The Rubber Chicken is Shelved

We have chickens.  We've had chickens for darn near 20 years.  (egads, I can't believe it's been that long!)  Not because *I* like chickens but because Mr. Pirate contended that it would be a good "educational experience" for our children.  

Yes, that really does mean that *we* now take care of the chickens.  :-)   To be fair, our girls are now 27, 22 & 22 and don't necessarily live at home any longer.  Mr. Pirate also likes chickens.  I will admit to be vastly amused by the stupid creatures. :-)

Our latest flock contains 2 Ameraucanas, which are a breed that lays colored shell eggs (color other than brown).  Well, at least that is what the store labeled them as.  There is conflicting information available as to exactly what is an Ameraucana, the ancestral Auracana and the 'mutt' Easter Egger chicken.  ::shrug::  I really don't care ... our chickens look like pictures I've seen of Ameraucanas and so we shall call them.  :-)

We've had Ameraucanas before and knew that they produce green shelled eggs.  This current batch has been recalcitrant about sitting down on the job.  I've threatened to bring the Rubber Chicken into the hen house, to serve as an example of What Could Happen To You.  I guess the threat worked because two days ago and today, we have collected a green egg.  :-)

I haven't a clue which chicken is producing ... and they are covering for each other ... so I suppose that all of them are safe at this point.  :-)

Two days ago was the bumper crop of eggs so far ... we collected 10!  In addition to the ordinary white Small size (between 35 & 43 grams) that our bantam chickens lay, we get a wide variety of brown shelled eggs (we get all different sizes: medium, large, extra large and jumbo) .. and now!  our green shelled eggs!

One of the brown shelled eggs is noticeably darker than the other brown shelled eggs.  We do have Maran chickens, which are supposed to lay "chocolate eggs", i.e. very dark brown shells.  Since not all of our hens are laying at this point, I'm not entirely sure if the really dark egg in the picture above is one of the "chocolate eggs" or not.

One of the hens has been named Roadrunner  because that is EXACTLY what she looks like as she scurries from the other hens. She's one of the smaller hens and probably lays the medium sized eggs.

I haven't a clue what breed she is, since they all took off their name badges shortly after we bought them.  Silly chickens.   If they don't look like any pictures I see to identify them, then all I can say is that they are chickens!  :-)