174 Eggs! Oh My

That's how many eggs we've received thus far from our three hens.

I bought them as day old chicks on October 30th last year.  I knew that the hatcheries would shut down production over the holidays and I wanted to get my girls growing so we'd have eggs in the spring.  Rather than buying chicks this spring.  Had we gone that route, we'd still be waiting for our first egg.

And I'm sure I would have ended up with a different mix of girls.

I wanted a Buff Orpington, which we got.  That's Ginger.

I also wanted an Ameracuna which I thought we got.  But as Pumpkin grew up, she's an Easter Egger.  Which means she has some Ameracuna in her, but she's been bread with other birds over the years.  Doesn't really matter.  She's a PRODUCER and I get a green egg from her nearly ever day.

I wanted a Black Astralorp which is Australia's version of the Orpington.  But the store was out when I arrived and I settled on a Black Jersey Giant.  That's Coco.  A bit more hen than I was prepared to raise.  She can and does do some serious damage to my yard with those big feet of hers.  But she's sweet and keep the peace in Cluckie Ville.

And then you remember Poppy, who is a Cuckoo Marans.  Poppy turned out to be a rooster and now lives in San Jose with some people who own some land.  Roosters are not allowed where we live.  I miss Poppy.  I wish all the time that he was properly sexed as a she and that we still had her/him as part of our flock.  But oh well.  Things happen for a reason.

And maybe it's just as well that Poppy turned out to be a rooster.  We can't keep up with all the eggs we currently receive.  If we had one more hen, we'd have that many more eggs.  I'd be setting up a stand in front of our house two days a week.