Princess Layah makes headlines in another blog

Princess Layah, one of our two sex-linkeds, began sitting on eggs in a nesting box without moving, even for food and water, about a month ago. Jemi turned to the many chicken guidebooks that Elizabeth was given for Christmas, but kindly left here for our use in tending her small flock. Then, having identified the behavior as "brooding," Jemi turned to Wendy, who gave us our four hens last summer, to get her take on this behavior.

Here's what Wendy wrote after offering advice through a few private exchanges:

http://simplethrift.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/lesson-277-its-what-mothers-are-programmed-to-do/

Note: the photo in Wendy's post is NOT our bird, but we recognize the intense expression, plus can imagine a similar low grumble, though Layah hasn't pecked any of us...yet, anyway. (It's VERY obvious why grumbling, sulking and intense dark behavior in humans is known as "brooding").

And many thanks to the person who, through Wendy, offered us fertilized eggs. With a fox prowling the South End again, not sure Jemi could handle the anxiety of a real brood, though.

The Incredible Healing Eggs of Winter

This is the egg once it thawed....

But this is what it looked like when it was found...

The Winter of 2011 is proving challenging, because of the heavy snows and position of the chicken coop in the middle of our yard in deep snow. An electric warmer keeps the chickens' water from freezing, the coop has been insulated with plastic loosely enough to allow ventilation, and snow itself is an insulator as it builds up on top of and around the coop. We also are careful to keep a thick layer of hay, giving the hens a dry surface for walking and cushion for their nesting boxes. (Our "girls" are no dummies, sharing use of the same box (out of three) most of the time, we're guessing because it's been warmed by the previous hen.

Failure to gather eggs in time, however, has led to some of them getting cold enough to freeze and split, which afforded us the opportunity to observe this "healing" phenomena. Alas, my photos aren't great, but I think you can see that the egg was split, when retrieved, though not leaking...the internal membrane intact. After about half an hour in the warm house, however, and "Voila!" the sections realign and the cracks are only BARELY visible!

Two Eggs are Better than One

This was our first double play. A good chance to compare the different styles of egg from our two types of hens. Later, I caught one of our black sex linked hens, Omelette to be specific, "in flagrante" and the egg that was left behind was one of the smaller, browner ones. Eleanor, who presides over the coop most days, is convinced that she was just sitting on a previously laid egg and that my intrusion scared her off.

If only we had time to advocate!

First, a look at one man's attempt to bring absolutely LOVELY chickens to his front yard in Manchester, NH:

http://nhpr.org/urban-chickens-manchester

And then the City's refusal last night to allow the chickens:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2010/11/11/nh_city_nixes_manchester_chicken_proposal/

Will the neighbor who is complaining REALLY be more bothered by these designer hens than by a multi-occupancy home in his neighborhood???

REALLY appreciated one local advocate of Personal Liberty saying that this man should tell the City of Manchester to "Cluck off!"

November 8, 2010 An Egg!

We left Elizabeth's four hens in the very able and loving care of neighbor Laura Morrison while we visited Rick's family in Florida for his Dad's 90th Birthday. When we returned from Florida, Jemi discovered this first egg, neatly deposited in the nesting box. Alas, probably due to the lack of hay in the box, the end of the egg was damaged.

(Technically, this may be the second egg, actually, because Laura reported seeing a broken shell in the coop).

The great news, however, is that there's been one egg a day ever since! No way to tell exactly which chicken is laying them, but we'd guess it's Omelette-dala or our other Sex-Linked, Princess Layah, since they seem larger and more mature than the two Golden Comets.

Such lovely brown eggs. Beautiful work, ladies! (And a yummy egg sandwich for Eleanor and Mom's lunch).

Historical Photo--Chicken Coop 1940s

Recently Grandma (Sally Humphreys Nicoll), who grew up in our house, produced this small snapshot from the 1940s of girls at play in the snowy yard of 233 South St., where we live now. Of greatest interest to CHICKEN SCOOP readers, however, is the impressive chicken coop that used to extend from the back of our house. After use as a coop for generations, it was used to store furniture, and eventually was lost in a fire (much to Grandma's mother Eleanor Humphreys' great delight and relief! She obviously wasn't the hoarder the rest of us are).

Elizabeth's Thirsty Chickens!

Daughter Elizabeth's four chickens were particularly thirsty one October day recently, and couldn't wait for the bucket of water to be loaded into their metal water feeder. "The girls" still aren't laying eggs, but they are growing plump, healthy and fluffy!