As many of you have already gathered, I have a very small flock in my backyard this summer. The ladies have names; Gertrude, Mildred, Eleanor, and Henrietta. Three of the hens are Buff Orphingtons (Gertrude, Mildred and Eleanor) and Henrietta is my Araucana layer. The Buffs are supposed to lay brown eggs and the Araucana is commonly referred to as the "Easter Egg" chicken. Her eggs are different hues of greens and blues.
I've been raising these little feathered wonders since they were about 2 days old. When they arrived, they were the cutest little puffballs of downy feathers and made the cute little "peep peep" that all little newly hatched chickens make. I was so concerned about keeping the temperature correct, the waterer clean and fresh food constantly available. We experienced a colder than normal winter this past year and on the nights when it was minus 2 and 3 degrees, I found comfort that the little babies were nice and toasty warm under their infrared light with nice soft pine bedding and each other to keep themselves warm.
Baby Araucana
I watched the little birds grow, shedding their downy fluff for more chicken-like feathers and then filling out to look more like young chickens than little puffballs. I took on the crazy task of wanting to build a chicken coop by myself and I can't believe that I'm able to say-- I actually did it!
Building a chicken coop was a little more complicated than I thought; having never built anything before and my only construction experience being the occasional nailing of two boards together or the ever exciting pre-fab furniture assembly instructions. I started with four 2 x 4's, built a simple base and then just went from there.
Figuring out the gables and how the roof
was going to go
Enclosing the place for the nesting boxes and sleeping quarters
Finished coop!
Move in day for the hens was a little nerve wracking at first. I did manage to get poultry bands on the Buff Orphingtons that first day, since all of them looked so much alike, and I banded them with their names as follows; Gertrude, pink band, Mildred, blue band, Eleanor, purple band.
The evenings had still been very cool and I knew that the young chickens would need at least a few nights with the infrared light to help transition them from their warm place in the house to the great outdoors. I ran an extension cord from an outdoor power outlet to the coop, turned on the light and, like any new mother, checked on the hens every hour that first night.
In the morning, I went out to check on the little birds and found that the light bulb in the fixture had burned out through the night. Highly concerned, but undaunted, I quickly asked another friend who also had young birds about the lack of light and he assured me that the young chickens would be fine without the light now. It also helped that the next few evenings were well into the 60's.
I think it was about 2 weeks before I let the young ladies explore the backyard for the first time and it was so wonderful to see them stretch their wings, run, scratch, eat bugs, do what chickens are supposed to do. I also felt a little melancholy because I knew that other chicks that came from the same place that these beautiful creatures had come from, would not get to experience this type of life. Such is the blessing of having a small amount of birds and not needing to mass produce eggs and meat.
The young birds grew quickly once they were moved into their coop and they started to look at me as "mom". One of the chickens, Gertrude, who had a pink band on her leg, quickly became one of my favorites because she would walk right up to me to "talk" as only chickens can and even let me pet her.
Free ranging urban chickens
I found myself sitting for several hours in the evening, just watching them. I had found a new form of entertainment, Chicken TV! Still today, I enjoy the gentle movements of the birds-- their curiosity of the world around them completely fascinates me and I love it!
After two months went by and it was now July, I started to anticipate the day when I would look into the coop and find that magical of all things when one is raising chickens for pleasure-- the coveted first egg! Weeks went by and I didn't find anything! I was starting to wonder if they maybe wouldn't lay or, God forbid, I ended up with a rooster!
The hens (at least as far as I knew) grew larger and filled out even more and I became even more obsessed with checking the nesting boxes. Sometimes I would check twice a day-- so desperate for that little gem to appear among the pine shavings.
Chickens looking at me like I'm "mom"
I was starting to feel actual despair that there was something "wrong" with my chickens. I had raised them lovingly, talked to them, sang to them (occasionally and definitely softly when I was outside), fed them the expensive chicken treats that my local farm store convinced me through signage that I had to feed them to be happy hens, and kept their coop immaculately clean. NO EGGS!
I'm sure I visited every urban chicken website available to ask when I could expect to find that first egg. What I found was that it varied on so many things and that nature, as she almost always does, would allow the first egg when it was the time for the first egg. I just had to learn patience in a world that demands that things happen NOW.
One evening in August, I opened the coop door to allow Gertrude, Mildred, Eleanor and Henrietta to explore the backyard and enjoy their fill of the locusts that swarm the large maple tree in the backyard and often fall to the ground. As the ladies rushed out to enjoy freedom in the fenced backyard, I stepped into the coop to glance into the nesting box, expecting to see the usual sight of bird droppings mixed with pine shavings.
OMIGOSH! I thought, I see a shell! This excitement quickly turned to sighs as I realized that yes, an egg had been laid, and it was a wonderful blue egg which meant that it came from my white Araucana, Henrietta, but in her excitement to laying the egg, she had stepped on it and crushed the shell. No matter though, I had to get a photo of it regardless of the state that the egg was in.
