Our laying hens are on their autumn break now; just sitting back, taking it easy and watching their new feathers grow. That’s tough for our egg customers, I hope the flock finish their winter coats soon,

We have a crew of earnest young pullets taking up some of the slack, their eggs are smaller but just as tasty as the grown hens’.

The oh-so-lovely Wyandottes have begun to lay too, like gangbusters so far, three eggs from three pullets most days. It’s easy to tell the gold-laced gals are laying and the blue-laced gals are not, the goldies’  combs are a brilliant glowing red, while the blues’ are still a soft pink.

Hatched April 1, the gold-laced produced their first eggs within days of their six-month birthday, all three starting the same week, like clockwork. The two blue-laced are a few weeks younger, and from a different breeder. Hopefully they will start soon and be as good at laying as their older flockmates.

Now we wait, and give the group some time to mature. This laying cycle will last till August or September. When they are a few months older and their eggs size up, I will try some test hatches. With three lines in the pen, the chicks should be strong.

Although I suppose I better not count my chickens before they hatch.

I am happy to be at the tail end of this weekend, and absolutely knackered too, because this year, I deep cleaned all three coops in a single go. Vacuumed, scraped, scrubbed, power washed, swept, tore out, repaired, refreshed, redesigned and redid; it all got done this weekend.

I like to do my annual deep clean in July, after we have had a bit of heat, because that’s what brings on the mites, and I want to hit those little suckers when it counts. The summer after my first full year keeping chickens, I was unpleasantly surprised by a bad red mite infestation. It was a relief to not find a single mite this year, as I disassembled roosts and pulled nestbox assemblies, to take them outside to scrub. The year round wood ash/peat moss/sand dust baths are helping my birds keep themselves pest-free. The layer of diatomaceous earth under each nest, where my girls can’t breathe it in, is helping too. There was lots of dust and dander, cobwebs and feathers, and of course chicken poo galore, but no pest problems.

I am pretty happy with the new roost layout in the cedar coop, increased from 18 to 24 linear feet all on the same level. (Gasp! room for more chickens?) I replaced V3 broody box with version 4 – this one folds up out of the way against the wall when not in use, and the middle roost is easily removable with its drop in design. It will be easier to clean in there this year.

Of course it was Becky the B (the white, green legged girl, who spends her days outwitting K’s garden defences) and her sister buff Turken who checked out the new digs first. Chickens are curious, and the smarter they are, the curiouser. 🐓

Hatching season started in December this year, when the first batch of eggs went in the incubator for an early January hatch. At the height of the season, I had three incubators and a hatcher going non-stop. My units are small, none holds more than 40 eggs, so I’m not a large producer. But the chicks kept me busy enough anyway, not sure I would want to deal with more.

Now the last few Black Copper Marans eggs are cooking, and will hatch in two weeks. Then I’ll scrub my incubator room from top to bottom and clean and store all the equipment. I am tired of incubating now, but I expect the itch will start up again as January rolls around.