Our new pullets are starting to lay the sweetest little eggs. They will be small for a couple of weeks before the eggs reach a more "adult" hen size. Plus I'm finding them in funny places: on the coop floor, in the grass of the new chicken run, I even found one on top of one of the rabbit cages. It's kind of like the egg actually takes the pullet by surprise and she just lays it where she happens to be instead of making her way to the nesting boxes like the other hens. This will go on for a couple of weeks, too. Then these little girls finally figure out what's going on and will lay in the boxes.

In the meantime, it's pretty fun. Kind of like Easter!

This is a water hose.

I bought it this spring.

It leaks.

This is a perfect illustration why it's not a good idea to buy cheap equipment. The leaks are right along the area where the brand name of the company that makes this hose is stamped deep into the rubber. The stamp somehow must have created a weakness in the integrity of the rubber leading to a hole and it now leaks. I bought this water hose for a cheap price at a big box chain store which name starts with a "Cost-" and ends with a "-co". And even though this particular item is not the best workmanship, I'll buy there again. I really like the store. When I take the hose back, they will refund my money or give me another hose without question. So I shouldn't be complaining except that it takes time out of my very busy harvest-work schedule to run into town. So I won't replace it until after the work is done......sometime around the end of November........

But it's pretty frustrating just the same.

I should have known better.

A price too good to be true is just that.....not good.

It took a long time, but the little yellow hen finally hatched out a couple of sweet babies chicks. Here they are having sips of water with Momma watching on.

Only two hatched out of 12 eggs. That's the lowest hatch rate we've ever had. But I'm determined to allow the hens to hatch their own chicks without any interference. It's hard to take a step back. I have a friend who has offered the use of her incubator so we could actually replace our whole flock in just one summer. But my goal is to raise chickens that know how to raise their own families from start to finish, even if it means only hatching one chick at a time. I did purchase several new chicks this past spring because I just haven't found the right combination of winter egg layers and broody hens. So far we've had at least one or two hens go broody each summer but I've not found a breed that will lay more than 8 months out of the year. Our winters are both cold and dark. But it's probably the dark that limits the hens laying rate as more than the cold.

 

So here are two more sweet things to enhance our flock. It will be a big celebration if we find out they are both little pullets (.....instead of roos. We have A LOT of roos already!).

Only time will tell!