Christmas Card 2011

Wishing you all a blessed Christmas!

With love from our family,



First White Egg!

As many of you know, we have chickens...13 hens to be exact.  Our four Buff Orpingtons have continually surprised us with their egg-laying and sweet docile nature.  Even with the weather turning colder, they have continued to lay an egg a day.  Love them!

Our nine White Leghorn hens on the other hand have been a handful!  They are NOT sweet like the buffs nor are they nice to each other.  We started out with ten, but they ganged up on one little hen and swiftly did away with her by pecking her to death :(  They also have tormented our poor buffs (who are very broody and love nesting) by scratching all the hay out of their nesting boxes and trying to peck their eggs.  We promptly decided the best course of action was to build a seperate coop to house the White Leghorns so they would leave our buffs in peace .  I have to say my hubby has been a trooper for building two seperate coops and such a huge help with the hens (really he has taken them over- he enjoys them as much as I do!)

We weren't surprised with the colder weather and the move to the new coop that they hadn't started laying eggs yet.  They are only 22 weeks old afterall and the buffs didn't start laying until 24 weeks old.  However, we were surprised to see our first white eggs appear just this past week!  The White Leghorns are also nesting in their boxes correctly and not scratching their hay out.  I guess they are finally starting to mature! LOL 

As you can tell I am VERY partial to my buffs (who by the way have rebuilt their pretty little nests and are much happier now that the White Leghorns are gone), and the brown eggs they produce are big and taste wonderful.  It was my idea to get the White Leghorns so that we could have both white and brown eggs, and while I don't regret it at all, I would suggest going with the buffs if you're thinking about getting some hens for fresh eggs :) They are MUCH less trouble!