Here's some pics of the chickens. These were all taken last summer, because you can see grass! Right now, we still have snow!
We have ten hens and two roosters. They are Ameraucana, which means they lay pastel colored eggshells. The hens are buff-colored with black about their neck, and black tails. Instead of the traditional yellow on their legs, the color is an olive-green called "willow". They have small, knobby combs on their heads - which are good for cold winters (less frostbite!). The hen below is Missy. She's the most adventurous of the girls, and will chase a grasshopper all the way across the yard. Most of the hens stay within clucking distance of the Alpha Rooster, Marshall. But not Missy!
This is Randy, below, our Beta (secondary) rooster. His tail looks better now. These pictures were taken late last summer when they were all molting. Now they all have fresh new feathers for Spring! You can see that Randy has 'ear-tufts' and a 'beard' -- these are typical features of Ameraucana chickens.
This is a recent batch of eggs. 9 eggs from 10 hens in one day is pretty darn good! You can see the range of eggshell shades, from pinkish-brown to blue to olive green (the eggshells are not shiny, I had just washed them so they were wet). Look at the whopper of an egg on the right! It's about three times the size of a normal egg! I'm betting it's at least a double-yolker (maybe a triple!). Now, if a normal egg is the size of a hen's head, can you imagine pushing something three times the size of your head out of your cloaca???
Since the hens get lots of good eats and are not in battery cages (those are the cages the size of an 8x10 piece of paper that factory farm chickens live in), my girls reward us with the most delicious eggs! Especially in the summer, when they eat grass and weeds and bugs all day!
If you have a farmer's market or a chicken hobby farmer (like me) nearby, you should really give their eggs a chance. Yes, they cost more than factory farm eggs (I sell mine at The Wren's Nest for $2 a dozen or $1 for a half-dozen) but you can't beat the taste and quality!!!
Plus, they're already colored for Easter!
For some pictures of Marshall, our Alpha Rooster, visit It's A Blog Eat Blog World.
Thanks to everyone who inquired about our chickens! If you have any more chicken-questions, just let us know!
Wow, they are SO amazing! The eggs are really beautiful and the price is not very high at all. Sadly the Lap Lady is allergic to eggs but the Tall Man loves them. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteKaze
Wow, that is so cool that you have chickens! I bet they are lots of fun to watch!
ReplyDeleteThose eggs are beautiful. :)
Wish you could ship eggs to AZ - those look wonderful!
ReplyDeleteThose eggs really are beautiful! My Mommie buys "organic" eggs from "cage free vegetarian fed hens" because she hates the way most hens are kept. I'll bet yer eggs are delicious!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the pictures and information about yer chickens, it was very interesting!
Chickens?! And you don't eat 'em? who ever heard of such a thing! Do they have colored poop too?
ReplyDeleteBoy,don't git the Food Lady started on Faktery Farms!
ReplyDeleteYer vary lukky to have chikkins. We don't have any becuz they wood git eeten by the vishus deer.
You mean... chick-hens are BIRDS? Or is it like hamburger that's not ham an hot dogs that aren't dog? I's confused. I need to eat sum more chick-hen for further infestigation.
ReplyDeletePretty birds.
Re: the large egg... Mom says she can relate since we haf our boy.
yum, yum, we love chicken. we is guessin yu cants eats yurs. they is perty anyways.
ReplyDeleteyuki & kimiko
oooooooh We used to have those kind of chickens. They were abandoned by our next door neighbors and ended up being our chickens. They were so sweet! Beautiful little eggs.
ReplyDeleteWow! That's so kyool!! Are the chickens in a hen house in the winter? We think those are very reasonable prices for your eggs and would gladly buy some if we lived in Michigan!
ReplyDeleteDorfie is getting better. Thanks for thinking of him!
Luf, Us
i think that is really cheap for eggs like that! i pay more than that in the supermarket for the eggland ones! and i never even knew i HAD a cloaca? exactly where is mine do you know?
ReplyDeletesmiles, bee
We used to live out in the country and we had a rooster that looked JUST like that! :)
ReplyDeleteI love chickens.
do you get to play wif the feathers that they lose?
ReplyDeleteMarshall, you remeber me when I was child (5 or 6), I had a hen. I had fear when this hern run in my yard, sometime, this hern chase me and I cried alot!!! Was a hard time! Now, I laught a lot, hehehehe!!!
ReplyDeleteCool looking chickens! Our mom sometimes gets eggs from a man she knows from work who owns a farm on Virginia's Eastern Shore. He has Rhode Island reds and their eggs are brown. Mom once tried to dye them for Easter and they turned our horrible-looking. I love eggs; Mom often lets me lick the bowl when she's scrambled some.
ReplyDeleteOh, and mom told me not to forget this! Thank you for sending the Bad Cats calendar! It's great!
~Jake
I caught the part about the chickens, so nice of you to explain it. Those are really pretty chickens, and those eggs, oh, wish you could ship them. So pretty.
ReplyDeleteI'm still freakin' over the colored easter-y eggs!
ReplyDeleteour Lady sez those're good prices fur eggs, an she'd buy 'em too. aren't all you kitties just thrilled that you've got a whole herd of fev-vers? how duz their fev-vers taste? Grr wants one. do ya wanna trade sum fev-vers fur sum Temptations?
ReplyDeleteCocoa