A Little Egg~citment.

I think all chook keepers get pretty excited about eggs.  They are, after all, why we keep chickens. 

We had the bonus of starting with 2 layers & got our very first egg the morning after we brought the girls home. I admit I was surprised.  I did think the travelling & change might have put them off, but no.  We have been getting a solid dozen eggs every fortnight.  Enough to keep & enough to give away.

 I have been getting one buff & one pale brown egg most days, of a good size & shape, with a nice firm shell but of course I have been waiting anxiously on my pullets. 

A week or so ago  I thought I was about to have a major problem on my hands because when I arrived to open the hutch my alpha shot out trailing this glubby white mass with every chook hot on her trail to gobble this mess up as fast as possible. Chooks can be pretty gross & cannibalism not unknown  & egg eating is a hard habit to break. On a little reflection I decided one of my pullets had laid a shell~less egg, which sometimes happens with first eggs but of course I then expected a proper egg to arrive shortly thereafter ~ only it didn't.  My 2nd Australorp laid a double~yolker. Ouch!  My rocks ate up a storm. Their combs filled out & grew a brilliant red but not a single egg did they lay.

                          

Then today I let the girls out early because it has been so wet & I have been away so much their free ranging time has been rather limited.  I had had one egg but as the girls have been returning to the hutch to lay I figured if there was a second egg to be had it would be found in the nest & not in some obscure corner of the yard. 

I got my second egg.  I'm not sure who laid it ~ but it is so small compared to the size the Australorps have been laying regularly that it obviously belongs to one of the Rocks ~ which means another of my girl has started laying!

It will have been either Hepzibah [pictured] or Ophelia; Sodapop is still combless so some way from being an egg producer.  Hepzibah is the chook I have a really soft spot for.  She is something of a loner; quieter than my other girls, a thinker & very much an individual. If I am missing a chook from the flock mop it will be Hepzibah, who will be quietly pottering off somewhere on her own with no competition from the bigger & more aggressive birds.  When I dish out scraps I try to make sure some choice bits are easy for her to grab because she will never be scrabbling in the melee with the others. 

I was told that both Rocks & Aussies are friendly birds who enjoy the company of people so I made a point of spending quite a bit of time sitting quietly with the girls when I first brought them home & of course now they know me as the bringer of all good tid~bits & will happily follow me round the yard though we are not on the sort of terms where I can pick them up for a cuddle.

Just the same, having pottered round the yard all morning, as much to keep the girls out of the garden beds as to tidy up, I was surprised to find Hepzibah standing in front of me when I finally sank into a warm sunny chair. She eyed me for a little bit, then sedately folded herself into a feathery ball & her eyes closed in contentment.  No need to worry about predators when I was around to keep an eye out!  

To my surprise both Soda & Ophelia joined her, happily squatting @ my feet until the wind picked up &  I decided I was too cold to be outside any longer. At which point my cats joined me & they did want cuddles!