Not that I've been waiting for a hen to get broody, but it's nice to know I've got hens so inclined since I want to try and let one hatch out some chicks after the coming winter. The chook in question is one of the Wyandottes, one of the first of them to start laying this summer. I'd probably have let her if I didn't have any chicks from the fair because that area of the coop is where I'd keep the broody and her clutch. Instead, I'm raising the Rosses for the dinner table.

On the Ross front, I lost one chick in the first week. That's not bad, though. In the year that I've been keeping chickens, I've had 24 chicks and have raised 23 of them to full chookhood. That's only a 4% mortality rate.

Just for fun, I'm going to see what it costs to raise the Rosses up until butchering time. I'm not counting electricity or labor or coop space, but will track everything else. So far I've spent less than three dollars on all nine, and I have an Excel spreadsheet that will even give me a per-chick cost. Stay tuned.

63 eggs last week. Now I'm running out of space in the kitchen drawer earmaked for egg cartons that are being brought to me by family members and work colleagues. I've only sold a dozen-and-a-half by request (not counting the dozen my father-in-law paid for even though I tried to refuse it). It's been great fun and a huge blessing just to be able to give the eggs away.