First Green Eggs!

Yesterday I got my first eggs from the new Ameraucana chickens.  I'm not sure if they're all laying or just two.  I have four eggs so far.  They are quite a bit smaller than the ISO Brown's.

Now I have to convince them to start using the nest box.

Ameraucana Chickens Buffs and Blues

Here are the 4 ameraucana chicks at 27 days old.  I appear to have two buffs and two blues. Or possibly two cocks and two hens. I'm getting them used to me picking them up and holding them.  They are so curious but very timid.

Ameraucana Chicks - Green Eggs to Follow

These are Ameraucana chicks which lay green eggs when they mature.  This is a basement shower stall which turned out to be an ideal place to start them out. There is a 250 watt infrared heat lamp keeping the corner warm. Two of them had poop stuck to their vents which had to be soaked off. The sexes can't be determined yet so I bought 4 hoping to keep 2. This is their second day of life, March 30, 2013. 

New Dog Learns About Chickens

Storm is a rescue dog so he has a few problems but he quickly understood that the chickens were not for chasing but to be protected. This photo was just after he looked in the run for the first time. He ran a couple of circles around the yard and came back to see if they were real. Even when he first arrived he understood basic commands so we let the chickens out into the yard and only had to tell him a few times not to stalk and scare the chickens. Now he'll stand right next to them and pretend to not even notice.

We just returned a friends dog after minding him for 3 months while they were in Australia.  Even after all that time he still stalked the chickens so not every dog will take to them right away.

First Egg

January 29, 2011 the dark colored chicken laid her first egg.  She has laid an egg almost every day since, except for the few weeks of the molt in December 2012 and January 2013. The other chicken started laying about a week later but her first 5 eggs came out without shells. They just had the outer membrane holding it all together.  One other time she laid another egg with no shell but I think she was frightened or stressed somehow. One chicken lays a large egg almost every day.  The other lays an egg every second day, but it's a huge egg. I let the chickens eat as much as they want so the result is huge eggs. It costs me about $13 to feed 2 chickens for 3 months. They produce 3 eggs every 2 days so that's  90 days / 2 = 45 days  times 3 eggs = 135 eggs or about $1.08 per dozen.

Neighborhood kids started coming around and watching the chickens after school so if there was an egg to collect I'd let them collect it and take it home to eat.  They still come around to look so backyard chickens can hold children's attention long term.

PIerrette Feeding the Chickens

Fern's mother Pierrette feeding the chickens out of her hand, summer 2011.  She was a Paris trained fashion designer with her own shop so no ever expected to see this photo! She returned for the last time in summer of 2012 and collected an egg from nest box and enjoyed their eggs several times during her stay.  She passed away December 20, 2012, she will be missed.

Day old chicks

Day old chicks arrive April 15, 2011. They will never be that cute again. By next day they start to grow feathers and get bigger.