0

Season is over but the eggs have begun.

Our chooks are laying! Well they have been laying for the last couple of weeks so we have just reached the two dozen mark. It is very interesting to see the progression of how the hens develop the eggs. At the beginning of their laying life the eggs are very small and ovoid. There really is no top and bottom. s the hens continue laying the eggs become more egg-like. The colour, size, and shape changes. The eggs taste good too. They have very good "muscle tone", a term that is sometimes used for how strong and firm an egg yolk is. Whether or not our Chantecler chickens will continue laying through the winter I don't know. They are supposed to be good winter layers and can deal with cold temperatures. That's good as our barn isn't heated, only partially insulated right now and we really didn't want to use a heat lamp during the winter. Here is an interesting article on Chantecler's. It has been an interesting season to say the least. Unfortunately I have not been able to part-take in it due to some surgery I have just had. So Tim has been taking care of things. Tim did manage to get the herbs today. It isn't the best harvest but at least we don't loose them to frost; something that will happen any day now. In our herb harvest we managed to get some tarragon, sage, pineapple sage, chamomile, oregano, chives, mint, sweet marjoram, thyme, basil, and catnip. Right now they are just sitting in a basket until I am able to do something with them.