Chicken Chat - The Waiting Game

The eggs are, how can we say it delicately, nonexistent. I expect this as we don’t artificially light the coop and they need a certain number of hours of light each day to lay. They deserve a break and we prefer to let nature take it’s course. 

About this time of year though, after the Solstice and the Holidays, I start getting antsy. We have to purchase eggs! The farm I get eggs from has hatchery New Hampshire Reds. They slow down, but don’t stop.

All my hope at this point is on Freya for the first egg of 2013. Her comb is turning a redder and redder each time I look at it. She and Hildy are 7 months old now and the daylight is increasing a little bit at a time. Hildy does not seem to be in a rush. She’s too busy being beautiful. I will try and get some pictures of them this weekend when I am home during the day.

Betty on the other hand is molting. She had a molt in late July which is normal for her. She usually has one after a hatch. Hatch some chicks, have a molt while raising them, and carry on with life when the chicks are of age. I think this one was brought on by the extreme stress of the incident with Doris and the animal that attacked them. Doris was her bosom bud. They went everywhere together. Betty was confused for a while of what to do without her and mainly took it out on the younger girls. She seems to have carried on at this point. They’ve all started to sleep on the roost together though it has been made clear that Betty is still the boss. Who knows how long it will take her to molt and lay again. She’ll probably then promptly go broody.

Betty and Doris finding the great finds together.