Yay. Four chickens and four eggs laid today! Obviously, our pretty little Orloff girls were a bit slower to develop into full blown egg layers than some of the other breeds. We adopted them on the 3rd of May, they had to be at least a week old by that time, and while it was apparent that two of the girls were older (based by size) it was still way longer than 20 weeks to egg production, for all involved.
This last chicklet didn't start laying eggs until (at least) 29 weeks of age! Her eggs are darker, as well. While still beige in color, the eggs are a deeper hue than the others.
We have had a lot of wind, 20-30 mph with 50 mph gusts, the past week with temps in the 30s and wind chill into the teens and twenties. We don't have a lot of protection from the wind for them since their coop gets moved twice a week. There is no way to buffer the winds in each new location. They have the ability to get into their coop during the day, but choose to stay outside at long as there is light outside. The coop is well protected from wind and rain. I do have a canvas panel though, that I could try to wrap around the pen on windy and rainy days (sideways rain) but they don't like things that flap around so that might be more stressful than useful. We will just play it by ear to see what/if anything else needs to be attended to, as we head into the winter months.
