Egg laying in our flock of chickens
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Photo: French egg cupboard with eggs from our flock
Zebedee our youngest hen hatched on May 20th last year. The day that Mrs Squeaky Clean died – super clean heroine of all things white. A Garbo of the chicken world. We loved Mrs Squeaky and it was a shock when she died.
The arrival of the new chicks salved the grief and Zeb has grown to be a beautiful back hen. Elegant yet happy to scratch in the mud. She been laying sporadically since the middle of January. Her eggs are creamy coloured with a very pointy end. Hope, the little black and white Wynadotte hen has being laying too. Hope was one of a pair of hens that The Chicken Lady and S gave us a couple of Christmases ago. A wonderful surprise present. Hope lays white eggs which are almost all yolk and perfect softly boiled or poached for breakfast.
Today I found two fresh eggs in the nesting box that did not belong to Hope or Zebedee. Bottom row in the egg cupboard – the giant brown egg is definitely one of Carol’s. She will be seven this year. Carol, a standard sized Maran hen, presented us with a large brown egg most days between February and October last year. This egg is twice the size of a normal Carol egg – perhaps it’s a double yoker?
The other egg is from Thumper, one of the ginger hybrids. It doesn’t take long to work out which hen lays which egg as they are all subtly individual. The gingers are heading for their eighth summer. For the first three years they laid very well and this has gradually trailed off to an occasional egg every now and then. They are so old that their feathers have turned from ginger to a soft apricot. They are pets so they will live here for the rest of their lives. An extra egg every now and then is a bonus. Incidentally did you know that a hen’s eggs get bigger the older she is?
Last year I was given a sturdy crate that had housed slate tiles for a kitchen floor. With a bit of planning this can be transformed into a new chicken house. The local builder’s merchant cuts wood to size, so if I do my maths well, it will just be a question of hammering the walls into place, fitting a perch and a making a nesting box. It does need a hinged door and a hinged roof on the nesting box. I can copy these from the existing chicken house. I love this sort of project and enjoy working with wood. Hen houses are expensive in the UK. I can’t wait to be fit enough to start building my own.
Just before Christmas I sold an old leather cartridge case to a friend – apparently these are extremely popular with the shooting brigade. The proceeds have been saved to be invested in some new hens. Needless to say all these hens will share the same surname to celebrate the sale. It could only really be Case. It will be great fun making up the names. I feel a competition stirring!
I’m not sure what breed we will choose. We will probably stick to bantam breeds as the eggs are yolk heavy and they are not often available in the shops. Also bantams take up far less space in the run. The new hen house could comfortably house 6 – 8 bantams but only three Marans.
It’s hard to believe that we’ve been keeping chickens for eight years this summer. I can’t wait to get the new flock of six Miss Cases – our chickens are a source of constant fun and pleasure. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen garden where their run is located. Chicken lives are complex and packed with daily dramas.
I don’t know how I’ve managed this but if a fight breaks out I just need to step into the run and it stops, the perpetrators look embarrassed and fizzle away. Perhaps they recognise the daemon hen in me.
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Thank you for your comments. And a bit of silly bath time fun with the Frothing Sea Monster trick!
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The cupboard was bare – so what was The Contessa going to eat last night?
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Oh how wonderful to get really fresh eggs and how nice to be identify whose egg each one is by it;s shape and colour.
Oh, there will surely be chief chick, Miss Head Case, and of course the delightfully ditsy Miss Nut Case. Perhaps, with chickens, it would be a step too far to suggest a Miss Basket Case, the connotations might be too painful? The slight but pretty Miss Brief Case? Her ladyship Miss Upper Case? And the subservient Miss Lower Case?
Could you not consider a cockerel? A cockerel called Justin seems too good a chance to miss.
Oh blow, Jackie, I thought that I would be first with Justin and Basket! But you were miles ahead of me with Brief, Upper and Lower. You have a great future as a . . . . something really good
Can’t wait to see your coop. We recently acquired a tile crate, like you, for a chicken coop. I think we’ll wait to work on ours so that we can get some ideas from you.
best regards,
Mindy
Missing from the list is Suit Case, for the best turned out chick in the flock!
and of course, the learned Miss Book Case, and WPC Cold Case.
Hard Case and Soft Case? In Any Case? Each Case?
If you are having a family you could have the double barrelled grammatical-cases
genitive
accusative
nominative
dative
ablative
vocative
locative
instrumental
Not terribly easy on the tongue though!
Sarah
Some more
best and worst case
the rather sophisticated attache case
the more serious legal and business case
the inquisitive curious case
the good layer egg case
the studious pencil case
the show off display case
and if you dare
(Oh dear can you tell I have a research proposal to put together and a severe case(!) of procrastination.
