The Best Day

   So, there has been a lot going on with the chickens, but unfortunately I didn't have time to write it up this week. Maybe next week!

   Anyway, I wanted to tell you guys about what is, (in my opinion) one of the best days with chickens.

   This is the day every chicken lays an egg.

   This was about a month ago (when Lizzy was still around). 

   Do you see this? Eight eggs! Since chickens only lay about four to six days a week (on average), getting all eight eggs can be rare. When it does happen it is very exciting!

The Golden Egg

   Well, it finally happened! The first egg!

   I went out to check on the chicken's food and I noticed Olive standing near the nesting boxes. I had seen her squatting a few days earlier. (Squatting is when mature chickens squat down and raise their shoulders. It is a sign the chicken will start to lay soon.)  So, I decided, just for fun, to check. And there it was!

It had this weird hole in the bottom. Possibly from being pecked, possibly from being dropped?

   If you have not raised chickens, it is hard to explain the excitement of a first egg.  Months of work.

Then finally, FINALLY, a single wonderful egg. 

  By the way, all that work tastes great!

   Thanks Olive!

Thanks to my dear friend Bridget, who helped me with the title!

Eggs

   One of the many things I love about chickens is the eggs. There is nothing going like going outside, saying hello to your little flock, then opening the coop, and finding a perfect little egg the girls left for you. This was our first egg we got from our chickens. Hazel laid it in August 2010. She was five months old.

   Hazel was our best layer. She laid us six eggs a week and sometimes double yolkers for the for the first year. After that her laying has dropped off to almost none. Her eggs were a light brown, but the darkest of our chickens' eggs.

   Sunny was the second chicken to start laying. She laid her first egg in October of 2010. Her eggs were very light brown. She laid an average amount. About four to six eggs a week.

   Ceci's first egg came in November of that year. Her eggs were very small and white. Ceci only laid about three to four eggs a week. However, she was still laying that amount until her death.

   Julie was the last one of our girls to start laying eggs. She began in December. Her eggs looked a lot like Sunny's but usually a bit pointier. She was also an average layer like Sunny.

    For me they are just pets that happen to lay eggs as a bonus. So, even when the chickens stop laying eggs completely, I will still love them. 

Ceci

   Ceci was always a little different than the other chickens. She is a Silver Speckled Hamburg.
When all the chicks had yellow legs, she had gray.

When the chickens grew up and they all had yellow eyes, she had dark brown.

   And then there was the tail. We didn't really know what to make of the tail at first. No one in our family had ever seen a tail like that on a chicken...

   She was also the smartest of our chickens. She was always finding a crevice in our fencing to wander the yard. She also loved to make "secret nests". Under sticks and leaves, under bushes, and once at least six eggs under the deck. (I say "at least" because we are not sure we were able to get all the eggs out when we discovered the nest. 'Sigh'.)

   Of course she had to lay them in the very back of the deck. I had to lie on my stomach with the longest-handled shovel I could find. 

   Although she was the most shy and flighty in our flock (she has been known to perch in trees and on the roof), I still loved her and always couldn't wait to see what she would do next.