Henstory

Yesterday was an eventful day. One of our chickens laid the first viable egg. On the 23^rd, Papaw came in after closing up the chickens for the night and he was thrilled. He found a leathery soft little egg under the roost in the chicken house. It was the first sign our gals were ready to start laying eggs. We were surprised because, they are a bit ahead of schedule. We didn’t expect to get our first egg until mid to late August. We have no idea which gal did all the hard work first. We sure wished we knew exactly which one was the first hen to lay but we have no way of knowing at this point.

I guess I should have been blogging a bit of our adventures of the beginnings days of raising our chicks. Honestly, when we brought our little gals home in March, we were so busy with homeschooling activities, I didn’t slow down much to post photos for the family to see or to blog about the chicks. I have decided to try to do a bit of henstory here in this blog entry. I have tons of photos to share and I do hope I don’t overwhelm you with them all. We have just enjoyed raising these chicks with our granddaughter and the feeling of satisfaction that we all feel by the evidence of a job well done with this first egg is a momentous occasion for our family.

We started our chicken house a couple of years ago. Papaw built it and Doodlebug helped some. After the house was built, we had a few vacations planned and knew that getting chicks that first year was not a good idea.

This past spring on March 10^th, we took Doodles to the Tractor Supply store to pick out our very first chicks. She was so excited. We had spent weeks of reading and planning through the winter and getting ready for this day.

We brought our little ones home and put them in Doodlebug’s bathroom with a warming lamp and she was so excited. We had no idea what we were in for. We had so much fun every day caring for them and watching them grow.

The chicks grew very fast. We were swapping brooder boxes weekly, to my surprise. I can’t say that I was glad when during that time, our water heater went out but we sure needed the box that it came in to make a brooder for the chicks for their last week or two in the house.

Doodlebug picked out her very favorite chick right away and named her Sassy. She would hold her chick and sing to her. It was quiet precious. We read so many books about what to expect week by week and how to care for our chicks. It was so sweet to watch Doodles develop such a nurturing attitude with her chicks over the few weeks they were in the house.

By the time mid March came, our gals were beginning to look more like miniature chickens and the weather was warming up a bit. On March 15^th, we had our very first day of mid 70 degree days. We took the girls out for their very first outing. They loved the sunshine, warmth and the feel of the grass. We sat close to them and we all sunned together. Doodlebug loved having her little gals out in the yard. It was a big mile stone for us. All of our gals had done very well and we didn’t have a single chick to die from the beginning. I will say though, next spring when we go to get a few more baby chicks, I will maybe think about getting them a couple of weeks later than what we did for these gals. I had no idea that they would grow so quickly and really need to go to their house outside long before the weather was warm enough to really move them. Two weeks would have made a huge difference in the care and comfort factor of raising chicks in one of our bathrooms in the house.

By mid April, we started taking our gals out to get acquainted with their new home. We did have to bring them back into the house to the old brooder box a night or two until we finally got the break in the weather and the nights were no longer getting below 60. They loved the space and quickly got use to being outside. I was so very happy to get them out of our house and into their own house.

Over the past few months, we have been saving all veggie and bread scraps for them. We have been feeding them kale and lots of greens. They love greens. Doodles and I have been growing flats of wheat grass for them too. It has taken me a bit to get use to saving all little veggie trimmings like the tops from strawberries, apple and pear cores. They love cabbage leaves, carrot peelings and many other scrap that I use to just toss or compost.

Yesterday morning I went out to let the gals out. I did a quick glance in the nesting boxes but they were all empty and I let the gals out into the yard for the day. I didn’t think much about the girls gathered around the door of the hen house looking in a bit later and I even noted to myself that one of the gals was making sounds like our neighbor’s hens when they were in production mode. I guess I was still thinking it was too soon. An hour or so later, Papaw went out to walk to dog and stopped in to check on the gals. He came back to the house beaming with smiles and carefully holding our very first egg. It is small and speckled but the shell is fairly firm and we will be cracking it open as soon as Doodlebug is here to see the egg and we cook it together. I never knew that such satisfaction could come with this first egg. Before long we will be getting 8 eggs a day if all goes well. We have been saving egg cartons now for weeks and getting ready. I will post photos as soon as all the gals get busy and Doodlebug goes to collect the eggs for the first time.

Here are a few little photos we snapped of the gals yesterday afternoon.


Papaw bring flowers to his gals.





OK, so I can't close without showing you our very first egg. Though it is small, we are so please. We are looking forward to many wonderful fresh eggs soon.



Hope you all are having a wonderful, blessed summer!