First Marans Egg!!!

It seems as though I have been waiting forever for this day! One of our little free loaders rewarded us with a small brown egg this morning.I feel so proud... .

Wind Egg

I have seen other people post pictures of wind eggs. A wind egg is what happens when a chicken lays an egg that is abnormally small. It is sort of a glitch when it happens and the obligatory side-by-side comparison photos are quite comical to see.

They are even funnier when they are laid by a quail. You see, it took 11 quail eggs to make a small omelet for breakfast this morning. In other words, quail eggs are very small to begin with. A quail wind egg is about the size of a marble...or maybe a little smaller...Yep, definitely smaller!I didn't have the heart to crack it open.

Memorial Weekend Workout

We decided to put the long weekend to good use. We managed to get most of the gardens in: some tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, more herbs, radishes, cucumbers, zucchini, cantaloupe and watermelon. We sowed some pots of mesclun mix and various other salad greens awhile back and they are doing fairly well...Or at least they are when the squirrels leave them alone!




Our strawberries are doing very well and there are quite a few blossoms on them. We can't wait until we can taste some homegrown berries.

The peas are up and we continue to sow more each week to make sure that we have a continuous crop.

The quail are enjoying the backyard in their Quail Jail. Fabricated from old windows, it still needs a paint job. I never manage to remember to check the hardware store for OOPS paint. I'm hoping to find something that will complement the colors of our house. The first batch of quail hens are all laying 4 eggs consistently. This photo only shows the first batch of birds as the Rich Heritage birds have been residing on my screened back porch . The Rich Heritage quail started to lay this week, though I'm still not certain as to the sexes of most of those birds... Only one bird crows! Could we really be so fortunate as to have only one rooster in the hatch? If so, it would bring our total male count to three.

Here is a picture of one of our water barrels. I would love to get another one that is shaped like this. It is currently half full due to some generous rainfall...Now if we could just get some gutters up on the house or carriage house to direct the rain into the barrel...hmmmm...

EGGS!

These are the first two Martian eggs laid at Mission-2-Mars. They are rather small, even for quail eggs. I'm not too sure which birds actually laid them, but I have my suspicions. Our first batch of quail had 2 males and 4 females, so we should be seeing quite a few eggs in the days to come. The second batch of quail is fast approaching 6 weeks of age, so we will soon be overrun with eggs. I can't wait to try them in an omelet!