Surprise!

Patsy was making quite a ruckus this morning, and now we know why.

Way to go, Patsy! Way to earn your keep!

It was completely unexpected since it's been about two months since we collected our last egg, and we're still receiving less than 10 hours of light a day. We aren't getting our hopes up that they are about to resume regular laying, but we'll be inspecting the nest boxes for more than just fertilizer in the coming days.

Barbecue, anyone?

As it was Saturday and we were home, we let the girls out to roam around the yard this afternoon. The sun was out and they had a nice time pecking around the lawn and generally making a mess of the hazelnut shells and remnants of bark dust. As it began to cool off, Gary went out to put them back in the coop, but found that Patsy had other plans.

A little barbecued chicken, anyone?

Sunday Afternoon Snooze

The girls take a little snooze in a cozy dirt bath on a sunny Sunday afternoon in January.

January Update

It's been awhile since I've posted. Fall was a tough time for our family, having lost our sweet Simone in October. Without their favorite herder to escort them around and around the lilac bushes, things have been a little quieter for the girls. Time in their coop, time in the yard, scraps of veggies and seeds to eat...overall, a fairly peaceful existence. The only thing that gives their little hearts a jump these days is our cat Millie, who occasionally stalks them from a distance. Once they see her coming, they make a good amount of noise to alert us to the potential danger and run the other way.


We enjoyed collecting nearly four eggs a day from late August until early October. We shared about half with friends and neighbors, and used the rest for cooking and baking. Home grown eggs really are of a much higher quality. The yolks are much brighter and larger, and the eggs overall just taste better. That plus the satisfaction of knowing that they came from chickens we raised in our own backyard has made it a more than worthwhile venture.

As the light began to wane in the afternoon skies this fall, the girls began laying less frequently. We went from finding three or four eggs a day in the nest box, to one to two eggs a day, and then finally to none. The last egg of 2010 was laid sometime mid-November. Digby and Cleo, our two Ameraucanas, stopped laying first, around late October. Patsy and Pinky managed to lay one every other day for another couple weeks, and let us enjoy fresh eggs until almost Thanksgiving.

Although there is a light in the coop, we've opted to not supplement the natural light with photons of the electric variety. We've decided since winter naturally gives their bodies a break from laying to just go with it. We'll let them resume laying when they are good and ready, sometime this spring. We've checked the almanac, and Corvallis will be getting 12 hours of daylight as of March 17th. We'll be up to about 15.5 hours of sunlight as of the summer solstice, so they should be in full swing again by then.

We can hardly wait.