There seems to be a hen laying double eggs. I’m getting one of these two to three times a week. It does take a bit of an effort for a hen to lay an egg. Maybe I should be on the lookout for a hen who is having trouble walking.
Category: About My Chickens
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Double Delicious
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Duckweed – Desert for Chickens
The chickens are having a party. I hauled out a pile of duckweed from the pond. The chickens won’t dive into a pond to gobble up the duckweed like ducks do. But scoop it out for them, and they will devour it all. The duckweed is full of small pond bugs which the chickens like too. Through the summer months, there is an endless supply to feed the birds and fertilize the fields.
- The Charms of Duckweed
- Common Duckweed ~ Texas A&M
- Duckweed: Environmental Star ~ Rutgers University
- Lemna minor (lesser duckweed) and Lemna trisulca (star duckweed) ~ Washington State Department of Ecology
- Duckweed as Chicken Feed ~ Avian Aqua Miser
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Up You Go
There’s always something new for the chicks to learn. Today it’s about roosting. Their mother has hopped to the top of a roost and three of her little ones are mimicking her behavior. The fourth one is off doing her own thing on the other side of the fencing. At this age, they can still squeeze through the fence wire. In another month, they will have grown too large to slip through. The first time they realize they can’t squeeze through anymore can be a traumatic experience. But they get over it and learn to go through the gate like all the adult chickens.The chicks below are learning to socialize. When their mother stops to chat with company, they wait patiently for her. Having a mother provides so many rich experiences for growing chicks. Too bad we can’t put chickens on a couch and have an in-depth conversation with them. It would be fascinating to compare the life stories of those raised by mothers and those raised without mothers.
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What a Happy Chicken Looks Like
Hmm, so what does a happy chicken look like? What does a happy chicken do?
One thing chickens love doing is being outdoors. They love to meander through thick brush. And they’re not afraid to do it on their own. Chickens are communal birds in that they like to roost together, share a dirt bath, and gossip. At the same time, they need time to themselves. Watching these chickens behave, it makes me wonder how frustrated chickens must be which live in crowded conditions.
Even when they are still very small, chicks will venture a long ways from their mothers and siblings. At times it can be a lot of work for the mother hen to keep track of her brood. This freedom is what chickens crave. They need all this room to roam in order to lay exquisite eggs like these.
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Great Chicken Wall of 2014 part 2
Work on the Great Chicken Wall of 2014 continues. Today I’m hanging the wire fencing on the posts, but before I do that I need to dig a trench so the bottom of the wire can be underground.
Digging the trench brings out the chickens. They haven’t come to help. They are out to devour as many earthworms as possible. Their claws are no match for a shovel which can dig much deeper and expose fat, juicy earthworms.
Even though they are losing some of their pasture, they will still have this meadow to roam. In late fall, after the harvest is over, I’ll open the gates to the vegetable fields and they’ll be able to scratch through them all winter long.
