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| Plymouth Rock Barred Hen |
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| The ladies gathering to see what I am up too |
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| Columbian Wyandotte Hen |
The hens, I don't have to say chickens anymore as we know now that they are all ladies (hooray the fellow I obtained the newly hatched chicks from was 100% correcting in choosing me hens) are mostly all laying now. I average about 5-6 eggs daily, with Fall upon us the laying will naturally slow down, before we really got started. But, such is the seasonality of laying hens, they are not machines, their hormones are governed by the seasons and the changing quality and length of light. I hope they continue to lay occasionally throughout the winter and I know things will really gear up next Spring and Summer.
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| Buff Orpington Hen in the Nesting box |
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| The mornings eggs |
I was able to photograph one of the Buff Orpingtons busy laying an egg in one of the communal nesting boxes. She looks so pleased with herself, I am sure she feels that the entire clutch has been produced by herself.
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| Plymouth Rock, not too pleased with me removing eggs |
Have you ever seen a chicken blink? No you say...well neither had I until I noticed a film over the eyes of the hens in some of my photographs earlier this year. Check out the photo below of the same hen pictured above.
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| Blink! |
Some people call this the 'third' eyelid, technically it is called a nictitating membrane it is used to clear the eye of debris, or to add moisture (Blink is my technical term) while allowing the chicken to not lose it's vision. Important stuff if you are a prey animal and everyone is trying to catch and eat you.
