Rebecca told me about your newsletter, and as she has impeccably good taste (she likes mine) I've had a rummage and found at least two posts I need to read properly and comment upon, so I've subscribed.
Happy Thanksgiving! You and Rebecca may inspire me to get chickens yet (once I figure out how to protect against the small hawk who has lately taken to stalking birds in my yard)!
We've have hawk attacks, too, but the layout of our chicken yard helps protect the ladies. Half of it has a tree canopy -- an oak. I have a screened-in area attached to the enclosed coop part (where out laying boxes are), and the ladies scamper in there sometimes when they spy a hawk.
Having chickens is really fun! They are humorous creatures. I greet them every morning after they get up and outside. They are eternally hopeful that I've got a heel of bread or some goodies to throw into their chicken yard.
Those were weird days, weren’t they? We formed a whole different relationship with toilet paper during that first month of the pandemic. Forced off whatever expensive pillowy goodness we’d been buying and on to the scratchy, stiff stuff, we just adjusted ... and realized, once all the options were open to us again, that we didn’t need the expensive stuff after all. It’s been cheaper (not the cheapest mind you) toilet paper ever since in our household.
Such a lovely post, Mark - and thanks for the shout-out! Happy Thanksgiving!
We kept Aracaunas for a while - they were lovely. I had no idea that they were also called 'Easter egg' hens - but it makes sense, as the eggs are already painted!
There's a bit of an issue over here in UK with eggs at the moment - supermarkets have started to ration them. Avian flu is a growing problem, teamed with the high price of raw materials for chicken feed (wheat is 90% more expensive thanks to the war in Ukraine, where a great deal of our imported grain is produced), plus rising costs of pretty much everything else. There's a question mark over egg safety, because some supermarkets are importing them from European countries where salmonella testing is not the norm. People are being told to fully cook imported eggs - no more soft-boiled or softly-scrambled eggs for breakfast, and no licking the bowl of cake mix......!
Back when I wrote the post in 2020, we didn't have any "Olivers." Now we do, and they have beautifully colored eggs, too. They are a nice olive color -- hence their name. Our Easter Eggers lay the biggest eggs still, with the Olivers coming in a close second. The Ethyls are dependable layers, but their eggs a slightly smaller.
Chicken feed did jump in price in the US, too. It's risen about 50% in the past year. I've shifted some of the feed brands a bit. The feed seems indistinguishable anyway.
You do realize that eggs, fresh out of the chicken, do not have to be refrigerated, correct?
Rebecca told me about your newsletter, and as she has impeccably good taste (she likes mine) I've had a rummage and found at least two posts I need to read properly and comment upon, so I've subscribed.
Welcome, Terry. My 'stack is rather eclectic, so rummaging is indeed the best strategy!
That's what attracted me: mine's the same!
Happy Thanksgiving! You and Rebecca may inspire me to get chickens yet (once I figure out how to protect against the small hawk who has lately taken to stalking birds in my yard)!
We've have hawk attacks, too, but the layout of our chicken yard helps protect the ladies. Half of it has a tree canopy -- an oak. I have a screened-in area attached to the enclosed coop part (where out laying boxes are), and the ladies scamper in there sometimes when they spy a hawk.
Having chickens is really fun! They are humorous creatures. I greet them every morning after they get up and outside. They are eternally hopeful that I've got a heel of bread or some goodies to throw into their chicken yard.
Loved learning about your ladies!
Those were weird days, weren’t they? We formed a whole different relationship with toilet paper during that first month of the pandemic. Forced off whatever expensive pillowy goodness we’d been buying and on to the scratchy, stiff stuff, we just adjusted ... and realized, once all the options were open to us again, that we didn’t need the expensive stuff after all. It’s been cheaper (not the cheapest mind you) toilet paper ever since in our household.
Such a lovely post, Mark - and thanks for the shout-out! Happy Thanksgiving!
We kept Aracaunas for a while - they were lovely. I had no idea that they were also called 'Easter egg' hens - but it makes sense, as the eggs are already painted!
There's a bit of an issue over here in UK with eggs at the moment - supermarkets have started to ration them. Avian flu is a growing problem, teamed with the high price of raw materials for chicken feed (wheat is 90% more expensive thanks to the war in Ukraine, where a great deal of our imported grain is produced), plus rising costs of pretty much everything else. There's a question mark over egg safety, because some supermarkets are importing them from European countries where salmonella testing is not the norm. People are being told to fully cook imported eggs - no more soft-boiled or softly-scrambled eggs for breakfast, and no licking the bowl of cake mix......!
Back when I wrote the post in 2020, we didn't have any "Olivers." Now we do, and they have beautifully colored eggs, too. They are a nice olive color -- hence their name. Our Easter Eggers lay the biggest eggs still, with the Olivers coming in a close second. The Ethyls are dependable layers, but their eggs a slightly smaller.
Chicken feed did jump in price in the US, too. It's risen about 50% in the past year. I've shifted some of the feed brands a bit. The feed seems indistinguishable anyway.
The feed may seem indistinguishable to YOU, Mark - but have you asked the ladies?! 🤔🤣
I read this and thought, I really need to get myself some chickens!
You should! You know, some people keep chickens as pets. A little daring, probably, but an option for city dwellers.