"The Cock Crows, but the Hen Lays the Eggs"

The month has finally arrived! Not only is Kaarina with child, but our chickens are soon to be as well! One afternoon I came home from work to give the chickens their evening meal and found one small egg laid on the floor of the coup. I had heard the tell-tale clucking of egg imminence from a hen on days prior, but didn’t expect the eggs to come so soon.

A Big Toe

 The next morning I woke early to install the nesting box. We were rewarded with 4 more eggs during the next few days, all of which were the size of a large big toe (or a silver dollar). It sure will take a lot of eggs to make an omelet if they don’t get bigger! We decided to sample the first three eggs by making Egg McKniselys (a family breakfast specialty).

Egg McKnisely (Sausage courtesy of Jyoti)

 Local practices of chicken rearing are as un-intensive as you can get. Every family seems to have a chicken shelter in which a few free range birds spend their nights. The birds spend their days roaming the village looking for food. When a hen becomes broody she finds a nesting spot (probably in a hay loft somewhere) and hatches a brood of 8-10 chicks. She then raises them until they are 3-4 months of age. Many may die of disease or predator attacks. In terms of meat and egg production it is pretty inefficient, but financial input and work invested by the owner is virtually nil.

Memorable First Egg

Our plan now that we have laying hens is to collect the eggs for about a week until we have 15 or so. After this we will try separate one of the laying hens to a section of coup containing a nesting box and eggs. Hopefully she will go broody and be able to hatch those eggs. After the chicks are two weeks old we will separate the hen from them and return her to the rest of the flock. In this way she will return to laying sooner and egg/chick production will be increased. I have not tried this method before, but hopefully it will prove successful and increase egg/chick production in our chickens!