It will be interesting to see how many eggs we get this year. I know that Honey is quite a good layer (97 eggs last year) and that Amber has always had a problem laying her eggs (35 eggs last year) and even when she does lay an egg it is usually broken and not able to be eaten by us.<\/p>\n
I know that Sparkle is a really good layer (109 eggs since her arrival on 5th April) but Topaz is an unknown quantity (6 eggs from her arrival on 5th April). She was broody for three weeks and after laying one egg she started her moult so I don’t know if she will be prone to going broody or if she will hit her stride next year and start laying properly. That was a huge difference between these two girls.<\/p>\n
I have no idea if the game girls will be good layers or constantly broody. They came to me \u00a0(on 11th June) after being broody for the farmer (he keeps them because they make good broodies for hatching eggs for the farm) and Emerald laid 1 egg and Toffee laid 6 eggs before they both started their moult.<\/p>\n
The farmer needed them to go broody whereas I would try to discourage it but as I know from Topaz this year it isn’t always possible. So it will be a total surprise this year to see if they go broody a lot or if they lay well. I know that bantam game birds are not known for being good layers so we will see.<\/p>\n
Peaches and Barley started laying in November at six months old and are quite good layers and may even improve in spring. In two months Peaches has laid 15 eggs and Barley has laid 18 eggs.<\/p>\n
Altogether we had 286 eggs from the bantams last year but two girls came to me in April and four girls came to me in June so I would expect a higher number this year. It will be our first year with eight bantams from the start of the year it so will be interesting to see how they all do.<\/p>\n
I am looking forward to seeing how the girls progress and to having more lovely eggs to eat. The only down side is that I dread Amber returning to egg laying again. You can never tell how things will go though as we had thought we were about to lose Amber so many times but she kept bouncing back. Every year I hope the next year will be easier on her. On the upside she isn’t being bullied and she does have all her feathers. She is now looking better than she has since we first had her.<\/p>\n
Here’s to 2015 with happy chickens and lovely eggs and happy chicken keepers. Happy 2015 to every one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It will be interesting to see how many eggs we get this year. I know that Honey is quite a good layer (97 eggs last year) and that Amber has always had a problem laying her eggs (35 eggs last … Continue reading