Day 176

We knew that our chickens would produce eggs. Hopefully, we would be able to fulfill our own family’s egg intake and have enough left over to share with family, friends, and the community. What we didn't know was just how many factors played into their egg production. Being newcomers to chicken caretaking, I assumed a chicken lays an egg when it lays an egg. I didn't think much more of it.

Until we started researching and actually living the life of a chicken caretaker.

We first researched chicks considering we started our chicken collection with ten chicks at just one day old. We knew it would be a few months before we could expect them to produce eggs for us but while we waited,w e could provide them with a life that would increase their productivity. They would need proper nutrition, socialization, and enrichment. It was clearly more than my initial understanding of “they lay eggs when they lay eggs.”

We did our best at raising chicks through the entire home remodeling process, which I am sure caused stress for our little feathered friends. Despite that possibility, we were overjoyed when our eggs started to arrive. 

It wasn't just white eggs like the grocery store. We had dark brown eggs, tan speckled eggs, and smaller ones with a greenish hue. They weren't always pretty as they were sometimes crusted with dirt, wood shavings, and other more unmentionable material.

We also found out we weren't the only happy ones. Apparently, chickens love eating eggs. Though it seems kind of cannibalistic, they are known to peck open and eat eggs they did not lay. We tried to avoid this by trying some tricks, including putting golf balls in their nesting boxes to mimic eggs for those who don't lay and to prevent those from pecking. Luckily, we had plenty of golf balls to spare.

Egg collecting became a daily chicken chore and oddly, kind of something we looked forward to on a daily basis.

We seemed to have happy chicks as they laid eggs consistently. 

When we increased our flock, we wondered how this would impact the current girls and how our new friends would respond.