It is with great sadness that I must report the loss of the final Ms. Lakenvelder.
You may remember her antics from the Proof that Chickens are Crazy post or the Chicken Chronicles. She and her sometimes cream-colored eggs will be missed.
In happier news, many of the pullets have started laying! (And just in time too, with only four of the older hens remaining.)
Aside from the white Leghorn egg in the upper right, these are all from the new chickens.
Looking at the size of the white egg, you can also see how much smaller these "pullet eggs" are.
What beautiful colors, though! It's a little hard to tell from this picture, but the Easter Eggers' eggs are actually blue or blue-green instead of the very green ones we had from the previous hens.
The darker brown eggs are from the Marans, and the lighter brown ones and pinkish one are from the Rhode Island Reds. There is more overlap here than I would have imagined though - I'm not sure who's laying the midrange brown eggs.
Here is a link to pictures of the young chicks when they'd just arrived in March. You may notice I'd said we were fostering the Rhode Island Reds for someone else. Well he never paid for them. Though I probably wouldn't have ordered them on my own, I like them a lot more than I would have suspected. I would not have paid extra to buy a rooster on purpose though.
16 comments:
Did youguys eat her? Did something else eat her? Did she go play in traffic? What happened?
Oh no, we'd never eat a laying hen!
I think a coyote got her.
When I had my girls it was always sad when one came up missing, especially if she was a favorite. Have you ever tried Red Stars? Once they start laying, my gosh at all the eggs and they are so sweet too. I miss being home on the farm but reading your blog makes it easier. Sorry about your hen.
I love your chicken posts. Sorry about the loss of your beloved pet chicken (she's a pet if you gave her a name!).
Sorry to hear about Ms. Lakenvelder. She definitely was a charmer.
We have been inspired to get chicks. Not sure when or what kind. We'll probably check in with you for some chicken and egg advice when the time comes. Those eggs look so good.
Poor Ms. Lakenvelder! She was so pretty, too.
The lesson here is: arm your chickens.
Oh, no!! Poor Ms. Lakenvelder- my sympathies. What are your roosters doing while these coyotes and other prey critters are doing their dastardly deeds? My ornery Sam is forever herding the girls to safety if he so much as hears a twig snap, and if he thinks something or somebody is threatening them, he'll attack in full fury with hackles raised and claws ready to shred everything to tatters. He once cowed a flower pot into submission when it had the misfortune to topple over and startle one of the hens.
Sorry to hear about her. I can relate to chicken loss. On the bright side a banty hen has become broody and is sitting on a passle of eggs so there is hope...
certified city girl though I am, I have always wanted to raise laying chickens --- the idea of having fresh, multi-colopured egss is just so appealing --- damn those pesky by-laws anyway!
read your past chicken posts, hilarious!!
Poor Ms. Lakenvelder! The chicken chronicles won't be the same without her antics!
KF we haven't tried the Red Stars. I definitely lean towards sweet chickens! (But I think the Leghorns have had a better survival rate and they're not all that sweet.)
Thanks SM, I guess they are all pets really. The only ones that might meet the chopping block are the excess roosters.
RD, yeah sure! I suggest ordering a catalog from McMurray. We actually ended up getting our chickens from Ideal though. If there is a farmer's co-op near you, they will usually have chicks in the spring too.
Sara there was a funny skit on the radio just the other day about chickens with guns!
Grace I think we've got lazy roosters. All they want to protect the hens against is ME.
FC, yay about the broody hen. We only had one, but it didn't work out too well.
Kathryn, hubby's family actually had banty hens in the city when he was young!
Turtleheart the Lakendvelders weren't great for egg laying, but they sure were fun to watch!
gorgeous photo of the eggs! (and a very humorous one of the chicken :)
Can you give advice on starting chickens next spring? We looked into the possibility last spring but it appeared much more complicated than I remembered from childhood. Either my parents did it wrong or modern chickens are a lot less hardy.
Ohhhh, no! I love your chicken stories and chicken pictures. I'm sorry to hear about her demise.
I'm curious about why you wouldn't eat a laying hen. We were planning on eating ours after winter hits?
Thanks L & Hick!
OW it's really not difficult at all. If you've got a lot of predators it can be hard to protect them though. I'll try to do another chicken post soon.
Trix, I guess we feel like we've got too much invested in them at this point. (And until the last couple of days we didn't have many that were laying.) I think if we wanted some to eat we'd order straight run again and eat the males. (Or just order broilers.)
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