These extraordinary chickens just arrived on our doorstep on Thursday and already they have gifted me with not one, but TWO eggs!
Now what should I do with them? I know I have to save them for Harry and Ben to see before I make any decisions, but then after that?
I’m thinking that I should just eat them simply, as scrambled eggs for breakfast. But what if Harry and Ben want some? No. Harry doesn’t even like eggs unless they’re cooked into something. Ben will probably be disgusted because he has seen the chickens poop.
Yeah, that’s it. They won’t want any eggs anyway.
Besides, I’ll just tell them the chickens meant the eggs for me. After all, I’m the one who has been sitting in the red chicken chair keeping them company and telling them about their new family.
Of course, that begs the question of the third egg. There are three chickens and there were only two eggs. One chicken must be holding out on me. Where is the third egg?
And who is the slacker?
Hi! I'm Robin Ripley author of Wisdom for Home Preservers, published by Taunton Press. I am also co-author of Grocery Gardening. Bumblebee is about my life in rural Maryland, my garden and my love of food, my little dogs and pet chickens. You can follow me on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook. Thank you for visiting!
by RSS |
by email
To get the latest Bumblebee posts in your email box, just enter your email address.
Baking
Birds
Blogging
bluebirds
brother
bulbs
cake
chicks
daffodils
Dogs
Easter egg chicken
eggs
fall
Flowers
food
garden
garden seating
gloriosa superba Rothschildiana
Grocery Gardening
hellebores
hens
Johnny Cash
Lowe's Creative Ideas
Memphis
Meredith
Miss P
Moss Mountain Farm
My DIY Summer
P. Allen Smith
Palazzo di Pollo
Papillons
Philadelphia Flower Show
Polish chicken
potager
Recipes
rooster
Sarah
seasons
snow
Sophie
spring
T. Boone Chickens
Vegetables
winter
wisteria
Congratulations on the first eggs! Whip the eggs up into an omellette so there’s enough to share. No wait, that won’t work, your son is a teenager. I’ve got it: make the omellette & offer each of them a taste.
How does that work? Does each chicken lay one egg per day or what?
Seriously, these chickens won’t lay every single day. But with three chickens, I expect a couple of eggs a day as long as they are happy. I’m not sure they can keep it up in the cold weather.
Robin
Who is the slacker, indeed! ROFL. From gratitude to “Hey, wait a minute!” in two seconds flat.
If it were winter I’d make a nice eggnog spiced heavily with brandy of course.
Congrats on the first eggs!
Such fine looking eggs! Indeed, who is holding out on you? I’m sure two of them look proud and one is sorta hiding from you, that’s the one not laying the eggs.
Enjoy them no matter how you cook them!
I chuckle at the image of you sitting in that chair, bonding with them.
Well, it’s true, I have been sitting in the chair and visiting. The more time you spend with them, the more tame and friendly they are. I already see a difference in how they respond to me and the little dogs.
Robin
eureka! Fresh eggs! And what are the layers names?
the red chicken chair
That’s funny.
Love the red chicken chair! I vote you use the eggs to make creme brulee.
According to WikiAnswers, an average hen lays, on average, 200 eggs per year. So that hen wasn’t holding out on you, it just wasn’t her day.
Right, I was just kidding, of course. I expect I’ll get about 2 eggs a day from the three hens.
Robin
Oh, they will taste so good. I see a frittata in your future, Sweetie.~~Dee
and they’re those nice brown eggs too–my favorite. Way to go girls!
Robin, I will forever have an image of you in the red chicken chair, helping the new girls adjust!
gail
Your chickens look exactly how are chickens looked. When we got them 2 of them were already laying, one of them was a ‘late layer’. She soon started laying, too. We would get anywhere from 1 to 3 eggs a day from our 3 chickens. Just depends on their egg cycle. Love your red chicken chair! I may take up the idea when we get chickens, again. (maybe a green chair, my youngest LOVES green) It just isn’t our chicken stage of life right now. (I found out AFTER I got the chickens that in our neighborhood you are only supposed to have ‘domestic’ pets)
The photo and the phrase ‘red chicken chair’ are a killer combination, Robin – I can’t figure out why it’s so funny but can’t stop laughing. Do you sing “Old Macdonald’s Farm” to them?
