Egg-cellent Update

We have been covered over with eggs here at Pure Water Hollow! Last summer we changed out our chicken flock with some chicks from McMurray Hatchery. They arrived at our post office June 24th, 2008, so the hens are now pretty much full grown. We purchased breeds that are good dual-purpose birds. Jersey Giants, Light Brahmas, and Buff Orpingtons are more known for their meat, so we weren’t really sure how many eggs we would be getting.

We have 5 Jersey Giant hens, 5 Light Brahma hens, 4 Buf Orpington hens, and 3 Partridge Rock hens from McMurray. I have been very impressed with their first month of laying. (We have since added a couple of Dominique and Australorp hens to the mix, but I’m not sure how many eggs they are contributing.) The first week that they really started laying was 2/15 – 2/21 with 53 eggs. The last week of February was 71 eggs. The next week was 90 eggs, and then last week we got 105 eggs!

I have sold 10 dozen of the eggs at work, so far. I am only asking $1.50 per dozen, but that is $15.00 already, and every little bit helps. Hopefully the word will get out and I will be able to sell many more.

We also have a game hen setting on 10 Buff Orpington eggs, so we will see if we can hatch out some pure-bred Buff Orpingtons. We secluded the Orpington hens for three weeks with an Orpington rooster before using the eggs for hatching to ensure the eggs wouldn’t be fertilized by our Jersey Giant or Light Brahma roosters.

We have also gotten 6 goose eggs now. The first one was on March 8th. They started to lay in a nest in the barn, but have since begun laying in different places. I’m afraid there may be other goose eggs laying around that we have not found. We have found one of the duck eggs, also, but they seem to be hiding their eggs better.

I like this picture of our first goose egg with some of the chicken eggs:



I didn’t realize how much larger a goose egg is than a chicken egg!

I have many more posts I would like to write about our chickens, as I have been enjoying caring for them and watching them very much. Perhaps I will get some time soon.

Thank you, Lord, for blessing us with our eggs and chickens!

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1 comment
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amanda on March 20, 2009 at 1:13 pm
We have had an increase in egg production in the past few weeks as well. We are averaging about 8 eggs a day compared to the 4 were were getting a day. We only have 9 layers.

We just bought 5 more chickes to add to the layers (3 Americanas & 2 Rhode Island Reds). I pray that the Reds aren't roosters. We seem to have an over population with roosters :- (

Have a blessed day in THE LORD!

Amanda <><

Matthew 6:33