This whole egg lady thing has taken off faster than I anticipated! Along with the chicken feed issues and with my original crew preparing to molt; I've not had eggs for myself for 3 weeks! Since I am actually selling eggs and not just giving them away, I decided to try and find some started pullets or some "used" chickens already laying to supplement the week's dozens.
Handsome found us a sale to attend a couple hours away from home. We ended up spending 14 hours at the sale and of course another 4 hours traveling to and from. This was just so I could get a few more laying hens. (He is so patient with my ass on this kind of stuff.) It was one of the most fascinating and educational days I've had in a long time. Technically, it was a small animal auction so there were mini cows, mini donkeys, all manner of sheep, goats, pigs; every kind of farm animal you could think of in a smaller size. All manner of home-raised birds from parakeets to peacocks to turkeys, ducks, quail, geese, rabbits.... And chickens. Competition chickens. Fancy chickens. Red Chickens. Blue chickens. Miniature chickens. Big huge roosters, chicks, hatching eggs, and quite a few "used" laying hens. Then there was the pet side with any kind of reptile, hedgehogs, a monkey, a tortoise, hamsters, rats, sugar gliders. It was fascinating!
Ultimately, I was able to add several hens to the flock and Mr Gray, my calm sweet rooster, has enjoyed moving in with them. They laid 5 eggs during the day of the sale. The following day, they laid 7 more eggs and I haven't had any eggs from them since. I'm not surprised. Moving to a new home, new feed, new boyfriend has to be stressful! Hopefully next week they will have settled in their new coop and decided that I'm an okay hooman and will lay some eggs for me.
I just picked up another 2 dozen a week customer this morning so.... um.... girls?!