In addition to shorter daylight, the hens go into a moult--they shed their feathers and grow new ones. Feathers are made of protein, so when the hens are growing more feathers, there isn't enough protein to make many eggs on top of new feathers.
This year egg production dropped a lot more than I was anticipating and we have only been getting one or two eggs a day! For a while, a dozen eggs was costing about $7 in feed!!! Recently, egg-laying got better (we think they are finished growing out their new feathers) and we are getting three to four eggs a day. We were able to save up enough eggs to have them for dinner. What a wonderful treat!
Katie made several batches of Mexican Roasted Potatoes (these have become a real family favorite) and we cooked up a big batch of homemade bacon from our homegrown pork. Most of us had poached eggs. Vern prefers his fried and I got this photo of these wonderful looking egg yolks!
We're already talking about what kind of egg meal we'd like to have when we've saved up enough eggs for another one!
2 comments:
Ok, I am jealous! We have only been getting an average of three eggs a day for WEEKS now! Our chickens are losers! :>)
:*) That's what we were getting too. The last week or so we averaged about 4 a day... and then Vern was home for the whole Thanksgiving week, so didn't have his normal fried egg sandwich for breakfast. That helped us save up.
I keep trying to tell myself this 'break' will make me appreciate the windfall of eggs we hope for come Spring!
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