POOF! And then there were no eggs. After returning from our vacation our easter egger Hazel laid us one last blue egg for the year and then overnight she exploded off her feathers in one go. For those less familiar with chickens, each fall they lose their old feathers and regrow new ones in time to stay toasty warm in the winter. Some hens go through a “soft” molt and lose/regrow feathers gradually. Others, like Hazel, go through a “hard” molt and get it over with fast. Those that hard molt look so pitiful!
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During molting season we switch to a “feather fixer” feed that has extra protein content to help assist our ladies in regrowing their new feathers. If you like to learn more about molting, we have a prior blog post on how to care for molting chickens. Five simple ways us humans can help them through this unsightly season.
Another thing to note, is were were out of town for 7 days, so we do not have an egg tally for that week, so this is more a record of 3 weeks, but with the drastic decrease in egg laying this month, not sure it influences the numbers too much! Optimistically we could have broken even if we had a count for that week, but I think we’d still be in the red a bit this month either way.
On a more somber note, our younger olive egger Trixie did not live out the month. She appeared to have hopped down onto something sharp and mortally punctured her abdomen. We found her hunkered down one evening and gave her a quick end so she would not suffer. We’ll miss her beautiful green eggs and spunk. So in addition to less eggs due to molting, you’ll also see less green eggs in the tally this month due to her passing.
Number for October 2021 Chicken Update:
Farm fresh eggs around here go from $3-7 per dozen depending on raising practices. We’re fairly middle of the road, so we price ours right in the middle.
Egg Totals
- Brown Eggs: 40
- Green Eggs: 4
- Blue Eggs: 3
- Total Eggs: 47
Total value: $19.60
($5/dozen)
Chicken Expenses
- Bedding: $10
- Feed: $27
- Total expenses: $37
Net: $ -17.40