Cherries and the First Egg

This week Buck and I went to Hood River on a whim and for the first time in years I was actually in time for CHERRIES! We went to a farm that was doing U-Pick. I made several jars of jam and syrup and 10 quart bags of pitted cherries for the freezer. 31 pounds of Bing cherries all set for pancakes, scones and hot oatmeal this winter.









Another exciting event this week is that the chickens laid their first egg. I hadn't realized they were old enough, but this morning I saw a hen doing the "come on, let us out! I need to lay an egg!!!" dance at the coop door. That's right , I have been around chickens so long I know that dance. This got me counting the weeks since our Cuckoo Marans were born. Sure enough they are (already?) 16 weeks old.




The egg was nice and large and a fairly dark brown. They are supposed to be very dark brown but I have found that often the chicks you get from the big hatcheries and feed stores do not always exhibit the traits you hope for. It all comes down to selecting in your future generations for the traits you want. When I had Ameraucanas, who lay all sorts of colored eggs, I selected for blue eggs by hatching only the blue eggs. We'll probably do the same for brown eggs this time. I love an excuse to hatch eggs.

I made the hens a little temporary laying box for now until we get the real hen house set up.

I like to sit and watch the chickens be chickens, which I find to be very simple and funny. Just for the fun of it here is a film of a few moments in the life of a chicken for you to watch.