This summer, our little itty bitty baby chicks that arrived in April began laying eggs. It usually takes about 6 months before chickadees develop into egg-layers, and like an impatient mother, I kept looking in the coop twice a day to check if my babies were growing right.

Well, grow they did! And fast, too – these kids spend most of the daylight hours scrounging for food on the property. Those bugs must be nutritious! We also feed them Black Soldier Fly Larvae (I know, it sounds gross, right?)

This little gal, who used to look like:

Grew up to be a gorgeous soft orange-yellow hen. She’s a gentle giant and her feathers are so soft and fluffy. She’s like a giant pillow. We had originally named her “Nugget” but it seems a little cruel now, since she’s my favorite.  Nugget will just hang out in your arms and be content as long as you’re feeding her bugs.

This one is one of the most timid of the flock. Here’s her baby pic:

She surprised us all turning into a 5-toed, speckled, feather-footed hen with fluffy earmuffs that sometimes blocks her view and she runs into stuff sometimes.


Ack! I can’t see! Someone trim my puffy muffs!

Look at her feather covered feet. So funky!

Spotty, who looked like she has a mask on….

…grew up to be a Sicilian Buttercup with a large, wobbly buttercup shaped comb that flaps around when she waddles. Poor thing is the smallest and gets picked on by the others. I want to put little spurs on her legs so she can at least defend herself!

We’ve been keeping them in the coop the past few weeks as I just planted my winter garden and the hens LOVE LOVE LOVE to eat the baby seedlings, especially lettuce.

They are not too fond of Buster, our 5-month old puppy, though. Anytime Buster or Coco are near the coop, the hens will freak out and go hide upstairs.

Every egg is precious, we collect them in the late afternoon.

A few days ago, one of the hens laid a strange egg. A normal egg is on the left, and the one on the right was really rough and scratchy. The inside of the egg looked just fine. Tasted just fine too 🙂

Any hen owners know what caused this? We only saw one egg like this, and ever since all eggs have been normal.