Frittatas and omelets sound delicious, but the experts will advise you to hold off on boiling them for egg salad… fresh hard-cooked eggs are supposed to be more difficult to peel than those that are a few weeks old.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
I just found your site, what a wonderful garden! I have always dreamed of a garden with a fence like yours.
Wonderful!!
That is just too cute!!! Do they talk back to you yet? I love to hear chickens make that talking sound.
Robin, I don’t know much about chicken egg-laying but I’m impressed with your red chicken chair. LOL!
I’m LOL at the image of you keeping the chickens company in that red chair!
I LOVE your blog. I want to live in the country and have chickens so bad:)
I have so enjoyed reading about your adventure into chicken ownership. I have always wanted chickens but live within the city limits and my Dearly Beloved will not let me buck the system to have them. SIGH~~ I will vicariously enjoy them through your posts.
Thanks, Lisa. Frankly, I’m amazed at the number of people who have expressed an interest in having chickens. I must think about why that is the case…
Robin
I know you don’t really sit in that chair. Do you?
And I’ll take my eggs over-easy please, with homemade biscuits and some red-eye gravy and a full glass of cold milk fresh from Betsy.
TC, I absolutely DO sit in the chair. I make a point of visiting with the chickens several times a day. They are quite tame and used to my presence now.
Robin
a chicken came to roost in one of our cedar trees early last summer. we fed her and watched her carefully. we never learned how she got here. i named her matilda and grew so fond of her. she visited neighbors in our cul de sac, too, and eventually made a nest of sorts on the side of one nneighbor’s home. she laid many eggs there, and the kids loved her so the family decided to keep her as a pet and confine her. they built her a coop and later bought her a couple of friends. a month or so ago a raccoon dug under the wiring on the side of the coop and entered it to kill them all. we have grieved for our matilda who i wish so much had remained here with us. i had learned online about the need to put wire about 12 inches deep in the ground all the way around the coop and under the flooring) to prevent this from happening when we considered keeping her as a pet. i knew she would not be safe roaming the neighborhood with the coyotes and raccoons here in the green belts. apparently our neighbors did not know about securiing the coop and i didn’t think to tell them since one of the adults in the home grew up with chickens at her home.
i hope your coop is protected. the privacy fence served as no protection, of course, from the raccoons who roam freely.
i wish i were brave enough to get a couple of chickens, but i am afraid i would worry so much i’d ruin the pleasure of having them. good luck to you and yours…i am a bit envious, and i miss matilda very much. 🙂
The Eglu closes up at night with a little door. I think it’s safe. And the run has an apron around it to prevent digging intruders. I keep the whole thing near the house where predators are less likely to roam too.
Robin
I love your whole chicken set up. Our henhouse is not a lovely sight. Certainly not as lovely as the assorted chicken varieties romping on the grass feeding themselves and enjoying the sun. We have a fence, but it isn’t totally functional. They seem to be safe by day and are smart enough to go inside at dusk. And people think chickens have no brains.
I think it’s most important for the chicken environment to be clean and comfortable. Beauty comes last, in my book. That said, I do like beautiful!
Robin
I don’t want to get us into anything unsuitable for children, but how come chickens keep laying if there’s no cockerel around – ???
Chickens don’t need a rooster! But the eggs aren’t fertile, of course.
Robin
The same way we women keep making infertile eggs that do not result in babies. The cockerel only is good for making the eggs fertile so that baby chicks will form. Of course, our cockerels are also good for bringing us flowers and chocolates. 🙂
Egg-zactly!
Robin
I love that eggloo and those chickens! I want some chickens and a red chair to chat with them! From no chickens to many chickens just like that. Are you finding the eggloo efficient? Will they be able to overwinter in it without additional heat? Just wondering as I have seriously considered the eggloo.
Actually I like the Eglu, but it has some limitations. For example, I find that it’s not nearly so easy to move as I had hoped. Really, it needs wheels on the back end for it to work better. As it is, there is the danger of bending the wire run out of shape when you move it.
Heating the Eglu is a big issue on the owners forum on the Omlet website. Some people have come up with ingenious ideas for heating the Eglu. The Omlet people seem to take the position that the chickens will be fine. Maybe – but I don’t think they’ll be comfortable and I don’t think they’ll produce eggs when they’re that cold.
As it is, I’m having a child’s playhouse delivered today and will have heat and a fan installed. Yes, I have fallen in love with my chickens in a short time!
No doubt I’ll be posting about all of this very soon. Just need to find the time…
Robin