We got our first egg today!! I figure it is high time to get this blog started. I will have to go back and fill in for the first 5 months of our flock's life. Those posts will come after this one.
Today was a cool, cloudy day in Phoenix. The kids and I went out to clean out the chicken coop. We had been watching the chickens and figured it was pretty close to time for the egg laying to start and we wanted the coop conditions to be nice and clean. We recently learned that they are ready to lay when their comb and waddle get big and red. We have 3 chickens that have big red waddles and combs. What was really neat is that the three would lay different colored eggs, so we would know which chicken it was when it happened.
Our chickens are happy free range chickens. They wander and peck in our backyard which is about 1/4 of an acre. They have gravel, dirt, sand and grass to peck and eat, and all the bushes, trees and structures of the yard to hide under. There is also
that place over on the side of the yard where my husband insists on keeping 2x4s and other scrap wood that we will probably never actually use, but that we must hang on to. There has been a pack rat building a nest over there and I have been asking him to clean it up.
That is where Penny the Buff Orpington hen was spotted!
Not by us, but by the dog who must have seen her sneak behind a piece of wood. When he chased her out, she did the "bu, bu, bu, bu, bu-cock!" thing that chickens do when they lay an egg. She was very vocal about it. We went over to investigate and found that she had been digging a nest under that wood. She had been there more than we knew. She may have even laid an egg there before and fed the pack rat!
We all moved away and she made her way back to her special nest behind the wood. We waited... and waited... and waited... Just how long does it take to lay an egg? I wondered. I couldn't wait any longer. I approached her nest. She darted out. She had not laid an egg yet, but her behavior said she would soon. The rest of the chickens were on the other side of the yard. It is very unusual to be separated from the rest like that. So, she went back to her nest. And we waited.
We then decided that we really did not want her laying her first egg there. If she did, then she would seek to lay all her eggs there. We want her to lay in the nesting boxes in the hen house. So I went back over and got her and put her in the coop. I locked her in. This was very upsetting for her. She went in the hen house and got in a box. Then she came out and got in another box. Then she came out of there and got in another box. She checked out all eight boxes and then came out of the hen house. She paced around the coop. She wanted to go back to her nest.
Having no other choice, she eventually settled into a box at the back of the hen house and I could hear her scratching and scratching. Then finally, she quieted. I was busy cleaning up the wood pile. I will tell you now, that her "nest" no longer exists. I cleaned up that side yard myself! Got rid of the pack rat nest and the wood laying on the ground. So that's that! Well, until my dear husband piles more stuff there. :-)
When I was finished and ready to go inside, I thought I would check on our dear Penny. She was quietly sitting in the nesting box. I opened the hatch and looked at her. When I reached down to touch her, she fussed a little. Then she moved out of the box to reveal a small cream colored egg!!!! I gasped, then teared! She did it! Our first egg has finally arrived. The most expensive egg in the world!!
Then I felt bad that my kids did not get to discover it. I closed the hatch leaving the egg in the box. I then saw Penny leave the hen house and begin her "bu, bu, bu, bu, bu-cock!!" I got her on video on my cell phone. I have no idea how to access that video!
I went in and told the kids to come check on Penny. We got the camera and went in. We photographed the egg and the hen and the kids, of course. We sent the egg picture to several folks including my mother who lives next door and she came right over to see our first egg!
We spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging out with the hens. The rooster was distressed by the hens hanging so close to us. He crowed and ruffled his feathers and kept a safe, respectful
distance. As long as he behaves, he can stay.
Chapter 1
We bought 6 chicks from the local Pet Food Depot. We were told we were buying 3 California Whites and 3 Brown Leghorns. All great egg layers. Leghorns were just what I was looking for. California Whites are a cross between a Leghorn and a California Grey, so good enough. They were all healthy and perky. However, now that they are 5 months old, I can say with confidence that the feed store had NO IDEA what they were selling me! What I actually have (after one of the "leghorns" died) is ONE California white hen, 2 Speckled Sussex hens, A Red Sex-Link hen and a Sex-Link ROOSTER!! HELLO?! Reason #1 for not buying chicks at the local feed store.
We put the chicks in a box with the little water thing and the feed and the wood chips and a heat lamp left over from when we kept that horned toad a couple of years ago. We set them up in the laundry room and closed the door so that our dog couldn't eat them.
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