Eggs! Eggs! and More Eggs!

Here they come!! The eggs are arriving! It was just 12 days ago that Penny laid her first egg. When that happened, we thought the rest would soon follow! Well, they are now!

Penny has been a faithful girl. She marches into the hen house every day around noon and leaves us a beautiful cream-colored egg. They are small, but each one is just a tiny bit bigger than the last. Following is a video the kids made of their taste test between a store bought "free range" egg and one of Penny's eggs. Guess which egg they liked better!



So, we were waiting for more chickens to lay. We watched them carefully for the same "laying behavior" that we saw in Penny. Well, two days ago, we noticed Cinnamon (my favorite hen - she follows me everywhere and is so curious!) looking around in places she had never looked before. She was coming out of dark corners, and from under bushes with a determination that indicated an impending egg. So we knew it was coming.

What we didn't notice, was Hazel, the quiet Ameracauna looking also. The only indication I got was a strange sighting out of my bedroom window. She was up on the window sill acting a little strange, then seemed to jump down. Later, I went out to retrieve Penny's egg. As I came across the patio, I happened to notice a chicken in the garbage can!! It was Hazel. She had jumped in there from my bedroom window sill! That silly hen! I picked her up hoping to get her into the hen house before she laid, but nope, too late. There was her egg! I took her and her egg to the coop and put them both in a laying box. I hoped that her last memory of coming out of the coop would help her learn to lay there, but alas, the next day, she was perched atop the garbage can squawking.

So, in an effort to prevent this from happening with another hen, we locked Hazel, Cinnamon, and of course Penny in the coop.

This created a scene that I wish I had gotten on video! Cinnamon, who has the most outgoing personality and vocal expression, commenced to squawking loudly! In response, the rooster came over and started honking even louder and pacing outside the coop. This went on for about 20 minutes while Cinnamon checked out each and every box and paced the coop.

I found this on the web. It helps explain why they make so much noise:

For instance, when a hen is ready to lay her egg, she gives a
nesting call, inviting her mate to join
her in finding a nesting site.
Together they find and create a nest by pulling
and flinging around
themselves twigs, feathers, hay, leaves, and loose dirt,
after they have
scraped a depression in the ground with their beaks and feet.
Upon laying
her egg, the hen issues an "egg cackle," which brings the rooster to
her
side, and together they rejoin the flock. United Poultry Concerns

Meanwhile Penny, quiet little Penny, entered her favorite box to lay her egg. Cinnamon eventually settled in the box opposite her.




















When both eggs were laid, Cinnamon started squawking again, announcing the arrival of her egg. You can hear General Cotton (the roo) in the background responding to her. He stayed right by the coop until we let them out. He is a good roo!




We eventually let all three out as we didn't expect to get another egg from Hazel that day.

So, I went out at sunset as they were tucking themselves in bed and checked the boxes one last time, and, Hello!! another egg. We don't know who laid this one! We definitely think it is a "first egg", but whose? My money is on the speckeled sussex, Flare. We will have to watch and see who laid the mystery egg!!!

Now, this morning!! There is another egg! We think this is Hazel's second egg because it is the same color. I guess we will soon have to give up the idea that we will always know who laid the eggs we find. For now it is fun to try to figure it out!

When a hen lays her first egg, our experience has been that it will have a grainy texture, speckles, and be thinner than subsequent eggs. Our exception to that is the RI Red, Cinnamon, who laid a fairly big normal looking egg. It was slightly grainy, though.

I am pleasantly surprised that the eggs seem to have very healthy shells and good colored yolks (per the ONE that we have cracked open). We let the hens free range in our yard and they eat a lot of grass, bugs, seeds, etc. They really don't eat much of the feed we provide. I would guess that it is maybe 1/4 of their diet. I don't feed them any oyster shells, or other supplements. They get kitchen scraps only if they are organic, or from the middle of the fruit (as with cantalope seeds). But they don't get a lot other than what they are finding in the yard.


Where will we put all the eggs? I guess we will need an egg refrigerator!