egg count | City Boy Hens

Summer is winding down and the best season of the year is just around the corner. Canning is in full swing, cooler nights will make for great sleeping, local produce is abundant in home gardens and farmer’s markets and……………THE EGG COUNT IS DOWN AT CITY BOY HENS!

“OK Honda……….What’s going on? I’ve only ever asked you to provide this City Boy with 1 farm fresh egg each day. So what’s the problem? I know that you take the occasional day off, but this is quite a stretch! What is it? Was there not enough watermelon on those extremely hot days? Did you not get enough vacation time at the cottage this summer? Are you jealous because you 3 ladies now have to share the limelight with the honeybees on the blog? “Come on Honda….out with it! You did sooooooo GREAT over the last 12 months since that most excellent day back in July of last year when you laid your very first egg while vacationing at the cottage. Since that day, you’ve hardly ever taken a day off and I know I wouldn’t be stretching the truth by telling everyone that you laid over 340 eggs in those 12 months. You are a champ among champs! You always lead by example and Lord knows, Swiffer could sure use some learnin’ from those examples!”

“So what’s the problem? You know that school will be starting up again shortly and those teenage kids of ours will be looking for some farm fresh eggs in the morning. You know it’s important that they start their day off right so that they can hopefully absorb some of the lessons that their teachers are teaching.”

“Oh…and by the way……what’s up with those eggs you were laying just before you shut down the factory? Were you gettin’ bored laying those beautiful large brown eggs each day? Just so you know…..I’m not impressed with the crinkled light-colored eggs or those soft-shelled ones that Swiffer has taken a liking to eating!” Well…As Desi Arnaz would say… “Lucy, you got some ‘splainin’ to do”.

It turns out that Honda is the first of my 3 hens to go into molt. During this time, the hormone levels in the hen dramatically change and enormous amounts of energy are used to produce new feathers. Because feathers are made up of around 85% protein, something else in the “protein using department” has to suffer and egg production always takes the hit. As a result, hens in molt generally ceases or dramatically slow down producing eggs.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I was concerned in the beginning of this change. At first, I thought Honda was sick. You’ve got to remember that these hens are ISA Brown sex-links and they were bred to pump out eggs. I’m not exaggerating when I say that these ISA Browns easily produce 340 eggs each in their first year of lay.

My biggest stumbling block in not being able to recognize molt was that Honda was not loosing many feathers. Sure, there were a few here or there, but nothing like I had read from other folks. So after fretting for about a week (Ya…I’m ok with letting you know that I did worry about my chicken!) I contacted an acquaintance of mine who just happens to be a Chicken Vet. Mike helped me rule out disease, suggested the strong possibility of molt and offered the following info on the change in Honda’s egg shape and color: “The color is the last thing to be added to the egg, so the mottled egg, as well as the wrinkled shell indicates an interruption in her lay cycle….the egg didn’t travel through her reproductive tract at the speed it should have…..it went too quickly. Eggs start out as membrane covered sacs of yolk and protein, then get filled with water and “plumped” out. If the passage through the oviduct is too quick, the plumping out is incomplete, and this results in wrinkled eggs. The excess speed also messes with pigmentation, explaining the color.”

In a nut shell, Mike was informing me that Honda was “rushing” her egg development on the days when her body was trying to muster up enough strength to create an egg during this stressful period. As a result, she ended up laying eggs that were either soft-shelled, crinkled, or lighter in color. I guess this is a testament to sex-link hens. Even amidst such dramatic hormonal changes, my girl still tried her best to come through with the goods!

“Well Honda…..It’s been around 7 weeks since we’ve had one of your delicious offerings. In case you forgot……here’s what you looked like when you were the starting pitcher at City Boy Hens…………. In the mean time…Rosie’s warming up in the bull-pen and Swiffer’s Ping-Pong ball contributions are lookin’ pretty good from here! Oh…..and Mike….thanks again for your help. You are “just down the road” from City Boy Hens. I hope you’ll stop in and I can re-pay you with a beer or 2 and some homemade salami, olives & cheese.

Honda gettin’ busy!

The egg count has been a little low for the past few weeks and guess who’s not putting forth a regular contribution to City Boy Hens. If you guessed Swiffer.. then you are correct. Now, I know there’s going to be a few of you out there who will be sure to defend Swiffer by asking how I know that it is she that is not laying.

Well…as any self-respecting chicken owner will attest, I can tell which hen lays each particular egg. It also helps that I only have 3 hens on my urban homestead. At City Boy Hens, Honda lays a large egg that is slightly elongated. Rosie’s contribution is gigantic (extra-large) and Swiffer lays an egg that is not too far off from the size of a Ping-Pong ball. Okay…I may be exaggerating a bit, but it is definitely the SMALLEST egg each day!

So.. in the last few weeks, some of the “smallest” eggs have been missing from the coop. Initially, I thought it was odd that Swiffer would be slowing down so soon, considering that she only began laying last October. But then again, nothing that Swiffer does is too surprising because she has always been a bit of a strange chicken.

Anyways, this morning I went out to feed the hens and collect the eggs. As I walked past the cedar hedge, something caught my eye. There, nestled around some dried leaves was…..an egg….THE SIZE OF A PING PONG BALL!!!!!! There was no second guessing. This was Swiffer’s egg!

Well…Swiffer, you’ve managed to lower the bar AGAIN!!! Now….. you’ve taken it upon yourself to not even bother to lay your egg in the coop. What’s the problem? Are the “digs” not good enough for you? Feel like your slummin’ it at City Boy Hens?It’s bad enough that you won’t use the nest box, but now you’ve taken it upon yourself to just start dropping your eggs around the backyard where ever you see fit! Ah…..Hello???? The backyard is not even that big. I’ve seen how far you can run when I come out with some vegetable snacks. Surely, you could waddle your lazy ass back over to the coop in order to deposit your egg.

Is this some kind of joke?????? Do you think I’m going to start a covert operation every day in order to find your egg????? Is this some kind of Easter Egg prank???? It’s bad enough that you picked on Rosie for a month, that you took forever to actually start laying eggs and that you lay the SMALLEST EGG every day, but now you are going to hide them for me to find. Let me tell you what’s coming down the pipe. Look into the crystal ball. Do you see a large soup pot with a fresh free-range chicken flavoring the broth? No???????????…………….. LOOK CLOSER!!!!!!

In the mean time…all free-ranging for you will be strictly curtailed until one Ping-Pong sized egg appears in the coop each day. No egg………no recreation time! The decision is yours. Man…I can’t believe you……….even after I wrote a great post about you last week!