Chicken Update: 21 Weeks – WE HAVE EGGS!

by Texas Homesteader

Back in April we bought day-old straight-run chicks. Three Black Minorcas for their larger body frames and three Ideal 236 for their larger egg-laying abilities.  After the chicks grew their feathers we put them in a mobile chicken tractor and moved them to fresh grass every day.  The chicks grew & grew!

When they outgrew the chicken tractor we moved them into the chicken coop in our 1880’s barn.  We let them out each morning to free range and locked them securely back in the barn each night.

The baby chicks now looked like grown chickens and Interestingly enough the Black Minorca roosters have different colored cheek patches.  We anticipated they would have large white patches and one of them does, but the other on has large red patches on his cheeks instead.

The Ideal 236 chicks were fuzzy yellow balls of fluff when they were just a few days old, but their feathers grew in white.

At 21 weeks our Black Minorca and Ideal 236 free-range chickens have finally started laying eggs. How exciting! #TexasHomesteader

Chickens: Nature’s Organic Pest Control

We’ve gotten immense pleasure from having these chickens on the ranch.  They hang out primarily in the barn pasture and have severely reduced the grasshopper load there even though we have massive grasshopper problems everywhere else.  Also the cows that are confined from time to time in the barn pasture are not tormented with very many flies, as the chickens scratch through the manure piles each day making it impossible for the fly’s eggs to hatch.

Even if one does hatch the larva doesn’t escape the chicken’s eye very long.  Now that’s what I call organic pest control.  🙂  But of course the thing we’ve been waiting for is that first free-range egg.  Well folks, as of today we will wait no more!

At 21 weeks our Black Minorca and Ideal 236 free-range chickens have finally started laying eggs. How exciting! #TexasHomesteader

Trick To Get Hens To Lay In Nesting Boxes

We read that if you put a golf ball in their nesting boxes they will get the idea and lay their eggs in the boxes.  It may be an old wives tale and they may have laid their eggs in the nesting boxes anyway, but hey, they can still play a few rounds if they get bored…  🙂

Finally we see the sight we’ve been waiting for – at exactly 21 weeks of age the chickens are laying!  I’ve never even eaten a home-grown or free range egg before. I was told the difference due to their healthy & varied natural diet would make for deep orange yolks along with a definite difference in taste from a store-bought egg and boy were they right!  Look at that vibrant color!

At 21 weeks our Black Minorca and Ideal 236 free-range chickens have finally started laying eggs. How exciting! #TexasHomesteaderSooooo let me get this straight:  We have these chickens and they eat the bugs, reduce the fly population on our cattle AND they provide these amazing eggs? Wow, what a winner!

~TxH~

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12 thoughts on “Chicken Update: 21 Weeks – WE HAVE EGGS!

  1. Dolly Sarrio

    Congratulations on your first beautiful eggs! Isn’t it so exciting? I love it. Those Black Minorcas are so pretty.

    Reply
  2. Marigene

    There is only one thing better than going out to collect freshly laid eggs and that is eating them!
    Have a wonderful week…

    Reply
  3. Linda @ A La Carte

    My friends have chicken and the eggs are the best ever! So glad your hens are laying. Thanks for joining TTF.

    Reply
  4. Melody

    Oh You lucky duck….er…..chick…hehe.
    I have always wanted chickens, but I am allergic to feathers 8(

    Reply
  5. Emily @ Em-provising

    Oh, I just love fresh eggs! It is our dream to someday have some chickens… when we can move and have a little bit more freedom (darn HOA!). So awesome! Now following you on bloglovin!

    Reply
  6. Vickie

    I would love to do this! The next best thing is to read about someone else actually doing it. At least my kids have the opportunity to watch my grandfather raise chickens. It has to be so much healthier than the store-bought eggs. Thanks for the post.

    I found your blog at the Serving Joyfully link up. 🙂

    Reply
  7. Angela in KY

    I was beginning to worry we had all Roosters!!! We got a bunch of new chicks around Easter time and I wasn’t sure when they would start laying….if ever. But my husband even gave them a good pep talk a couple weeks ago. LOL. We got our first egg Sunday!!! Yay!

    Reply
  8. Joan @ The Chicken Mama

    Ah, the excitement of the first eggs! I’m still waiting for my White Leghorns to look interested in the nesting boxes. Congratulations – those are some beautiful hens and yummy looking eggs!

    Reply
  9. Summers Acres

    Yay! Those first eggs are so exciting! You have such pretty birds. I especially like the black Minorca.

    Reply
  10. Khadija

    YAAAY! I love chickens. They are the sweetest creatures. 🙂 The eggs look beautiful.

    Reply
  11. Vickie

    I always love a win/win situation! Congratulations!

    Reply

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