An Even Dozen

I think it's safe to say that our new coop-lighting scheme has done the trick:


It's been a week since we had our (new) first egg once they were back up to 17 hours of light per day, and all four chickens have begun laying again. It's hard to tell in this photo, but a couple of the big brown eggs from Dolley look to be double-yokers. As for everyone else, their eggs seem a tad on the small side, but I have read that this is normal for the winter. This is because eggs are mostly water, and in the dry winter air, the chickens will be less hydrated than they are in the summer (kind of like us, with our dry skin and hacking coughs as the season wears on). Since they don't have as much water to spare, the eggs are a little smaller. Even if smaller, we're getting tow to three eggs per day, which isn't too shabby for the cold and dark of December.

That's fine. It's good to be back up to having a dozen in the fridge. Now we can get back down to business: pancake breakfasts and Christmas cookie baking this weekend!

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