enjoy snuggling in my lap. Right around the time she started to lay eggs, all of that changed. She started attacking my, my legs, then she would fly up and go at my …
Catching up
My family takes a break to look at the birds.A lot has gone down in the last few months. During the summer, I fell ill. Then when my brother came to visit me during my recuperation, he had a heart attack. Suddenly our house was filled with concerned house guests. And the chickens? They were …
A green egg!
Exactly two days after we received our first eggs from the girls, today we were greeted with another gift.A green egg.I knew Gigi was holding out. With eggs from Nellie and Loretta, it was easy to do the math. Two brown eggs meant we were waiting on Gigi's coveted green egg.In her showgirl style, Gigi bypassed …
Week 19: We have eggs!!!
Two eggs in one day? That's how our first special delivery arrived this evening. As soon and Matt and I got home from work, I went out back for my daily egg check. I wasn't really expecting anything; the last two weeks had come up empty every time. And then I saw it. Nellie's light …
Week 17: Prepping for eggs!
Tonight, Loretta squatted for me! In chicken-speak, this means she'll be laying eggs in the next week or so. For some reason, she wouldn't come out of the coop today. Normally she's the first one barging through the door. But it took coaxing, and finally me just picking her up and putting her outside. That's …
Combs and wattles
In the blink of an eye, my girls are almost grown up! Tonight, as I let them out for their evening stroll, I saw all three are sporting big combs atop their heads. Also, wattles now hang below their chins. The combs and wattles are bright red, too. These changes signify that the girls are …
Chicken Scratch Fever 