Turkey Tracks: Annie’s First Egg

Turkey Tracks:  January 8, 2011

Annie’s First Egg

Yesterday I was in hurry and rushed down the wooden boardwalk to my car.  The chickens were out, and I walked through them.  When I reached the end of the boardwalk, I was aware that our rooster, Napoleon, or Coq Au Vin, depending upon whether you are talking to John or the grandkids, was chasing me.  Mercy!  He has been so docile all winter, often letting me pet him while he makes all sorts of contented noises.  Here’s a winter picture of the chickens hanging out at a back door.  They are very social and come visiting on the porches often.  Annie is closest to the door.

When I got home, I visited the coop to check food and water levels.    There was a dark brown egg in a depression in a corner, under a lower roost!  It could only be Annie’s since it is the smaller size of a pullet just starting to lay.  Here’s a picture of Annie’s first egg  in the middle of Rose Thomas’s eggs.  (The blue eggs are from her wheaten Americaunas and the light brown ones are from, likely, her Red Sex-Links.)

The fact that Roo chased me suddenly made perfect sense.   One of the hens was laying again!

For those of you who don’t know chickens, when the days grow shorter, hens stop laying and rest.  You can see in the picture of the chickens that Annie’s comb is much redder than the older hens.  Depletion of comb and leg color happens because egg production takes everything out of the hens.  You can keep hens laying by artificially lighting them to extend what they think of is daylight.  We don’t do much lighting,  preferring to let the hens rest.  We only light (using a red light bulb if we can find one) for warmth on the coldest days and nights.  But, our days are already getting longer now.  And, lighting the coop with a white light recentlyfor a few hours at dusk to get it warm while we are waiting for ordered red bulbs to come may be a factor.

In any case, you can see why eggs were so valuable around the winter holidays because they would have to have been saved since about mid-November if one wanted a special cake.  And, you can see why Easter is a celebration involving eggs because eggs would, once again, be plentiful.