Sarah
Have you heard of the Battery hen welfare trust? They rescue battery hens and sell them on for about 50p.
You could always have a Justine seeing as a Justin will be out of the question!
Lost Case for the one who is a boiled egg short of a picnic.
Needle Case for the prickly one.
and my last one for now – Camera Case for the truly flashy chick.
Nipping in before the school run to add fruit case – nut case’s twin!
What about the Russian Relatives? Incaseov Rain and Fire.
There’s an ongoing debate in our house – to have chickens or not when we move to our barn. I desperately want some, but Michael is not so keen, thinking they will tie us to the barn too much. Everyone here keeps poultry so I’m trying to convince him that our neighbours or their children would be happy to hen-sit for us if we wanted to go on holiday. I’m also keen to get some guinea fowl as apparently they are the very best thing to deal with ticks – and we have a big tick problem here. Almost lost Ollie our dog last year to tick fever, and we don’t want to go through that again. Will you be posting some photos of your new gals when they arrive? I do hope so.
What about Tiffany case of James Bond fame. We have 3 chickens born last spring and they have been laying an egg each every day all Winter. Incredible stamina in this cold weather!
I have not had chickens for almost a year now, and I do miss them like mad. My ex-batties were the life and soul of my smallest smallholding, but I need to give myself (and my bank balance) a bit longer. I get terribly attached to my hens, you see. But boy, do I miss those fresh eggs too. Seriously. People who go for the shop-bought ones – even the free range eggs – are missing a beat! Luckily someone a few doors down has started keeping their own chickens and are selling the eggs from the garden gate. But I hear their hens shouting and I have to almost restrain myself from marching out and bringing home a new flock!
PS, please please name one of your hens Pencil Case. She could become Penny for short, of course.
Not forgetting
violin case (for the Al Capon)
Case in (on) point (of lay)
Some of you obviously just have too much time on your hands.
Brilliant suggestions, all.
Good idea to build a hen house from a sturdy crate. Last year we were given some double length pallets & my husband constructed a very fine hen house, a small open tool store up by the veg patch (with a corrugated tin roof and a water butt), and he even managed an extension to our new wooden garage to use as a workshop. The garage was a flat pack one & he turned the wooden base it arrived on into an impressive 5 bar gate but it doesn’t do a very good job in keeping the hens in, they limbo underneath every chance they get!!
Isn’t it great having eggs in different sizes and colours?! We know just which hen has laid and every egg is a special treat.
I love the name suggestions (very time I think of one I discover it’s been suggested already). Lucy’s Pencil Case is my fave so far
Of course there’s Vanity Case and Watch Case. Spectacle Case and Camera Case.
I’m looking forward to seeing your new hens – what a lovely way to celebrate spring.
Celia
I have ‘carcase’ and ‘fracase’ to add to the mix. Carcase to be given to the scruffiest, skinninest of all – the one that looks most well, like a carcase …ew! and fracase to the ‘naughtiest’ and most likely to cause a …. fracase !
I would LOVE to have chickens. A recent funny moment was when a chicken ran into a neighbour’s house (in France) into the lounge, trying to get the chicken out took quite some time.. and not much fun for the chicken.. Happy naming Fiona, this is FUN!
10 point and sans serif
What about charity case?
I’ll have to pass this name game onto my father, he’s excellent at it
About a month after our hens started laying last summer we had about six weeks of double and triple egg yolks from one of our girls every day. You could always tell because they were long and skinny. But so weird…. That one you have is HUGE! Have you cracked it open yet?
Does anyone else have photos of their coops? I’d love to see them, Our first (we’ve had two at different houses) we built out of an old fence and recycled screening. My Husband is an architect so the second time around he got a little carried away. http://driedfigsandwoodenspools.blogspot.com/2009/04/hey-everybody-what-time-is-it-its.html Although still out of recycled and scrap wood and metal.
I love looking at different coop styles.I’m a chicken dork.
I’m in the process of a renovation project. When it’s finished next year, I will have room for chicken, yipee!
Reading this blog post has made me really chuckle!
Well now if one of your chickens had a slight mean streak they could be called hard or if they were the soft fluffy type how about pillow? On the other hand a chicken with a spring in it’s step may favour the name stair!
Your blog continues to inspire, amaze, amuse and inform us, Foiona – Thank You.
What a great choice of names – to which I add ‘Casement’ and ‘Caseoulay’ (ouch !)
ooops…… apologies for the typo, Fiona……
(Guess I’ll be ChuckPie or something similar henceforth….)
How about the polite Civil Case, and Criminal Case, the vandal?
Emergency! That is the name of the other Russian relative! I knew there were triplets not just twins. Rain, Fire and Emergency. The Incaseov girls.