Today we got our first egg of the year.
That might not sound such a big deal, but it is still January, it is still cold, it is still winter and we only have one chicken.
So well done old girl!
As I mentioned in a recent post I am experimenting with cutting down the externally sourced feed.
I am now just giving the hen and her companion guard goose corn every other day. Instead I am giving them more food scraps and providing piles of compost for them to dig through. I am also investigating meal worm breeding again.
Their compound is over a quarter of an acre so they have a good area to roam around, scratch and graze.
Although we are vegetarian rather than vegan we don't tend to eat that many eggs these days. Half a dozen eggs per week will more than enough.
In the brighter, warmer days our one remaining hen will just about manage that. But to give us a bit more resilience and longevity on the egg front I will be looking to get another two or three hens in the spring.
I hope they will get along together.
We probably won't get a rooster at present, particularly while the goose is still about. When he goes I may reconsider that particularly if we are wanting to raise some more chicks by then.
If we do start getting a surplus of eggs with the extra birds we could always pass them on for vaccine production.
With the current coronavirus outbreak growing so rapidly, once a vaccine has been developed it is going to be all eggs on deck...
I was going to write about the dramatic growth of the coronavirus again today, but the situation is changing so rapidly I feared I might I get my facts scrambled.
It is turning into a very serious situation. Definitely not something to yolk about.
If you do fancy a little horror story before bedtime, check out the graph in the bottom left corner of this webpage...
In the meantime it's goodnight from me, and it's goodnight from Jim.[ images from @pennsif ]
Success!
What a great story to share. I love the change to more organic food, the guard duck, and the free range you provide in exchange for the eggs.
Bravo.
Thank you. Amazingly there was another egg again today.
We're getting 3 eggs a day from our 6 hens, but some are getting on a bit. The two new ones from this year still lay smaller eggs. Those are shared amongst five of us, so we still need to buy eggs sometimes. We may not be saving anything as we buy all their food.
I am hoping I can reach zero input cost for their food this year. Going to experiment again with the meal worms.
I'll be interested in how that goes. We ought to try them with more different scraps. They do like leftover corn on the cob, but we don't have it that often. In olden times chickens lived on scraps, but I think they can get fussy. Ours are not keen if we swap their regular mash for pellets.
Luckily ours have never been fussy. They eat whatever comes, although they each seem to have their preferences.