IMG_2369Hey everyone! Here I am on the road again. Took mom out shopping and we’re at the Ramona Library using their wifi for a bit to get a little information out there to you.  Let me tell you – their wifi works better than ours at home! So nice to have this available 🙂 and for free!  Anyway, I found out that all the fun stuff happens when I’m on the road. Roma laid a huge egg today – it’s twice the size of the large chicken eggs!  This is her first one of the year! We’ll see how many we end up with. Geese lay about 35/year; more than every other week, but not quite one  a week. I think last year we ended up with only 3 all together.  So that was a fun happening this morning.

When-do-chickens-start-laying-eggsTook my mom down to Poway to do some shoe shopping with her. While we were at Walmart we ran into a friend from my folks church. She said, “I was going to send you a note on your Facebook page, but I can ask you now!” Seems that her old chicken flock was decimated by a couple of hawks over a 24 period, so she purchased some new chicks to replenish; they haven’t laid yet and she was worried that there was something wrong with them.  But they’re only four months old! So, both mom an d I assured her that they should start laying around 6 months – just to give them some more time to mature. Feels kinda funny to be stopped in Stein Mart to dispense chicken advice, but happy we were able to put her mind at ease! Alison – if you’re reading – please let us know when they start laying! Take some photos and share them with us.

IMG_2370Another fun thing mom and I did was visit the Gypsy Chickens off of  Dye Road.  I wanted to get close enough to take some photos for Sue. We weren’t really at the right angle for me to get photos that show great detail, but I think I got close enough to give Sue the gist. A while ago, when Sue was just contemplating the plans for the RCW, we had looked this farm up on-line and sent a note IMG_2371asking if they were willing to talk to us about their own design for the chicken wagons… they never got back in touch with us.  First thing I realized when we stopped to look, is that these things are HUGE.  They are about the size of a small Sea-Train container.  They are on a heavy metal frame with four wheels. The chickens enter and exit through the garage door type openings which are on each end of the wagon. You can see, in the background, that they occasionally stretch out a shade cloth for the chickens as well. Doesn’t work so well when it’s windy, but a great idea for days like today. Each wagon can easily hold over a hundred chickens. The second thing I noticed was that they have another self contained feeding and watering station. It’s on its own trailer and closes off to the elements at night. Then I saw the chicken fence.  they use the same one we have… it’s just way bigger.  It might be three of the largest sizes hooked together.  Their chickens were running around, scratching, eating from the feeding station, or hanging out in the shade – all happy as can be! Hope ours works out just as well. I think Ron was going to come yesterday and perhaps today to work on our RCW, but I haven’t had an update as of yet. I hope to be able to fill you in soon. Until then, as always ~
Thanks for reading!

Today’s Weather: Sue sent me a text this morning that said it was 28° this morning! That’s as cold as it’s been for a while.  Looking on-line, seems the high today was 57°. Tomorrow low is going to be 27°. Looks like it might have been rather windy today, but Sue hasn’t sent me the real wind speeds. No real rain in the forecast.

Egg Report: From the photo Sue sent, looks like we only got 7 eggs yesterday, zero duck. so far today, we had 2 chickens and 1 huge goose. I’m sure Sue will pick up more this afternoon, but I won’t be able to update until, maybe late tonight when I check in at my hotel in Anaheim. So, let’s just say the report will be updated at a later time.

Addendum: Hi y’all, so it’s 11:54 p.m. and we’ve checked into the hotel. Sue had sent me information for this section earlier, I just didn’t get it from my phone soon enough. So, here is the update: Today’s total egg haul was 16 chicken eggs and 1 goose, zero duck.  Sue said that it was Nice, but cold this morning. Windy this afternoon. One chicken got out over the fence today, she had three yesterday. It’s becoming a thing.