This summer a massive heat wave killed off all of our chickens but three, leaving us with just one rooster and two hens.

We fortunately had eggs in the incubator at the time, and the chicks that hatched out have been the foundation of regrowing our flock. Half grew into roosters who are unfortunately still around (I’ve wanted them to be processed for the past two months but there have been repeated delays and I’m somewhat exasperated about it). From the female half we still have hardly had any eggs, since it takes about five months until a chicken begins to lay eggs. Our hens came of age during the shortest days of the year, which further delayed their laying.

Finally about three weeks ago, some of them began laying. We’re now getting seven eggs a day, which isn’t nearly enough for our needs but it’s very nice to have them after so long with nothing! Some of the hens aren’t yet ready to lay but will soon, and that will also increase the number of eggs we get.

Below you can spot an a first time egg from a new layer – isn’t it adorable?

Even with all of the hens laying, we won’t have enough eggs to provide for our needs. While it’s nice to have supplemental eggs, I’d actually really appreciate having enough eggs to eat to make a difference to our diets.

I’ve collected eggs to incubate.

Although all chicken care transferred from my son to me at the beginning of last year, my seventeen year old son remains the expert on incubation. I asked him to check the heat calibration of the incubator to be sure it was accurate – last year it wasn’t and the excess heat killed the viability of all seventy eggs in that batch. I don’t want to do multiple incubator batches this year, just one big batch.

Last night he put in over sixty eggs.

All of those eggs won’t hatch; of those that hatch all the chicks won’t survive, and a percentage of those that survive the initial few weeks won’t make it to adulthood. In adulthood, there are still mishaps that can occur.

The saying, “Don’t count your eggs before they hatch” comes to mind.

I am hopeful, though, that by the summer we could have a nice amount of laying hens. That’s the goal – we’ll see how it works out!

By the way, I’ve seen suggestions for those concerned about high egg prices to get chickens. It’s really not that simple and definitely not inexpensive. You need to buy chickens (expensive), build a coop (expensive) and then raise them (ongoing feed costs and care). I don’t consider raising chickens for eggs to be a frugal strategy. It would take a long time to recoup the costs invested in raising chickens – I’m sure we’re nowhere near it. Of course, if we had done things in a more business-like way with the intention to make money, it could be we’d have done better in that regard, but that wasn’t our focus.

Having said that, it enhances our quality of life to have chickens so we have them even if they aren’t frugal.

Avivah