I gently scooped the broken shell from the floor of the nesting box, watching as the golden yolk gently moved inside the top half of the shell. "Darn!!" I said, thinking that it would have been so wonderful to get to enjoy this first egg-- the reward for all of the nights of worrying, the headaches and aches of building the chicken coop and what I had ultimately been waiting for since that cold day in March when the chicks had first come to live with me.
I carried the shattered egg to the back porch and gently placed it on a small table that I have near the back door. I ran into the house to grab my phone and when I returned, my older pup, Gracie was crying and pawing at the remains of the egg on the table-- attempting to completely erase the memory of that first egg. "NO Gracie!" I said as I pushed her away, "No, girl, no. You can't have this one yet."
I snapped a quick photo of the remains of the egg and then placed it on the back step for Gracie to lap up the fresh golden yolk and completely desecrate the shell into tiny shards of blue mosaic. I then went out into the yard to pat Henrietta, who by now had become just as tame as my first favorite, Gertrude, and tell her what a good job she had done. Heck, I don't know if she knew what I was even talking about, but she arched her back as I patted her and made that soft cooing sound that hens do when they're at peace.
The remains of the first egg before Gracie completely destroyed it
Again, though, I was taught more patience as I knew that even though the first egg had been destroyed, that meant that at least one hen was laying and there would be another egg soon!
Now I checked the nesting box twice a day, but without the usual "glass half empty" attitude that I had a few weeks earlier. I knew that at least Henrietta would be laying again-- I just had to find the egg this time before she had the opportunity to step on it or something horrible happen to it again. I had no idea how long I would need to wait to find this egg, but I was now on an egg mission.
The first egg was laid on a Thursday so the following Saturday I let the hens out early in the morning to enjoy an entire day of freedom (they love that!). I was catching up on yard work that my little "postage stamp" of a yard so desperately needed, when, shortly after 1:00 that afternoon, I saw Henrietta head towards the nesting box from scratching towards the back of the yard. This was not like her usual behavior when she had run of the yard with the others. Usually once the girls are let out they stay far from the coop-- afraid that I'm going to make them stay inside and not get their usual treats of fresh grass and those ever present locusts.
I quietly followed her and watched her enter the coop, go up the little ramp and settle into one of the two nesting boxes that are available for egg laying inside the covered box of the henhouse. I figured I would give her some privacy, so I left her to her musings and went about finishing pulling weeds near the back shed.
Fifteen minutes or so later I saw Henrietta run to join the others in their quest to grab the ripe tomatoes from the well composted plants and I quickly headed to the coop. I peered into the nesting box expecting to see a little blue jewel. Hmm, I thought, nothing. Nothing. NOTHING! NOTHING?!?! My mind tried to wrap around the idea that the egg laying powers that be must be laughing their fool heads off. "Ha!" I pictured them saying, "We tortured you on purpose and were only going to give you one egg!" "UUUUGGGGH," I said, walked away from the coop and went back to pulling weeds. "This is CRAZY!" I found myself saying.
As I was grumbling, I saw Henrietta leave the group again and head back towards the coop. Huh? Maybe she had a false alarm and now this was going to be the real deal. I watched from my vantage point in the back of the yard which is about 50-60 feet from the coop. She again entered the coop door and this time didn't go up the ladder to the covered box containing the nesting boxes. Instead, she dipped her beak into her 3 gallon waterer, took a few more drinks and then ran out to join her group again. No way that there was a egg left behind.
"TORTURE!" I thought, "These chickens are going to make me nuts!"
I finished my weeding and then went inside the house to get fish food for the small pond of goldfish that I have in the side yard. As I walked by the chicken coop to get to the pond, I happened to glance at the floor of the chicken coop. "What the what?!" I thought. Was that what I thought it was?! It was! A perfectly formed, perfectly small, perfectly blue egg! Henrietta's egg! She hadn't tortured me, she just needed a drink to help finish the process of laying! I was beyond excited!
Henrietta's 2nd, Perfect, Egg
I immediately snapped a photo of the perfect gem and then sent it to everyone I could-- even going to Facebook to post the picture. This was big stuff! The second egg and this time it was whole and it was perfect! I gingerly picked up the egg and even went next door to show it to my neighbors, almost shaking with excitement that I had been gifted this perfect creation. They nodded empathetically-- I'm sure thinking, she's nuts, and then I took the egg inside to place into the purple ceramic egg holder I had gotten for this exact occasion when the chickens had finally started producing eggs.
I had intended on blowing out the first egg that was lain and saving it, but the 2nd would do just fine so that's what I did a few days later. I was able to get both the white and yolk out and had it, with another gem Henrietta laid a day or so later, for breakfast one morning. They were the most delicious eggs I have had in a long time!
Fast forward another few days to the present day and the Buffs have still not started laying yet, but Henrietta lays an egg at least every other day and I know that it's her eggs because they are blue. I'm sure this is another lesson in patience and I know the others will start when it's the right time, but in the meantime it looks like Henrietta has risen to the top spot of Favorite Chicken. What a crazy ride it's been and I can't wait to see what happens next!
So long for now from the Urban Zoo!
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