Spring Chicken

Have you ever heard someone remark, "I'm no spring chicken anymore."?  This generally means that the person speaking is saying that they aren't as young as they used to be in how they look, feel, or in their energy level.  Looking around to see where this phrase originated from, most say that farmers found that chickens born in the spring were more desirable at market than their older, tougher chickens.  When a farmer would try to pull the wool over someone's eyes and say that an older chicken was a younger chicken, the prospective buyer would say "That's no Spring chicken!"

Actually we don't have any Spring chickens in the flock.  Our youngest ones began laying in the late Fall.  I tell you though, they all know Spring has arrived.  They run around with more enthusiasm and energy and purpose than they did in the winter.  This is due to more bugs and green grass to eat along with nice weather.  Doesn't nice weather make you feel the same?


Part of the flock foraging around for some rice I just threw them to eat.

Here's the Boss of the Barnyard, strutting his stuff in front of his ladies.  He's a real show-off.  We have several other roosters - two Barred Rock Roosters and an Aracauna rooster.  This guy's the king, though.

The cock of the walk

With the onset of Spring, the egg production has picked up.  Finding their eggs and the different spots that they lay them is like playing hide and seek.  The hens lay them everywhere in their favorite spots, so we're constantly looking.  Sometimes they'll lay in a box by the feed troughs for Daisy and Rosie.

Pretty brown eggs

We also have five laying boxes for them made out of old milk crates.  You can see that they are all full and a Rhode Island Red hen is patiently waiting in line for the next box to open up. 


There's no room in the Inn.

Well here is Sally Henny Penny laying an egg.  I was fortunate enough to catch the whole process.

Hey, can't you see I'm busy here?

She has just laid her egg and is getting off the nest so that the Rhode Island Red hen can sit in this spot.  She's a brown egg layer, so hers will be the one in the front or the back in the photo below. 


All done!

Now here is the neat part.  If you look below, you can see Sally's beak is open.  She is singing her happy, I just laid an egg song.  Seriously.  After hens lay an egg, they sing a little song as if to draw attention to the fact that they just did a good thing.  Isn't that neat?  They're proud of themselves.  Do you ever sing a little song when you do something good that you're proud of?


Sally's "happy song" (I just laid an egg!)

Here is the Little Red Hen sitting in her little red nest.  It is actually a feed trough that I converted into a nest.  The hooks broke off and it was unusable as a trough, so I screwed it to the wall to serve as another nesting box and the hens took to it.


Rhode Island Red Hen

They also lay in the nesting boxes I have built into the chicken tractor.  This one below I call the Ford Eggsplorer.  The corrugated tin is attached to a hinged door that allows us to collect eggs from the outside of the tractor.  

Nesting boxes on the 'Ford Eggsplorer'

This photo shows the hinged door is open and we're collecting eggs.  This is Russ' job each day.  He collects all the eggs, washes the ones that need cleaning and then packages them for our use or for our customers.

Eggs in the nesting boxes

Finally, I have a nice basket of freshly laid eggs.  I always like the different shades of brown, green and blue eggs that our hens lay.  The taste of eggs from free range birds is eggceptional (sorry). 


Egg Basket

I've set the egg basket down by a navel orange tree that is in full bloom.  I could sit and inhale the scent of citrus blossoms till the cows come home.  Spring is truly a delightful time. 

Fresh Spring Eggs!