Eggsperiments

 

Newly Laid Brown Egg and Store Bought White Egg

Yesterday, daughter decided to compare and contrast the egg our new chickens laid (brown one) and one of the store bought eggs (white one).  These are the pictures she took.

Brown Egg on the Viewer's Left 

We expected the new chicken egg to have a more orange colored yolk, but, we didn't see any noticeable difference.  Maybe, once they start being out in the garden and eating more plants and insects, in addition to their pellets, we might see a change in the color.  Also, apparently, feeding them pieces of dried red chili flakes will also turn their yolks a deeper orange color!  

Scrambled - Brown Egg on the Left

Next, daughter scrambled them, each egg separately, to see if there was a noticeable difference in taste.  We both tasted them and to be quite honest, neither of us could taste a difference!  

The store bought eggs are "cage free", but, that does not mean that they are "free range" according to the definitions used in the U.S., with cage free chickens being kept mostly indoors in large barns and free range chickens being allowed outdoor access.  Niwatori and Henny Penny are kept in a fairly large enclosure (which would technically be a cage, I suppose?) but, it is outdoors and eventually, they will have access to the garden as well, over the next few days.

There were no eggs laid this morning when I let them out of the coop into the bigger enclosure or at noon when daughter checked on them during her lunch break and gave them more food, fresh water, and cleaned the enclosure.

She checked on them again in the afternoon and gave them more food and cold water (we are freezing bottles of water and putting them in their water containers to chill the water).  She also poured some water over one area of the ground in the enclosure to create a damp spot in which they could be to cool off a bit.  It's 96F today and the poor chickens need all the help they can get to keep cool!  Even though they are supposed to be heat tolerant, they were raised in northern California where it doesn't get quite as hot as it does down here! Also, if they are less than a year old, they would not have experienced summer time temperatures.

We checked on them again, after daughter got off work, with both of us going to see how they were doing.  Henny Penny had dug out a nice bowl shaped depression in the corner where the ground had been wetted down and was relaxing there while Niwatori was in the area under the coop. 

We offered them a couple of kale leaves, yesterday, but, they seemed quite uninterested in them.  Today, we gave them a few freshly picked blueberries and, at first, they didn't know what to do with them, but, then, they learned to pick them up and eat them.  I had daughter bring two of the garden chairs to the area by the coop and we sat and watched them as they scratched at the ground and pecked around.  

We went inside after that, and I made a cucumber salad to have for dinner along with rice, salmon, and green beans.  I also ordered some groceries to be delivered tomorrow.

Daughter put the chickens into the coop for the night at sunset.  We had checked on them last night, around midnight, and saw that they had settled down for the night, on top of their feeder and water container, in the open area of their coop.  We have to figure out a good roosting place for them, but, today, we placed an old metal ladder with just two rungs inside the coop.  It just fitted inside and still allowed the lid to be closed. Ideally, it should be a wooden ladder, but, hopefully, they'll use it for tonight.

Today, I am grateful for:

- The chickens made it through the night!
- That first egg
- Daughter doing all the hard work of tending to them and keeping the coop and enclosure clean
- Easy access to water which helps with cleaning the food and water dishes, etc.
- The joy of having backyard chickens!

Better brace yourself to a few more daily chicken reports over the next few days until we figure out what we are doing!  LOL.  I am thinking we are doing this at the correct time as there seems to be another egg recall due to salmonella contamination according to today's news broadcast!  The recall includes eggs sold at the grocery store from which I get my eggs!  I need to check if the last batch of eggs I bought are among the recalled ones!