And Then There Were Eggs

I thought it was high time for a ex-battery hen update. The four ladies are very flattered by everyone's interest in them here, or so I gathered by their happy appearance between gobbling up their kitchen scraps. The four girls have well and truly settled in, and in my attempt to name them I am pleased to say that I know who two of them are. Valencia and Cara Cara have distinguishing features, but poor Tangerine and Clementine look practically identical.
Cara Cara is the bossiest of the lot, chasing Bambi out of a hole she was digging to take over the operation, and later racing her to the stick I had thrown (I think Cara Cara thought it was food.) Bambi was suitably unimpressed and now eyes the ISA Browns with suspicion. I suppose I would too, if I was her size and had been pecked on the nose, had my small stick I was chewing on stolen and been chased for no reason by a scary orange chicken.

With all the freedom in the world to now scratch, run, jump, flap, perch, dust bath and sun bath, and enjoy every other chickenly delight, there was only one thing missing from the ISA Brown's pen. Eggs.


After not collecting any eggs for what felt like forever (it must have been around 2 weeks), I was seriously starting to wonder what kind of animal keeper I was if even young commercially bred laying pullets wouldn't lay eggs for me. And I was starting to wonder what would have to become of the four girls if they wouldn't lay any eggs. I like them, but I don't really want four chickens as pets, I already have two dogs.

But then one of the hens saved the day - either Tangerine or Clementine has decided to go clucky. It's quite surprising for this breed to do so, but gone clucky she has, and I'm lucky I noticed on the very morning of her beginning to sit.
I noticed her sitting near a fallen branch in the middle of their very large pen, showing no inclination to arrive for breakfast. I wondered if she might be sick, although with that typical way a clucky hen sits I wasn't surprised when she growled and fluffed up her feathers at me. I lifted her off her nest to discovered a stash of sixteen large, brown and slightly speckled eggs. I was absolutely thrilled, the hens had been laying! And thanks to this unknown chicken, I now knew the location of the nest.
What was more, the eggs were all stone cold which means she had clearly only started sitting a few moments before I arrived. The eggs will still be lovely and fresh, and I made a happy dash back to the house for a basket to collect them in.
That afternoon I collected another four (peculiar for a chicken that's declared itself clucky to lay an egg, but I was grateful none the less).

I'm so pleased they are finally laying, in a place that I now know the location of, and that the rescue of these four girls was a success.
Hurray for homegrown eggs from happy hens!


If you've missed the story so far, you'll find the other battery hen posts here:
A Second Chance At Life
A Battery Hen Update


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