Rockhaven Rainbow Raptor Eggs

01/06/2026

It's only three weeks now till the winter solstice! Egg production will start to increase straight after as we begin to enjoy more hours of sunshine. Looking forward to filling people's orders again in a timely manner 😁

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06/05/2026

This is Granny. She is an Australorp x Rhode Island Red hen. She is the oldest hen in my flock I purchased her five years ago after my whole flock was taken by foxes (luckily the flock was about one tenth of the size it is now).

Anyways, up until two years ago her feathers were all black with green and dark blue sheen in the sunlight, and a bit of deep red coming through on her chest from the Rhode Island Red in her.

Her moulting at this time last year produced black feathers again with about two little white spots on her back.

Her moulting this year has produced even more white. She still has a few weeks to finish her regrowth, you can see her tail has not come back yet.

Doesn't she look spectacular!

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18/04/2026

28/03/2026

I started recording how many eggs my flock were laying on 22 March 2025. I was motivated to do this by the amount of questions I received about why at this time of year I am only collecting as little as three eggs per day. Sometimes I sensed the questioner did not believe the answers I was providing.

It was really easy to do, especially because I date the eggs. If I forgot to record one day I could check the next day. When I am away the wonderful friends of mine who look after the chooks date the eggs too.

SO, this chart presents a brilliant display for the natural cycle of egg laying for free range chooks. Egg laying is seasonal, it corresponds with the natural cycle of sunlight and temperature. You can see quite clearly from the graph that egg laying increases and peaks in the spring/summer months when daylight hours are longer and temperatures are warmer. When the daylight hours and temperature decrease egg production will decrease and sometimes there will be no eggs at all.

There are also many variables at play that can impact on egg production during the high seasons. I have done a post on these before, will try and find it another time and repost. I am going to do maybe another year of recording and try and remember to record some of the variables on it, such as when a laying hen dies and heatwaves or snow storms.

Graph: eggs/day from (a flock that fluctuated between maybe 50 and 60 hens) 22 March 2025 - 27 March 2026.
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23/03/2026

Seven weeks old this Wednesday. This is the way they greet the new day 🥰
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28/01/2026

Hi everyone :)

Sorry for not posting for ages about egg availability. You would have noticed that egg production decreased around the end of November. It coincided with about 10 hens being taken by a fox. I was able to keep up with people’s timed orders for a few months before that, and I probably will be able to again in the second half of 2026. But for the moment do not expect I will get your order to you in the time you have requested.

The hens were maybe averaging in the high teens post fox attack and up until mid-January. But some of the hens have started to moult, and the heat is really stressing the chooks out. When the heat eases there will be a slight increase in production. It will then decrease again when the rest of the flock (except the young ones) go into moult.

For the past two days I have only collected eight eggs each day. Today I have only collected six!

I have 12 pullets that will begin laying in one to two months. So that will make orders flow a bit faster. I have eggs incubating in Walcha at the moment and have received news that 15 out of 24 appear to be viable. Hopefully they will all hatch next week some time, and then I get to play the waiting game of ‘is it a pullet or cockerel’. These babies wont be old enough to lay an egg till August/September.

Photo is of my beloved rooster Speckels (RIP). He is an easter egger breed, helps make the rainbow eggs. Speckles was the most docile rooster I have ever owned. And he was enormous, much taller than my knees! He damaged one of his spurs once. I just picked him up and took him to my partner for help. My partner (a Vet), detached the broken spur with his hands while I held Speckles, and Speckles did not flinch. Speckles was a very healthy specimen at the time of his death. I found Speckles dead in the chook yard about a fortnight ago. It was less than an hour after me hearing him crow. His comb and wattles were deep purple in colour which suggests asphyxiation, which suggests a snake bite. I share my home with many snakes and one of the brown snakes spends a lot of time around the chook yard. Where there are chooks there are mice and rats. Where there are rats and mice there are snakes. That’s how it rolls. We assume poor Speckles was bitten by a snake.

🥚🐧🐔🐥❤️🥚

08/12/2025

Hi everyone 😁

There won't be any egg exchanges happening between Monday 22 December and Saturday 27 December. I hope I can fill a few orders on Sunday 28 December.

Photo: a lovely cactus gift from one of my customers ❤ it will send out lots of arms and eventually bloom with big white flowers.

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25/11/2025

This heat wave is going to mean less eggs! Add that to the chooks gone to the foxes and it is highly unlikely I will get people's orders to them in the requird time period from now on. And me and the chooks were doing so well!
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