Signs of Spring, Chickens and Eggs

 Pekin egg, Skyline egg, Light Sussex egg.

One of the surest signs for me that Spring is truly on the way is the first Pekin egg of the year.

Poppy and Daisy

My Lavender Pekin bantams Poppy, Daisy, (and hopefully this year Jill) and Back Pekin bantam Ebony only lay their eggs during Spring and into Summer,  it's natures way of ensuring the chicks hatched from any fertilised eggs would stand a good chance of survival, and they stop laying towards the end of Summer when the tiny chicks they produce would suffer from colder weather.  

So in their opinion twenty one days from last Tuesday which would be 9th March would be the ideal time for a baby bird to be hatched.  Spring is almost here.

Pekin egg and Light Sussex eggs for size comparison purposes

Of course I could also go by the snowdrops that are nearing the end of their blooming or the many daffodils that have sprung up all around our land and along the roadside between here and Llandudno ... but they have all been tricked by the un-seasonally warm weather we have been having ... you can't trick a chicken whose laying patterns (when not artificially altered by electric lights and being kept indoors) are purely triggered by the length of the days they live through.

Ebony, with her last little brood of chicks.

Sue xx