Hello! Greetings from Musgrave Farms! Er, well, not a farm exactly but a rather large yard. I've embarked on an adventure in chicken ownership and thought I would share with you all! Fun, right? No? Well give me a chance at least! Gosh! So on April 3, 2013 we picked up these five wee baby chicks from our local (45 minutes away) Farm & Fleet store.
Aren't they adorable? Five baby girls. One Rhode Island Red (Rose), one White Rock (Sunshine), and three Black Australorpes (Caterpillar, Birdsbun, and Clucky).
Here is my two year old daughter, Vivian, holding the chick that will later be known as Birdsbun. Vivian has not quite figured out at this point that the chicks won't hurt her and are in fact completely defenseless. When she finally does figure it out she starts squeezing them Lenny style and trying to give them rides in her toy Diego dune buggy of death.
Oop! Look at that cute fluffy bird tush! The main reason we got these darlings is so that we could have our own home grown supply of organic eggs. So there won't be a post down the line about how we ate them (the chickens). They are our pets as much as our dog Mona is. I got a late start on this blog so I am catching you up with this post.
The chickens were hatched on 4/1/13 so they are now about a month old. Look how much bigger they! Our girls are growing up *tear*. They'll start laying eggs at around five months old, so in August we'll hopefully be doing a daily gathering of five beautiful brown eggs. Yes, they all will lay varying shades of brown eggs. Eggs!!
Here are Clucky, Birdsbun, Caterpillar, and Sunshine out enjoying the day this past weekend. They like to hide underneath the kids' picnic table while they scratch and peck at the ground. They are awfully funny to watch. Evelyn unearthed a worm and offered it up to them. Caterpillar promptly gobbled it down. It was thrilling! Is it sad that this is what thrills me? Anyway...moving on...
Here is Rose, Sunshine, and Clucky. Clucky and Sunshine look like they want to climb in my lap, which they do pretty often. I'm their mama. I think they bonded with me when they were chicks because I was the only one not trying to shove them into a doll house or a Barbie Corvette. So that's it for this post. I'll leave you with a few fun facts about chickens. Next installment will feature THE COOP BUILDING PROJECT! Also, I"m sorry if this blog doesn't look very professional. I don't know what I'm doing. Thank you for reading.
A hen lives an average of 5-7 years, but can live up to 20 years.
Normal human body temperature = 98.7. Normal chicken body temperature =102.
A rooster takes 18-20 breaths a minute; a hen takes 30-35.
Unlike typical birds, chickens are not capable of sustained flight.
Chickens can lay colored eggs: white, brown, dark brown, shades of green, pink hues, & blue.
Depending on the breed of chicken they will have 4 or 5 toes on each foot.
Hens don’t require a rooster to lay eggs.
Chickens purchased at the grocery store (for food) are 5-8 weeks old.
Americans consume 8 billion chickens a year, for food.
Eggs are one of the best sources of protein.
The entire process for a hen to lay an egg takes 24-26 hours.
In 1979, the World Record was set by a White Leghorn who laid 371 eggs in 364 days!!!
Eggs have a natural protective coating called the "bloom", which protects the yolk from bacteria.
The fresher the egg, the harder it is to get the shell off after it is boiled.
"Alektorophobia" is the fear of chickens.
In the19th century in Ireland, a farmer could be put in jail for washing eggs.
No comments:
Post a Comment