our laying flock

We gave our egg-laying Buff ducks to someone who was much more interested in them and picked up close to 30 laying hens on Friday afternoon. It's Monday evening and they've already laid over two dozen eggs. (We didn't get as many over the weekend as they were adjusting to their new home, but they laid a full dozen for us today). The new flock consists of an assortment of birds, many of whom we haven't had a chance to identify. There are four young Buff Orpingtons, eight "Araucana" (which look like they could actually be Ameraucanas, but I suspect they are just Easter Eggers because of their egg coloration), and five older Plymouth Rock hens. There is one "Easter Egger" rooster for the whole bunch.





Three of the new chickens are smaller and have white bodies with black markings on their necks, tails and wings. They look like these Lakenvelders, but Lakenvelders are supposed to be rare, domestically.



There are also two red hens that look like they could be New Hampshire Reds or Rhode Island Reds (but are probably Red Stars). The four black hens are probably Black Stars. Our ten Black and Red Stars won't start laying until this fall. They are still quite small birds compared to these old ladies.





The eggs (which average a dozen a day) are a rainbow of pastels from pinkish brown, to light blue. Some are creamy, some are speckled brown and we've even got one large olive green one. I'll add some pictures later.