eggs and hens

First, a picture of our approximately $357 egg, laid on Sunday, April 5th 2009.


Damn, chickens are LOUD when they get all proud about the eggs they've been laying! I had no idea. Everyone always seemed a little surprised at how quite and cute ours sounded. They hadn't started laying EGGS yet, and announcing it proudly and loudly the world. Thank goodness it's not as loud or early as a rooster's crow. It makes me giggle when I start to hear the classic "CLUCK-cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-CLUCK" of the hen call and I can't wait to run out and raid the nest. It now happens 3 or 4 times a day, and each time there is a new egg sitting amongst the golf balls and plastic chicken eggs that I hijacked from my children to fill the nest. Will it ever get old? Will I ever not get excited when I hear that call and just let the freshly laid egg stay nestled in that warm little nest for a while? Maybe, but for someone who's new to this hen business it may take some time before the excitement wears off.

We decided to get two more hens, a couple of Ameraucanas. They are smaller and a little scraggly, poot little girls! My big brootish ladies keep picking on them, too, as they are trying to figure out their pecking order. Every day that goes on seems a little bit smoother, though. I sure hope all of this picking is over with soon! I am tired of being the intervening "rooster" trying to mediate the fighting. The new girls lay blue-green eggs. Our current ladies all lay brown. We got 5 in one day the other day, and I think that will be the norm once everyone adjusts and settles in. Yesterday we only got two and I think it will take a while for the stress of the newbies to wear off and for everyone to get in their natural groove again. 5 a day! That's, um, just about 3 dozen a week! We decided to sell the extra 1 - 1.5 dozen we will be getting so that we can supplement the cost of the organic feed and make the whole venture more economical. Gimme a holler if you wanna buy some eggs, yo!

So far (roughly):

Coop = $200.

chicken tractor = $50.

Chicks = $12.

New layers = $30.

Food = $65. (the price has jumped to about $17 per 5 weeks. Only organic whole grains)

Total = $357.

# of eggs thus far = 29

Cost = APPROX $12.31 per egg.

Victory Gardens in San Diego

As per Jeremy's last blog, here's some info on Victory Gardens in San Diego! I heard the tail end of These Days on NPR this morning, and they were talking about Victory Gardens and other gardening goodness. Here's the transcript.

Mindy Swanson was a guest, and she is the coordinator for Victory Garden's San Diego. There's a ton of helpful links on that site. It's encouraging to see the movement here in San Diego towards food, not lawns.

We personally are trying to eat all the lettuce that's growing in our garden. It's overwhelming us, and our plot is pretty small! Here are some recent photos.

We've recently planted potatoes and zucchini in the back, and our strawberries are getting ripe too! yum.