On the left is the jumbo egg, and on the right is an average large egg laid the same day by another chicken. Pretty impressive!
So here we are with a tape measure. The Mutant egg is 7cm long, while the regular egg is only about 4.5-5cm. What is most impressive is not the length, but the GIRTH. How did this poor hen actually survive pushing this out? This is the kind of monster egg that gets stuck. I am glad that she is ok, and I think she is pretty happy to have it out of her. When we crack it open I will measure the volume of it and count how many yolks are held within. So far I have only had one double yolker, and that was last fall. I also had one very tiny egg that I will have to post pics of on another day. It would have been pretty cool to have both the giant and the tiny egg in one pic with a normal egg.
I had to put in this pic of Ivy (l) and Sammy (r) in because it is cute, and to show that the egg is about half the size of Ivy's skull if her hair weren't poofy.
When I got home from work yesterday and let Purple and the other injured hen out to run around the yard, she kept coming up to me asking for treats. It was pretty cute that she kept following me around and making little questioning cooing noises. Sushi is back with the flock now, and there is another hen who has peck wounds that need to heal. If you remember from previous posts, Sushi had been very severely injured, with her whole back end below the vent pecked raw. Sushi has since healed, and on her own has refused to be crated so is now back in general population. It has been about a week, and she is still fine. I kind of miss her because she was a pretty friendly yard companion. Purple is more than making up for Sushi's absence the last couple of days. While I miss Sushi, it is very difficult to separate out a couple of hens to run the yard without letting the whole flock out. Oh well, she is happy being part of the larger flock, and I am very glad that it seems to be working out.
I have another injured hen, a red one like Purple, and she is being caged now for her own protection. She was healing pretty well, but yesterday two extra hens escaped and were loose in the yard with her and Purple. I haven't figured out a name for her yet, and she looks so much like the other red hens that I doubt it would do me any good to name her. Anyway, the other miscellaneous hen is one of the nasty ones, and she pecked the injured one drawing blood again. Quite discouraging, but now I know not to blame all the damage on Ditto. This hen had plenty of things to do other than fight and peck, but she is just nasty. I bet she will taste pretty good though! Once I get a couple of replacement hens integrated into my flock, I will start culling the nasty ones out. They are not necessary if they are going to injure and kill the others.
The other hen that got loose is Ruby. I don't have a pic of her, but she is one of the pretty ones. She is a sex-link, with black body and red head. Ditto looks alot like her, which is why she is named Ditto. Anyway, Ruby is pretty friendly and was very easy to catch and put back in at the end of the day. If she is always that friendly, I might just continue to let her out with Purple and the injured hen. She has been pecked too, and had blood on her both yesterday and the day before. I treated her wounds two days in a row, and she is very good about it. If I just keep the goop on her that tastes bad maybe the other hens will leave her alone. Otherwise she will have to be crated until she heals too. We will make that decision this weekend after I clean the coop.
I have also just acquired some Easter Egger chicks and some slightly older Americauna chicks. The Americaunas are about 3-4 weeks old, and the Easter Eggers are between newly hatched and 10 days old. There is one chick that didn't come out of his shell properly so he has crippled eggs. I don't actually know if it is a he or a she, but unless I find someone who wants him for a pet, he will be meat when big enough. It is sad, because he walks on the top of one foot, and gets kind of trampled by the other chicks. This is a batch of straight run chicks, so I have no idea how many roos are in the batch, but I don't actually want any. I may keep one if he is extremely sweet and pretty, but I also don't know what the Americaunas are. I wouldn't mind keeping one of the Americauna roos, because he could breed a couple of my existing New Hampshires and make some pretty babies.
The funny thing about it is that my friend who was going to a swap meet brought back all these chicks for me, when I had asked him to bring me meat birds. He thought I wanted the Easter Eggers and must have misunderstood when I told him I had already ordered some and they were coming in May. Oh well, now we have to speed up our plans to increase the size of the chicken coop. I haven't decided if I want the new addition to be open to the old one, or if I want to have the option of seperating the sections. I think a door would give me the best choice so that when I have chicks, I can protect them from the adults until it is time for them to be together.
Here are a couple of pictures of the chicks. Right now their brooder is on my big freezer in the utility room. it is the warmest spot in the house, and there is a big red heat lamp shining on them too. This is one of the smallest of the chicks. Right now I call him/her "Speed Racer" because he/she has the cutest racing stripes!
Here is a back view. It looks like he is getting browner as he gets older.
Here is a pic of an older chick. This guy is about 10 days or so, and a much larger handful!
The last picture I will show is one of the middle aged chicks, maybe 5-7days old. Pretty brown, looks like a wild bird.
Here is a shot of the top of his head. Vere pretty markings, but they don't stay the same as they fledge. Sad that they don't stay so pretty like this, but very interesting.
Well, this is all I have time for today.
Good night chickens, and good night world!
No comments:
Post a Comment