"Our Chickens....."

With this beautiful sunny weather, I've been opening the chicken run gate so that they could have an extended area to explore. The paths to coop, greenhouse, and compost bins are clear of snow and they have been taking advantage of all those areas for exploration.

We got all 4 chickens last Fall. This is their first season to begin laying eggs, which they started about a month ago. We've been getting 3 eggs a day since they began. 3 eggs, each day, and they all looked exactly the same.

After watching them, I finally said to Don, I think our big black hen is a big black rooster. "She" was definitely getting longer tail feathers and was the most beautiful out of all of them......"she" HAD to be a "he". I called David, whom I had bought them from, and he said to bring her/him back and he'd take a look (he has a money back guarantee with his pullets). There was no doubt when he saw him, our "boy" had grown up in his own personal harem. On closer inspection, he was starting to grow spurs, too, which become quite sharp and could be dangerous.

So our small flock became smaller by 1. Did we need 4 eggs a day? No, but he sure was beautiful and of course, the most striking in appearance.

The "girls" were all out again yesterday and didn't seem to have any problem being on their own, although, our Buff Orpington didn't lay her daily egg until later in the morning. Her system must've been shaken because of the stress of losing him. When I wrote and told Don that we only had the 2 eggs from our 2 brown hens and that the Buff hadn't contributed her daily egg, Don said, and I quote, "Maybe she didn't lay 'cuz she didn't get laid".

(Oh, that Pato!) ;)