Let's Count Eggs!

Welcome Back!

Every year we spend a few weeks counting how many eggs we get every day. We figure out how many eggs we get from the chickens, and how much money we spend on food. It gives us a good idea of how much our eggs cost. I make a graph to see which color eggs we get the most of, too.

Here is my egg count for this week.

• Friday, April 14 I collected 11 brown eggs, 23 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs
• I found a nest in the hay shelter AND a hidden nest in the horse trailer!
• Saturday, April 15 I collected 10 brown eggs, 6 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs
• Sunday, April 16  I collected 10 brown eggs, 11 green eggs, and 3 duck egg.
  One of the ducks was hiding her eggs and I found her hiding spot today
•  Monday, April 17 I collected 1 brown egg, 2 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs.
• Tuesday, April 18 I collected 8 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs.
• Wednesday, April 19 I collected 6 brown eggs, 6 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs.
• Thursday, April 20 I collected 7 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs.

Quin's mama duck is sitting on a nest of eggs.

I'm not sure when she started sitting on her nest
so I'm not sure when the eggs will hatch.

She built her nest in a safe spot under an old fence. I'll keep you updated if I see ducklings!

We also have one grey hen who is sitting on eggs. I kept taking her eggs away, but she keeps sitting in the same spot. I decided that I would let her hatch out some eggs so I let her start sitting on them yesterday, April 20. Her eggs should hatch about May 4. If everything goes well I'll show you pictures of chicks in 3 weeks!

Did I answer your question, Ellie?

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There are lots of cats who like to drink running water. Our new cat, Bubbers, loves to get a drink of water from the bathroom sink.

Look closely and see how he drinks.

He scoops the water with the back of his tongue! 

Chickens scoop the water into their beak

then they have to lift their beak into the air so they can swallow the water.

Goats, cows, and sheep suck the water into their mouth

the same way you suck through a straw.

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We took the goat kids' sweaters off this week. It's warm enough and they are old enough to run and play with only their white fur coats.

We also had to 'disbud' the kids last Friday. That means we make sure they don't grow horns. They have black spots on their heads this week. It takes about 4 weeks for the marks to go away.

The kids are fine, but they look odd when their heads look like this!

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No, we don't have butterflies.
A few years ago Quin hatched butterflies at home.
It was a lot of fun and so exciting to see the butterflies come out of their cocoons.

No, we don't have fish right now.
I usually buy some goldfish for the little fountain in the flower bed.
I'll show you a picture when I get them.

We have 6 baby goats right now, and it seems like we should have lambs, too!
We only have one sheep, his name is Stew.
Sometimes we have bottle lambs in the spring, but we don't have one this spring.

Thank you for all your questions!

I'll answer more of your questions next week! Have a great week!