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.