Lots of hard work and exciting things to come

For the last few weeks we have had issues with the hens eating their own eggs. It was terrible. We tried many suggestions to get them to stop: adding fake eggs to the nest boxes, covering the fake eggs with mustard, and even filling eggshells with mustard. Nothing worked. We purchased nest box inserts that have a roll away design. The idea is that the hen lays the egg, is rolls down a slight ramp, and is deposited in a place inaccessible to the hen. That worked for us! Yesterday we got one egg but saw the remains of an eaten egg. Today we collected 3 fresh eggs! HOORAY~

Today was also a long and exciting day in the backyard. We moved the coop to a different location in the backyard. We dug out all of the remaining deep litter (a gross and difficult job) and roughly leveled the spot where the coop had been located. This was all done because tomorrow we are getting a huge pile of materials delivered to the house so that we can build a brand new coop for the hens! The gals are going to get a palace. It will be 5 feet wide by 9.5 feet long and 6 feet tall. It will be easier for us to clean but more importantly it will give the hens a lot more room to roam. We are very excited but it will be a big project! Hopefully we will have photos soon.

Photo time from a sunny Sunday afternoon with the hens.

Eggs from Sunday breakfast. 2 are a plain brown and 2 are brown with dark brown speckles.

All 4 hens out in the yard foraging.

Why are the chickens checking out my herb garden? That oregano is not for you Tara and Merrill!

Find the hen! Willow (or possibly Tara) foraging in the herb garden. She was kicked out after this photo was taken.

Merrill (in the foreground) and Henrietta (in the background) scratching in the grass. I know Merrill found at least one worm that afternoon.

A close up of Henrietta with Merrill poking her head in the shot.

Have you hugged a chicken recently? A photo of me holding Willow after she again tried to go into my herb garden. STAY OUT OF THERE GALS or risk being picked up and moved!

Breakfast

Our total egg collection count is now up to 3. Yesterday evening I went out to the herb garden to grab some things for dinner and Tara was in the process of laying an egg. Willow and Tara are ahead of the curve in our mini flock. I gave Tara some sage and basil as a reward for her yummy present. She loves sage and pecked at my hand trying to get more.

Our first egg breakfast. A lightly buttered slice of bread, one egg cooked over medium with the yolk cracked (oozey goodness!), and a cup of coffee. The yolk was very orange and it tasted wonderful! It wasn't much food once it was shared between 2 people but it was still very tasty.

So far we have only eaten one of the eggs. The very first egg was shared as part of a teeny tiny breakfast on Sunday morning. For scale reasons I included the fork in the photo.

A first....

I was finishing the coop cleaning tonight and when I opened the nest box lid I got a wonderful surprise: our first egg!!!

Our very first egg from our backyard hens. It is small, fits neatly into my palm, and is a very pale brown. (pre-rinse)

A close up of the egg once it was washed/rinsed. It is a gorgeous brown color with small brown spots all over the shell.