Two More!

Our First Egg!!!!!

One of the chickens laid her very first egg today. It's tiny, about half the size of a regular egg. They say the first eggs can be small and/or misshapen, so I'm expecting later eggs will be more normal size. Judging from the color, it was probably Molly, but it could be that Typhoid Mary's dark brown coloring for the eggs isn't working yet. Kate was home at the time and she tells me that the two chickens freaked out for a bit, and when she went outside later, she found an egg on the bricks where the potted plants are.

We have some bad news. Well, it's good news for the neighbors probably, but I'm going to have to get rid of Typhoid Mary, aka the Marans. She is just too noisy for an urban chicken run. She has always been a complainer, honking incessantly for minutes at a time, often and loudly. Lately she has taken to crowing(!) in the morning, which is just unacceptable. Apparently crowing hens are not uncommon. The woman I got her from is OK with me taking her back to them, and while I'm there I can pick out a quieter (hopefully) companion for Molly. If it's still too noisy back there, I will have to consider giving the chickens up entirely. I really hope it doesn't come to that.

Lord of the Flies

So, now that warmer weather is here I'm experiencing some wonderful new chicken issues. There is more chicken odor and we now have a plague of flies. The smell really isn't that bad, but the flies are just disgusting. They are everywhere on every surface. Their fly poop is everywhere too.

it happened practically overnight. I was tempted to just hit the yard with some flying insect spray, but it says right on the can, remove your birds. so, must be really bad for them if they actually bother to mention it in the instructions. Next step, stinky fly trap. the stinky fly trap has been deployed, but it is neither particularly stinky or effective.

I read that diatomaceous earth is effective for fly control around chickens, so I picked up some of that as well. it wasn't until I got it home and spread around the yard that I discovered that I had the wrong stuff. Turns out that I need the "food grade" kind. Who knew?Hey, at least I knew not to get the kind for pools.

It turns out that you can sprinkle the food grade kind in your pet's, or even your own food and it will help control parasites. But I would never eat dirt, you say. Well, you are almost certainly consuming it already. Food grade diatomaceous earth is used to keep grain dry in storage.

Food grade diatomaceous earth can be found at some feed stores and health food stores. If it doesn't say food grade, it isn't. I'm hoping that the stuff I put down on the ground won't harm them.

The other thing I'm doing that should help is I'm finally getting rid of those stupid yard rocks and putting down some grass. Even if the grass dies, dirt will be easier to keep waste-free than those stupid rocks.

Hopefully I'll get those flies under control one way or another.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Newish Pictures of the Ladies

Molly's wattles are really growing.


The Marans is looking for something to complain about.


Poor little Sparky. He just wants to get along.