Our Blessed Event

Yup, that's exactly what you think it is - our very first egg. The chickens are about five and a half months old at this point (they arrived at our place 10/18, so they were most likely hatched 10/16) and we've been expecting eggs any old time. This egg is approximately two-thirds the size of a normal "large" store egg, and is a rosy brown speckled with tiny white dots.

The Pirate and I did hear some commotion in the henhouse this morning, but because it's spring, when  a young man's fancy turns to love, we just thought that it was Arthur, our resident rakehell, having his wicked way with someone. Our eggs are sure to be fertile, we know that much.

The rice hulls were all moved to one side and the shell was a little cracked on the end, so we've chopped some straw and mixed it in to give the eggs a little softer place to land. My mother was thinking that six nesting boxes wouldn't be nearly enough for eight (and later twelve) hens, because when she was younger they had broody hens that would sit on their eggs until the eggs were taken. Well, obviously, not so our hens. The Pirate said that this morning, when he went inside the henhouse to turn off the heat lamp, one of the Barred Rocks was heading back inside to check things out, so it's fairly certain that it was one of them who left the egg. The Barred Rocks are the most "mature" of our flock - the most curious, the most assertive, the most mischevious, but they're not broody.

Now begins the period that to me is the most troublesome. The laying has started. What are we going to do with all these eggs?