Back on a cold morning in June I drove down the road to pick up some pullets from a kid who breeds a mix of chook breeds. We’d also ordered some fertilized eggs to incubate just as a back up, and that had mixed success so I’m thankful that I bought these lovely pullets from that chook kid. Normally I’d just get Isa Browns, as they’ve never let me down. They’re good layers and the most popular breed around these parts making them rather cheap, sometimes $4.00 a bird. Can you believe that? That’s so cheap that anyone with a backyard could have chooks!
Anyway I was interested in some breeds that I’d never had before. I picked White Suffolk and Rhode Island Reds and one mixed half-breed as a test. Apparently the mixed breeds are good layers. $10 a piece was a fair price, and I felt good that this little kid was building his chook breeding empire and that I was finally getting my own birds again.
There is nothing more rewarding than heading out to the chook pen and picking out the eggs and cooking them for breakfast! It’s one of the joys of growing up on the farm that I treasure from all those years ago. But during winter they don’t lay, and our girls are pullets so they were definitely too young to be laying. But about a week ago I did my ritual check in the hen house, and low and behold they’re looking back at me was a clean little pullet egg. Not much of an egg but it’s the first egg of this oncoming warm season and boy did it make me happy. The next day another egg, as well as the following. So I figure only one girl has started laying and the others are still not ready. I have a feeling it’s the mixed breed, because the others sometimes huddle in a group away from her whispering and giggling behind her back. I can almost hear them saying mean things like “she only his favorite because she’s laying” “What’s so special about laying anyway…she’s such a suck!”
The first egg meal with lightly fried prosciutto and a dollop of stinging nettle pesto. It’s a fine life.
Whole Larder Love 
Mm mm. We are going to try fried prosciutto instead of the usual bacon.
Back to nettles. Have you tried nettle tea? Very good for your liver.
If you run out of the fresh stuff try Planet Organic.
yum.
Yay! That first “pullets surprise” is always exciting!
Did you know ISA browns are not an actual breed, but a hybrid bred for battery egg production….(ISA stands for the company that developed them) so they start to lay early and go great guns for the first year but tend to taper off dramatically after that. The heritage breeds usually take much longer to start laying, but they usually lay eggs for many years.
Signed, the chook geek….
Oh that’s great chook knowledge Michelle!!! Thanks.
Hi Ro
I am about to move to Bacchus Marsh and get my first lot of chooks. Where is this kid you got your new chooks off?
Don’t suppose you can provide a name and contact number if he is in the Ballarat area?
The best option is to look in The local paper called the Courier. In the classifieds section this time of year you will find cooks for sale everywhere!! A few years ago I got some little rippers for a few bucks a piece from a ‘free range’ farm. They had malted and looked feral as, but after one summer of chook lovin’ they looked a million bucks and laid daily.
Yep, I’m with Michelle – heritage breeds are the only way to fly. They eat less than ISA Browns (laying an egg a day takes lots of energy), they look prettier, and you get to play a part in conserving a breed of chicken for future generations of chook lovin’ folks. Plus, breeds like my Orpingtons, Australorps and Dorkings lay at least an egg every second day, and get going half way through winter. They’re perfect for backyard farmers!
I love freshly laid eggs – such a treat. I’d love to have chooks in the common yard area of our building – but the Chairperson of the strata would probably lay an egg herself if I suggested it. Do you crush up the used egg shells into a fine sand & mix it in with the chooks feed? It’s meant to make their egg shells much stronger.
Actually I just pop the shells in the compost box which is eventually fed to the chooks every few days. They pick at the shells without me needing to crush them. Clever girls. ;-)
now just wait for the double yokers’
Haven’t had one of those for a while!! But every now and then in the height of summer, one of the girls pops out a whopper. Ouch!
ouch indeed, ah well thers’s a reason they are curved
I love the eggs my girls lay – the yolks are a fabulous orange colour.
They have a huge yard for themselves under the trees with plenty of sunny spots for dirt baths – so why the #@#$% do they keep jumping the fence and digging up my ‘pretty’ garden like I have just discovered they have done yet again! Seems they like my thyme as much as I do!
pullets eh??
guess you can keep the book. xx
Saw your book on the design files today- looks great:) . Yum to home laid eggs! We’re just moved again so looking forward to getting some yummy veg growing again soon.
Go for it Selina! Next to veg and fruit, the chook shed is the most rewarding part of the garden!
Just wanted to give a shout out to melbourne chook lovers. I had three marvellous chooks of my own, primrose, henrietta and princess layer, who had just recently started laying an egg each a day and were the best backyard cluckers ever. This morning I woke up to carnage. I suspect a fox had visited in the night. I’m in preston, suburban melbourne, so just wanted to warn ppl. According to my research on the net it’s fox breeding season. Fortify your pens! Worst morning ever.
That’s a bummer! I hope your day got better! That’s happened to me a few times. It’s a bloody horrible site. Preston! Of all places!
Poor chookies- According to the good folks at the Department of Primary Indusrties there is a higher density of foxes in Melbourne than the country. You wouldn’t think. http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/agriculture/pests-diseases-and-weeds/pest-animals/foxes-and-their-impact/control-in-urban-fringe-areas
How gorgeous are those little pullet eggs! takes me back a year… unfortunately my heritage girls seem to be dropping their game already!
Oh no! I don’t live in Melbourne, but I feel your pain – and live in fear of something similar happening to my lovely chooks here in Newcastle. :-(
I bought a Rhode Island Red this year… “Daisy” turned out to be a he.
Don’t you hate it when that happens? The good side of it is that at the six month mark he can fit in the pot!
I loved, loved this post – reading about other people’s chicken experiences is the best! I have six now – a couple of bantams, an Ostralorp and some Nulkaba Browns that one of my bantams faithfully sat on as fertilised eggs and are now just one year old and laying like a dream. There is nothing that makes me happier than peeking into the hen house every day and seeing lots of lovely little eggs that have just been laid ready to be made into delicious treats in my kitchen. And, I reckon if you haven’t experienced a freshly-laid poached egg on toast, then you just haven’t lived – they are nothing at all like what you get in the shops, even the very best organic free range eggs money can buy. If only everyone was able to keep hens, they are such interesting and satisfying creatures!