Wednesday, August 21, 2013

New Egg Layer(s)?

Our chickens have experienced trauma these last couple of weeks.  The older ones, all 8 of them (reduced to their present number, you may remember, by massacring raccoons) had been calmly minding their own business, secure in their pecking order and satisfied with life.

And then suddenly, 15 new chickens were thrown into the coop.  Wow.  Talk about shock!  Talk about needing to adjust to a new environment. Talk about lots of clucking and indignant pecking.

A few days ago, we started getting weird eggs. 

The one in the middle looks...odd.  Small, dark, with a thick shell.
 
Maybe from a young chicken?
 
We've only gotten 5 eggs per day and we have 8 "old" chickens so...it seems odd we're not getting MORE eggs than usual if the young ones are starting to lay.
 
BUT, the trauma of throwing the chickens together may have resulted in some of the older ones no longer laying.
 
It is really hard to tell.  So we hope.  We exult.  We dream...of the day when we are getting 16 or 17 eggs a day again.

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