Yes indeed a little brown egg. I have no idea who laid it. I only know it was not Marianne as her breed lays green and blue eggs. None of them were taking the least notice of this little egg resting on the sandy ground. As I finished talking with them and was leaving I reached down and scooped it up.
Bookman and I were both so surprised, an egg! Imagine that! I know we have chickens and chickens lay eggs, but they are just shy of five months old and while they are no longer little puffballs, the reality of them laying eggs is so strange. An egg! And then the next evening there was another little brown egg in the same place!
We were suprised again because, I don’t know, we thought the first one might have been an accident or something.
So one of the Dashwoods — not Marianne — is now laying regularly. The laying cycle is about 26 hours long. We have gotten six eggs including one today that is bigger than the other ones. Whoever is laying does not like the nesting boxes for some reason. With the help of Google we learned that we have to show them where to lay the eggs and to leave a couple eggs in the nesting boxes. So we put an egg in each box. The mystery layer stopped laying eggs in the run and started laying them in a corner of the coop instead. Same place each time. Progress?
Today we tried to make the nesting boxes more inviting by raising the roof over the nests a little bit and putting a divider between the nests for some privacy. Come tomorrow we shall see if this has made any difference.
We hard boiled all but two eggs we left in the nests and mashed them up shells and all and fed them to the Dashwoods. This is not cannibalism in any way because we don’t have a rooster so none of the eggs can ever be fertile. We have not boiled an egg in over twenty years and quite forgot how. We had to look up on the internet how long they were supposed to cook! And oh, do mashed eggs stink! At least to our vegan noses. The Dashwoods, however, enjoyed the treat immensely.
In the garden today we put up some low wire fencing along one perimeter. Our yard is bordered on one side by a chain link fence that belongs to the neighbor. Along the back is a 3-foot high retaining wall that drops down into the chicken garden. We have some trellis fencing and a gate that we put up when we had a garage. On the other edge is also a 3-foot high retaining wall that drops down into our neighbor’s yard. Here is where we put up the low fence so the chickens won’t leap down into the neighbor’s yard.
Bookman had gotten some tools from the shed in the chicken garden and didn’t latch the gate into the main garden behind him. We had let the Dashwoods out of the run earlier in the morning and it did not take them long to discover the gate was open. At one point Bookman and I looked up from our fence building to see all four of them gleefully scraching in the woodchips and chowing down on grass. We left them to wander around and explore. However, as the day progressed and it got warmer they all went back to the shade and water under the coop.Quite the adventure for the Dashwoods today! They all keep together as they explore. I was watching them for a little while and Margaret strolled down the path and it curved just enough so that she couldn’t see the others any longer. When she realized she was out of visual range she panicked, turned around and ran back the way she had so casually walked. It was pretty funny, for me at least.
Now they have gotten the tast of the big garden, they probably won’t much like being confined to their smaller one when we let them out of the run. But that’s ok. It is the end of the growing season and we have no lettuces or anything that is small or especially leafy that they can destroy. Doesn’t mean they won’t find something else, but it’s a big garden and they didn’t even come within range of the beans today so we’ll take out chances and see what happens.
Biking
Saturday was an on and off rainy day and not keen on having a wet bike ride, Astrid and I stayed indoors on the trainer. We went long like we would have done if we were outdoors, 101 miles/162 km long. I am pleased that it took only 5 hours and 35 minutes. This is good because it puts me in a strong place for training for the 200 mile/322 km race next summer. The Jesse James fun ride is in two weeks and I will be riding the 100 mile route. We’ll see how well I can do on the pavement.
Are you going to sell the eggs? Somehow I missed that vegans don’t eat eggs and thought that was going to be part of the point of keeping chickens, that you got good eggs. I buy eggs from local farmers and can’t even look at the ones sold in grocery stores anymore.
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Jeanne, no, we won’t be selling eggs, too many regulations to have to follow. Most of the eggs will be boiled and fed back the chickens. Others will be given to neighbors for putting up with all our crazy gardening schemes 🙂 We got the chickens for their great gardening contributions: composting, fertilizing and bug eating. So far they are doing a pretty good job!
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Haha! I love the Adventures of Dashwoods!!! I also love your SURPRISE at one of them laying Eggs.
Great job with biking. I’m looking forward to hearing about your next big ride. I will have to live vicariously through you – I’m currently on the injured list (tore my calf muscle playing volleyball). No sports for six weeks. You know that makes me sad :(.
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Helen, I know, we got a good laugh that we were so surprised about them laying eggs! And thanks! Sorry to hear about your injury. I hope you have a speedy recovery!
