Our Little Chicks All Grown Up

Remember these fluffy little cuties?

They are all grown up now and giving us eggs! Our Americanas (Easter Eggers) lay light mint-green eggs, and our Isa Browns and Cinnamon Queens both lay brown eggs, some of which are speckled with tiny white dots. Our Easter Eggers have trouble laying in the nest box, so we often find their eggs huddled in the corner of the coop or even nestled in the grass in the run. We get anywhere from four to seven eggs a day.

We chose four chicks from the brown egg-layer “grab bag.” To our surprise, two of those chicks were actually Leghorns, which lay white eggs. We felt a little unsure of the white eggs at first, but I like how they add a splash of brightness to the brown and green eggs in the carton. The variety of color also makes fetching eggs from the nest boxes so much more fun, especially for the kids (but also for the adults!).

Leghorns and Isa Browns are specifically bred to be smaller chickens who produce a lot of eggs. They cost less to keep overall because they don’t require as much chicken feed for the amount of eggs they lay. Brian built our hens a chicken tractor with removable wheels (from an old wheelchair), so our hens also eat a fair amount of bugs and fruit as they move around the yard. We feed them some food scraps from our kitchen, too.

So far, the hens I like the best are the Leghorns and the Isa Browns. Not necessarily because of their cost-effectiveness, but because they’re the friendliest in the flock. Every time we walk outside and head towards the coop, they group next to the wire in the direction we’re coming from. They like when we feed them clovers and they don’t run away when we need to open the coop or the run.

I can safely say that I never thought I would love having chickens so much. They’re easy to take care of, they’re endlessly entertaining, and they provide us with nutritious, tasty food. Praise the Lord for livestock!