The State of the Flock in February
Sometime back in November the hens went from laying more than enough eggs for us to just a handful a day, seemingly overnight.
Well recently things shifted back, presumably due to the warmer weather and the days just starting to lengthen. 
This flock is a mix of various breeds from various sources, many of whom were hatched right here on the homestead or were gifted to us. 
Between that and the very simple feed and free-range needs they have, we get way more out of these birds than we put in. You can do a lot with eggs and milk, I’ve read, and I am really finding that to be true. With some cheese and eggs and stored vegetables from last year, sometimes I think it’s starting to look like a homestead in this kitchen.
And we are so grateful to the Lord for His continuing provision.
I just love reading about your homestead, Shannon. I, too, started off with gifted chickens and those they hatched. You remind me how good it feels to look around the kitchen and realize “all this came from my little homestead”.
Chickens are such good providers!
Beautiful. You really are living the ideal.
Our ladies have started laying more too. Over the weekend, we cleaned the hen house out, scrubbed everything down, and put new straw in their boxes. We added some new straw and wood chips in the floor. My husband raked their fenced in yard and piled it all on our compost pile and he put a few layers of straw to give the ladies some nice dry material to look for the corn I threw in for them. I like to hang a vegetable scrap bag low enough so they can get nice treats and a nice work out. They rewarded all this hard work with beautiful fresh eggs that we enjoyed for breakfast today. I cannot tell you how much I enjoy our hens.