Some of us watch for those first tulips or crocuses to pop out of the ground. Some wait until we set the clocks ahead an hour and get more daylight and some wait until the first day that you can walk outside and smell spring in the air.
This is not how I know spring is coming. I guess you may have figured it out but I know spring is on my back doorstep when I start getting a lot of eggs!! Yes, Eggs!
I went out this afternoon to feed all my girls and I was soooo happy to find 10 eggs! This is a awesome number for this time of year and for having 13 chickens, 10 is a wonderful number to have in 1 day.
Now how do I tie eggs into spring you may ask? Well, chickens stop or slow down their reproductive cycle when they loose daylight. So in the winter some hens will stop laying all together and some will lay every once in a while. Once the daylight hours start getting longer the chickens reproductive cycle kicks back in again and they start laying again. So now you understand why I am so excited about getting 10 eggs. I was only getting 2 or 3 all winter and then the other day I had 5 and now 10!! Yea!!!
My girls are wonderful. Believe it or not every one of them has a different personality. I know, who would think that stupid chickens would have personalities. They really do. Some not so nice and others just totally lovable. The 3 in this picture are Ginger on the left, Sesame in the middle and Sage on the right. Ginger and Sesame are so friendly and Sesame will actually talk to you! I will talk to her and she has her own way of answering back. I always know when she is near me. Mostly all of them will let you pet them. Miss Paprika, aka Paps, will let you pick her up carry her around and she will even help me garden! They are also a lot smarter then you think they are ;)
Here is a real treat for me to show you. Ok, maybe not a treat but let me explain. You are looking at an egg. Yes, a shell-less egg. Every time I have found a shell-less egg it has always been destroyed and I end up having to clean all that yolk out of the nests. This egg was perfect. It was fully formed but just no shell. This picture shows how the membrane is fully intact and why it has a "tail" I have no idea. But this was so awesome to find!
A missing shell is when a hen's shell forming mechanism malfunctions or for some reason and one of her eggs is rushed through and laid prematurely. A shell of an egg forms just before an egg is layed so if it passes through to quickly then the shell never has the chance to form. This is something that is common this time of the year because the chickens cycle is getting back into motion and it can sometimes move the egg faster then it should. Just another piece of information, it takes 25 hours for a chicken to produce an egg. I have read that it takes a bit more but that is an average time.
Well that is my egg laying lesson for today...LOL. I hope you all enjoyed it :] Maybe I will have to fill you in a little more on where your eggs come from in the future. It is really fascinating to know where and how you get some of the items you use all the time and are always in your fridge.
This is a very happy time in our household knowing that the girls are starting to lay again and that spring is just around the corner! Thank you girls!
