I love to collect fresh eggs for breakfast, but broken egg innards and shells were a gooey greeting this morning when I slid my hand under a Buff Orpington. Ick... I think there is a hen laying very, very thin shelled eggs that break under the weight of a chicken nesting. The hen wouldn't even have to step on the egg.
I have had those eggs break from the pressure of me just picking them up from the nest. They don't show up very often.
Lucky for me the next nest had two eggs. Two eggs. That's all this morning from 16 chickens. I did get two more this afternoon, but I think the heat might be slowing egg production down.The cracked eggs got me thinking about when I showed Tristan how to crack an egg and pull it apart (I was making pancakes when he was visiting.) I am a two handed egg cracker. I got to wondering about how to crack an egg with one hand. I have a lot of eggs around here to practice with so I think I will forego the golf balls.
How to crack an egg with one hand.
Then I got to wondering about the chicken feed. The chickens always will eat scratch, but I've noticed that the levels in the feeders that hold the lay feed are going down very slowly. I don't think they are eating much of the lay. Not eating much lay means not much in the way of laying eggs.
The problem may be the heat or the scratch and treats. I found this article about feeding chickens. My chickens eat up their treats and scratch inside of 5 minutes. That is way under the 20 minute rule but I could be messing up their nutrient levels.
I'll try cutting way back on the treats/scratch and put the oyster shell out in several places instead of just one.
The sage plant is very happy in the sun and has survived without any watering this year even with all the heat. It is shady in the photo because it is late afternoon, but it is usually sunny there all day.
It is very nice under the trees in the shade. Still hot... but nice. The sunny spot in the photo used to be a vegetable garden but the area was dug up because the city has rights to get to the pipes that are buried along there. Too bad. It is one of the few places that get sun most of the day.(July 18, 2009)
[4 eggs today]
~:>
Smiles
