My Girls!

 I am not ashamed to admit it.....I love my chickens.......some more than others. I would like to introduce you to some of my favorites and no I haven't named any of my chickens. They definitely have their own personalities, so I could name them....but I just refer to them by their breed. My first group of chickens involved several breeds.  I used the Henderson Chicken Chart to help me select the breed I wanted and ordered from the feed store. I think I ordered a reasonable amount of chickens the first time, but when I went to pick them up, they had a bunch of chicks left that people reneged on their orders; I felt sorry for the little things, so ended up with a ridiculous amount of chicks. They started out life in my living room, with my husband and I feeding & watering them, wiping their little bottoms. They quickly outgrew the box in the living room - and we moved them to their new coop outside. That was a happy day!

One of my favorite breeds is the Australorp. It is an all black bird, very calm & friendly, a dependable layer of light brown eggs. It is so black, that there is a green sheen to its feathers.

My husband quickly took to the Australorp chickens. It is not unusual to find him walking around the yard, holding one of them, talking & clucking with it  as he sureys his domain. This breed of chicken was developed in Australia, supposedly using the Orpington as its breeding base. That's probably why they are such good layers.

Here are a couple of our Australorps grazing in our backyard. One of the benefits of their coloring is that they aren't easily spotted by the flying predators we have around our neighborhood.
In the picture below, the Australorp chicks are all black with a yellow spot on their head.

Eggs, Eggs & More Eggs!

Well, it's time to gather eggs again! I have such a variety of chickens - and that means very interesting eggs! I have blue & green eggs in several tints along with pink eggs. I'm getting an egg that is so dark brown, it looks like the chocolate eggs they sell around Easter time. The eggs in the picture are from my very first chickens 3 years ago.  I have 11 chickens that have just started laying, so we're getting tiny little pullet eggs - but they're getting bigger! I will add a new egg picture soon. Thank you for your patience as I go through the learning curve with my blog.  Here's an egg fact for you:  Boil older eggs for an easier to peel egg. I don't know the science behind this - but it really works better than the freshest eggs. Try it!

R.I.P. Mr. Rooster

Mr. Rooster is no longer living with Cathy's Happy Chickens. Unfortunately, he ran afoul of Cathy's chief handyman(her husband)who just wanted a little quiet while he slept. Farewell, Mr. Rooster, you were very beautiful - but TOO LOUD! The chicken yard has returned to its usual peaceful clucking and somehow the coop looks a lot bigger without Mr. Rooster in it.  I'm hoping I'll notice a difference in the feed consumption.