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Oooohhhhh eggs and real eggs. Not the ones we buy at daily need stores and all that! Very very cool! Green and Blue eggs? I had no idea about that either! All the best for the Jesse James Fun Race! Have fun!
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cirtnecce, yup, Margaret, Mrs. Dashwood and Elinor will all lay eggs of varying shades of brown but Marianne will lay either blue or green eggs, we’ll find out soon it seems! Thanks for the good biking wishes! It is all on paved country roads and a well-marked course with food stations the only thing to worry about is the weather!
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how exciting to make that discovery – and what a mystery to solve. are you going to keep watch on the hens to see which is the layer??
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BookerTalk, we’ll keep watch but since we don’t know what time of day she usually lays chances of us catching her in the act are slim. But you never know!
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Can’t wait to hear who is the early developer in your brood? I hope the others don’t get jealous. How exciting. But, I did laugh at your comment regarding the smell of boiled eggs. They do rather … probably partly why they are not our favourite form of egg.
Are they more at risk from cats in the big garden? Here in our city we have a problem with foxes. Chooks have to be well-enclosed with chicken-wire roofs and walls to protect them.
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whisperinggums, I suspect it is either Mrs. Dashwood or Elinor, they appear to be the most physically developed with full combs and wattles but which of the two I am not certain. It’s funny I had no recollection of what a hard boiled egg smelled like. Just like I think I remember what cheddar cheese tastes like and that the vegan cheddar we make has a similar flavor but it very likely doesn’t and I have not found a non-vegan willing to try it! There are few cats that are left out to wander in the neighborhood and there is always a chance they might come into the garden, but the Dashwoods are only ever out of the run when we are home and they have gotten as large as a cat so hopefully that will make them an unappealing target.
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You guess makes sense? Do chooks usually lay at night? I had them growing up but that was a long time ago now.
I’d try vegan cheddar! Though I have tried a soy cheese and didn’t love it. I don’t eat cow’s cheese for intolerance issues.
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An egg takes 26 hours or so to make which means they could lay at night but I have only found eggs so far during the day but from what I have read it is not common for them to lay at night.
We make our cheddar spread out of almonds, red miso, and a few other ingredients. We make a shredding/slicing cheddar from rejuvalac (made from fermented wheat berries), cashews and a few other ingredients. No soy but if you have a nut allergy you’d be in trouble 🙂
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Almonds and red miso sounds good to me (isn’t miso often made with soybeans, btw?). I don’t do peanuts (which as you probably know aren’t really nuts) but I do do other nuts.
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Oh you got me! Miso is fermented soy! I don’t think of it as soy for some reason though. But it’s not like the soy they use in those vegan cheeses you buy at the market 🙂
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No, you’re right. Sorry, I didn’t intend a gotcha, but just wanted to say it cos some people are allergic to or intolerant of soy.
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I didn’t realize you were vegan. Here I thought your purpose for keeping chickens was to eat the eggs! Guess it’s for bug control? I bet you could sell some eggs, either way.
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Jeane, heh, you are right the chickens are or bug control and composting and their garden digging is good for the soil too. Unfortunately there are too many regulations on selling eggs so most of them will be boiled and fed back to the chickens with others going to the neighbors for putting up with our gardening schemes 🙂
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I guess I must have known that the Dashwoods were not all the same breed, but it must have fallen out of my head — I’ve so thoroughly imagined them as a family!
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Jenny, the Dashwoods are a blended family 🙂
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I can’t believe how completely ignorant I am about chicken eggs. I had no idea that some eggs would not grow up to be chicks, or that hens will lay eggs without mating. Thanks for educating me!
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Laila, does it help to know that I have had a lot of friends admit they thought a rooster was needed to get eggs? It is a result of how far away from our everyday lives food production has moved.
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It helps a little! 🙂
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I think I also missed that you guys wouldn’t be eating the eggs although I know you are vegan. Goes to show you how much I know. I admit I love eggs and can’t imagine being without them. Anyway, so cool to hear about the new developments with the Dashwoods! And, I cannot believe you did more than 5 hours on your trainer. Oh my. My legs feel like jelly after I’ve done 45 minute and I get bored! haha… You are totally going to be able to do your race next year!
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Iliana, too bad you don’t live closer, I would gift you with some fresh organic free range eggs! It helps that I use Zwift (a virtual cycling game) while on the trainer but after a while even that gets boring and I tend to zone out but at least I don;t have to worry about crashing when not paying attention!
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whisperinggums, no worries regarding the soy/miso. Soy is used so much in processed foods in the US that I tend to think of soy as food filler totally forgetting that miso and tofu and tempeh are soy 🙂
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Whereas I am acutely aware of soy because I am intolerant of cow’s milk! Interesting how our perspectives affect us isn’t it?
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Definitely!
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