My new favorite thing in the whole world is my flock of Mille Fleur D'Uccles (pronounced DEW-Clays). Ok, maybe not the whole world, but definitely my backyard! So after going through regular size chickens (too loud even though I only had hens), ducks (too messy, smelly and still loud), and quail (too stupid and way too loud surprisingly) , I am full circle back to chickens. These pint-size chickens are the perfect urban egg producer! Even the rooster, as far as roosters go, is not all that noisy. He crows every now and then and has his morning fit of course, but even at his loudest he is drowned out by any one of the neighborhood dogs.Milles are clean and don't smell much compared to their larger cousins. They don't eat as much, don't take up as much room, and they are BEAUTIFUL! I love the endless variety of the feather patterns. They are so cute and pickupable! Even the rooster is pretty tame, docile, and holdable.
From 7 hens I am getting 5 eggs every two days. Two are still a bit young I think and will start laying pretty soon. But right now I get one egg one day, and 4 eggs the next day. I love 4 egg days! ;) The eggs are small, about the size of any small chicken egg. So I use about 2 to 1 ratio for recipes.Since we have a number of hawks and owls in the neighborhood, I am afraid to let them out of their pen to roam the yard. We have had a large hawk (Harrier) attack the pen while my hubby was standing about 8 feet away! The rooster flipped out, but the hawk seemed unimpressed. I do hope maybe with the help of my dog Dori, maybe we can start letting them out to forage. Luckily, since they are small, the pen is very roomy and spacious and they seem to like their living arrangements. They are such a calming tranquil joy to watch as they cluck and peck around their pen.
